The Hidden Cost of Understaffing: Research Links Defeated Mandate to Increased Sedation of Elderly
WASHINGTON – The recent collapse of a federal mandate aimed at increasing nursing home staff levels is projected to lead to a significant rise in the use of “chemical restraints” on elderly residents, according to a sobering new analysis from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
The research, published by the Pension Research Council, forecasts that the defeat of the Biden administration’s staffing minimums will result in approximately 24,000 additional residents being sedated primarily for control rather than for therapeutic reasons.
This represents a stark 10% increase in the likelihood that any given nursing home resident will be subjected to this controversial practice.
Chemical restraints involve administering psychoactive drugs to manage a resident’s behavior, making them easier for an overworked and insufficient staff to handle. The practice is widely criticized by elder care advocates as a dangerous substitute for the attentive, person-centered care that adequate staffing levels provide.
The proposed federal mandate was designed to establish minimum nurse-to-resident ratios, a measure intended to improve patient safety and overall quality of care. However, after facing significant opposition from industry groups citing high costs and labor shortages, the policy failed to be implemented.
The Wharton study suggests a direct and troubling consequence of this policy failure. Without the legal requirement to hire more staff, the analysis indicates that facilities will be more likely to resort to medication as a management tool. This raises profound ethical and medical concerns about the well-being and dignity of a vulnerable population that relies on these facilities for safe and humane care.
