Iowa Democrats call for nursing home probe

Iowa Senate Democrats called Thursday on the GOP-controlled Senate Oversight Committee to launch a bipartisan investigation into Iowa’s nursing homes.

Calling it “a matter of life and death,” Sen. Claire Celsi, D-West Des Moines, the ranking member on the committee, formally requested the investigation a letter to committee Chair Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton. Celsi cited a spate of recent media reports, such as those focusing on resident deaths, abuse, neglect and the alleged fabrication of records in Iowa care facilities.

Last week, a Woodbury County care facility was cited by the state for retaliating against a woman who reported she was raped by one of her male caregivers. The woman allegedly was given 30 minutes to pack up her things before a taxi was summoned to drop her off at a homeless shelter.

“The tragic nursing home stories published by journalists show that our state’s current nursing home system is fundamentally broken and is failing to protect Iowans,” Celsi said at a news conference.

In her letter to Sinclair, Celsi wrote that “it is painfully clear that the State of Iowa is not taking its responsibility to care for vulnerable Iowans seriously. Consequently, some residents of Iowa’s nursing facilities are in grave danger of neglect, abuse and death.”

Celsi was joined at the news conference by Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, who said that while some Iowa nursing homes provide high quality care, too many do not. “This is a very serious issue, and we must act now to address it,” she said.

Sinclair, who also serves as Senate president, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

In recent years, Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to hold government oversight meetings on any topic. Celsi said the last time the Senate Oversight Committee met was more than 1,500 days ago, in October 2019, “which is pretty stunning.”

Asked whether Democrats might have the option of holding meetings on their own if Sinclair doesn’t agree to hold an official inquiry involving Republicans, Celsi said that’s a possibility.

“We can do one on our own,” she said. “It won’t be a formal Senate Oversight Committee meeting and it won’t be on the record as one. But we can certainly bring people together and call folks together and hear their stories.”

The two senators were joined Thursday by John Hale, an advocate for Iowa seniors.

“Stories of neglect and abuse of residents in Iowa nursing homes have been written for several decades,” he said. “Tragically, the stories being written today are worse than ever — stories of resident death, sexual assault and total failure of too many facilities to deal humanely with vulnerable older Iowans. The outrage in Iowa is growing, and elected leaders at the Iowa Capitol need to respond by expressing genuine concern, asking important questions and taking long overdue action.”

Mary Weaver, a registered nurse and former state nursing home inspector, spoke of a friend and former colleague who also worked as an inspector. Weaver said her friend now resides in a nursing home where she pays up to $10,000 per month for care. Despite the expense, Weaver said, her friend sometimes isn’t given a scheduled bath or shower due to staffing shortages, and she’s had to wait up to 90 minutes to have her call light answered, forcing her to lie in her own waste.

Iowa accounts for 1% of our nation’s 65+ population, but yet makes up 3% of nursing facility citations.

Nursing facilities across our state are clearly in crisis – that’s why @IowaSenate is calling for an Oversight Committee investigation. pic.twitter.com/EK0b6kwldc

— Iowa Democrats (@iowademocrats) December 14, 2023

According to federal data, Iowa is responsible for 3 percent of the nation’s nursing facility citations, and 4.1 percent of the nation’s immediate jeopardy and life-threatening situations — despite accounting for just 1 percent of the nation’s 65-plus population. On a per capita basis, Iowa is one of the worst states in the nation for nursing home care, Celsi said.

A U.S. Senate committee reported earlier this year that Iowa ranks 49th in its ratio of inspectors to nursing homes. The report also noted that Iowa has tried to catch up on a backlog of inspections by using temporary contractors that are exceedingly expensive.

Iowa has paid a company, CertiSurv, up to $41,000 per inspection, the committee reported, when it could hire a registered nurse for $94,000 in salary and would have benefited from a full year’s worth of inspections.

Celsi said she and other lawmakers are considering proposing legislation that would increase the number of on-staff state inspectors, provide funding for alternatives to institutional care, and offer additional training and relocation assistance for those who provide hands-on care for seniors.

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.