Ohio Nursing Homes Dump Patients at Homeless Shelters
/By Crystal Lindell
A woman at a Columbus, Ohio nursing home who was suffering from a painful leg fracture, diabetes, and other health problems was dumped by the staff at a homeless shelter because she drank a beer in her room.
That’s according to a 2023 inspector’s report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which found other disturbing incidents of Ohio nursing homes discharging older and medically fragile residents to homeless shelters.
The Columbus nursing home, Eastland Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, told CMS it tried to get the woman into a rehabilitation program for substance use but they couldn’t find a bed.
At the time of her discharge, she was using a walker, incontinent, and carrying a large bag of medications, according to a news report from Ohio-based Signal.
And the story only gets worse.
The nursing home staff didn’t even bother to call the homeless shelter ahead of time to let them know that they were dropping her off. So when they left her at the homeless shelter, staff there initially refused to take her in “leaving her outside in the late-summer heat." They said they had their own 100-person-long waiting list.
According to the CMS inspector, “The [homeless shelter] staff member revealed Resident #83 was unclear of what was going on, scared, and not sure who dropped her off there.”
Eventually the homeless shelter let her into the lobby, gave her a glass of cold water and allowed her to come inside, while they called the fire department and a social worker.
But after that, her story just… ends. None of the people involved have since been able to track her down. Administrators at Eastland did not return phone calls about the incident, according to the Signal.
It’s a truly disgusting tale. And anyone who deals with chronic pain or other health issues should sympathize with the woman.
Medicare gives Eastland just two out of five stars in its nursing home ratings system, which is considered below average. The facility, which gets only one star for “health inspections” and “staffing,” has been fined four times over the last few years for over $300,000.
It’s not a one-off situation either. CMS has faulted Eastland and six other Ohio nursing homes in the last few years for discharging residents to homeless shelters.
“We are starting to deal with it more and more. The facilities are so closely monitored on discharges, but yet they still try and send them to hospitals and not take them back. Or drop them off at homeless shelters,” Chip Wilkins, who heads Dayton’s Long Term Care Ombudsman program, told the Signal.
It’s inhumane and upsetting that the only consequences the nursing homes seem to face for such a cruel act was a fine. It’s not nearly enough to deter them from doing it again.
It’s tempting to believe that people like Resident #83 are in some outlier group. As though such a situation could never happen to you or me or someone we love.
But the scenario is indicative of how some nursing homes treat their patients. It can happen when a resident behaves aggressively, has a substance use problem, or even if they lose their Medicare or Medicaid coverage. If you can’t pay your bills or cause too much trouble, you’re out.
Personally, I’m lucky enough to have family who I can live with now, and I’m also lucky enough that my health issues have not yet required skilled nursing care. But I’m well aware of my deteriorating body and how easily I too could end up in such a situation.
We are supposed to be human beings. We are supposed to care for each other. It shouldn’t matter if Resident #83 was drinking three 24-packs of beer a day. She still deserved medical care. All of us do.
Unless we start truly regulating medical providers to force them to actually care for their patients, situations like this will only get more common. And one day, it could happen to us or someone we love.
I have thought about Resident #83 many times since first reading the Signal article last week. I hope that she found somewhere to go. That some distant relative took her in, or that she was able to get a bed in a hospital or a different nursing home. But I know that the most likely outcome is that she died, alone and scared.
It’s horrifying and it should never be allowed to happen.
