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Personal care in need of regulation?
Anne Pickering, Staff Writer 04/02/2005
Newspaper accounts of alleged abuse at a personal-care home in Lebanon County that left a veteran hospitalized with broken ribs, a fractured shoulder and bruises over 60 percent of his body have raised questions about the need for regulatory oversight of small personal-care homes.
The state Department of Public Welfare licenses and inspects personal-care homes, also known as assisted-living facilities, with four or more residents. But smaller homes with three or fewer residents are not inspected or licensed.
Actually, there isn’t even any way to know if these personal-care facilities exist in Chester County, said Luba Somits, director of the Chester County Department of Aging.
"Smaller personal-care homes exist beneath the regulatory radar screen," said Alan Rosenbloom, president of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, a trade group that represents about 300 long-term care providers.
Originally, the small homes were seen as mom-and-pop operations whereby a family took in an elderly relative who brought in a friend, Rosenbloom said. "But over the last 10 to 15 years, the market has developed up and it’s now a business," he said.
More HERE:http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?ne..._id=17782&rfi=6
Anne Pickering, Staff Writer 04/02/2005
Newspaper accounts of alleged abuse at a personal-care home in Lebanon County that left a veteran hospitalized with broken ribs, a fractured shoulder and bruises over 60 percent of his body have raised questions about the need for regulatory oversight of small personal-care homes.
The state Department of Public Welfare licenses and inspects personal-care homes, also known as assisted-living facilities, with four or more residents. But smaller homes with three or fewer residents are not inspected or licensed.
Actually, there isn’t even any way to know if these personal-care facilities exist in Chester County, said Luba Somits, director of the Chester County Department of Aging.
"Smaller personal-care homes exist beneath the regulatory radar screen," said Alan Rosenbloom, president of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, a trade group that represents about 300 long-term care providers.
Originally, the small homes were seen as mom-and-pop operations whereby a family took in an elderly relative who brought in a friend, Rosenbloom said. "But over the last 10 to 15 years, the market has developed up and it’s now a business," he said.
More HERE:http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?ne..._id=17782&rfi=6