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BootyThunder t1_it8ym5w wrote

Uh, yeah we’re gonna need a full fucking overhaul of the US healthcare system if we want to improve nursing homes. They seem to be one of the most egregious examples of what goes wrong when we combine capitalism and healthcare, but this is just one symptom of a much larger illness. I truly would prefer to die than go to many of the SNFs I’ve passed through in my career and I need to find out how my parents feel about this before it’s their time.

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Shrek3TheShrekkening t1_itaocgi wrote

Used to be an EMT and picked up enough folks from SNF facilities to never put my parents in one when they get older.

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WhiteHairedWidow t1_itcj1x1 wrote

I worked in the funeral home industry and I’ve been to many nursing homes/retirement/hospice facilities..and now I work in activities at a retirement facility. The amount of complaints from family menders about other facilities is mind boggling. These places pay the least, and charge crazy amount to these residents. The healthcare system really does need to be flipped over and redone because it’s terrible messed up.

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Linubix t1_itcwp3n wrote

This is more to do with the for-profit management companies that oversee their facilities.

They set the budgets, occupancy rate, and pay for staff while saying the on-site management have the freedom to run the facility as they see fit since "they know their facility the best".

Meanwhile the executives at the management companies are paying themselves ridiculous salaries and benefits that the facility staff don't get.

The on-site management is incentivized to keep costs as low as possible by tying their bonuses to certain metrics like occupancy and operating costs. They in many ways are simply a buffer between the staff and management company that really runs the show.

If a facility is no longer profitable they'll simply sell it to another management company who will infuse a small amount of funds into the facility at first and then after the grift starts again. These fund address superficial issues like replacing old computers but not systemic problems like failing AC units requiring daily maintenance to work.

I cannot stress this enough the people running these companies are GRIFTERS that live lavish lives at the expense of the vulnerable residents and staff. They will pinch pennies and minimize costs at facilities as much as possible while at the same time get weekly catered lunches and have grand company parties for the management company saff.

Some of the management company staff, such as those overseeing the health services, do have to go on site and see first hand the atrocious state of their facilities, but most never step foot in a facility. Those have plausible deniability of what they are perpetuating allowing them to sleep at night.

I know this because I worked as outsourced IT for a few of these management companies and I couldn't continue to be part of such an awful system.

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Tom245332 t1_itepje0 wrote

My parents are friends with one of these types. They waste money on the dumbest things and could give a single shit about anyone.

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Cueller t1_itesjnw wrote

Maybe a lot of what you are saying is correct but there is no market for nursing homes. Generally no one wants to buy them and no one wants to manage them. Anyone who can get out of that industry is doing so.

A few groups are making it work by just barely running them and basically making money by selling every medical need possible through an affiliate company. So they make massive peofit outside the nursing home itself.

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Miserable_Archer_769 t1_itl10cm wrote

Don't forget the intersection of a vulnerable age group that as a society we have it constructed it to essentially put your older folks out to pasture because the reality is its another system set to just bleed there last dollars. The cost of just a bar is the floor nursing homes is astronomical and a top of the line car facility is more than a mortgage in most HCOL areas or on par.

The world passes them by and nobody seems to care is the real reason it's easy to exploit them.

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