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Associated PressWhile legislators push various plans, medical examiners say they don't want more work. But abuse or neglect may go undetected.
TALLAHASSEE - The lack of oversight in deaths at nursing homes that violate state standards has produced legislative proposals ranging from requiring autopsies to storing blood samples for potential review.
"When there's a death in a nursing home that's been cited - especially one with numerous violations - there needs to be a trigger there," said state Rep. Sandra Murman, R-Tampa, a member of the House Committee on The Future of Florida's Families.
The committee opened hearings last month after Gannett Regional Newspapers in Florida reported medical examiners rarely conduct autopsies on seniors who die of suspected abuse or neglect.
The nursing home lobby has successfully fought increased supervision at least three times before and medical examiners oppose the autopsy proposal.
Nearly 14 percent of Florida's 668 nursing homes are on the state's most recent "watch list" for violations.
The state received more than 11,000 complaints of elder abuse and neglect last year at nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and other care centers, which recorded 27,000 deaths.
"It would be a tremendous amount of cost applied to a problem that is very minute," said Ed Towey, spokesman for the Florida Health Care Association, which represents long-term care facilities in Florida. "There is no need to burden medical examiners."
Medical examiners don't want the extra work. Forensics investigators already inspect, perform autopsies or investigate more than half of all deaths in Florida.
Dr. Stephen Nelson, the state's chief medical examiner, emphatically told the committee that he opposed the suggestion that medical examiners probe nursing home deaths. He estimated the annual price tag would be $89-million.
But an autopsy might have helped Penny Dalton of Palm Bay discover why her 88-year-old mother died five weeks after entering a Brevard County adult family care home. Judith Edelkamp's death was blamed on a heart attack, but Dalton learned after cremation that her mother may have died of a medication error. The State Attorney's Office is investigating.
With medical examiners and nursing home administrators united in opposition to autopsies, state Rep. Mitch Needelman, R-Palm Bay, has suggested storing blood samples after nursing home deaths.
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd appointed a second committee Friday to look into ways to improve nursing homes.
In Arkansas, a 1999 law requires every nursing home death to reported to the coroner's office, which conducts its own death investigation. Since the law took effect, the Little Rock office has found 56 cases of abuse or neglect that may have gone otherwise undetected.