We’re No. 1 in horrible indicators

It’s so predictable, it’s hardly news anymore.

Nevadans are so accustomed to being on the bottom of every quality of life index, we’re not even surprised, much less outraged, to hear it again. We just roll our eyes and move on.

Case in point: Nevada’s “F” grade for its nursing homes, recently ranked among the nation’s worst. According to a report released last month by an independent national organization, Families for Better Care, Nevada had the worst scores of any state in the Pacific region in categories such as direct care staffing, health inspections, and percentage of facilities with severe deficiencies. In fact, every nursing home in our state was cited with one or more deficiencies by state health inspectors. One out of every three nursing homes was cited for a severe deficiency, defined as one where a resident either suffered harm or was in imminent danger.

The report noted that abuse, neglect and mistreatment of nursing home residents in Nevada was widespread in 2012 as fewer than 25 percent of Nevada’s nursing homes scored above average on their health inspection, the worst record in the nation by a long shot. Problems such as bedsores, dehydration, malnutrition and injuries from falls were common. Many times, health inspectors found residents lying in their own bodily waste, but Nevada levied no monetary penalties at all for these citations.

Lest you think these were not life or death concerns, inspectors found one case where a patient was discharged who still needed skilled nursing care. She returned home where she was later taken by ambulance to the hospital and declared “clinically brain dead.”

Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care, bluntly told the Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Nevada represents what’s terribly wrong with nursing home care and oversight in America. State officials and industry representatives should be ashamed of their abysmal nursing home record.”

Lee also noted that publicly traded stock prices in nursing homes have increased by 415 percent during the past 10 years. The emphasis on profits for shareholders over quality of care for vulnerable residents is shameful but typical of Nevada’s thinly funded regulatory structure, so starved for resources it’s pre-destined to fail at its core mission of oversight and safety.

It’s no secret that the industry invests heavily in legislative and gubernatorial campaigns, making sure lawmakers are predisposed to arguments that more oversight will lead to more costly staffing ratios and less profit. After all, who else would want to take care of the elderly for the miserly amount of money Nevadans are willing to pay?

Nevada has a long-term care ombudsman, Heather Korbulic, who insisted her agency investigates and resolves complaints. But ombudsman offices in Nevada are notoriously long on official-sounding titles and embarrassingly short on resources to actually perform the oversight tasks.

This dismal report graphically shows that having an ombudsman is no guarantee that inspections actually happen and significant penalties are assessed when problems are found. One of the key findings in the report makes that point crystal clear: “Despite the state’s lousy track record, Nevada’s ombudsmen verified the second fewest number of registered complaints.”

And as we saw this year, when the Legislature does find “extra” millions to spend, lawmakers are eager to fund jobs in the for-profit sector, prioritizing the film industry, for example, over jobs in state government, like nursing home inspectors, that are of far greater benefit to the public.

Somehow we’ve decided a private industry job is worth spending millions to create while a public sector job is not, despite being desperately needed to protect the health, safety and welfare of our most vulnerable citizens.

It’s our money and our priorities. Let the film industry subsidize its own jobs, and let’s take care of our elders instead.