Nonprofit Nursing Homes Beat For-Profits in Study

They're best when it comes to measures of patient care

WEDNESDAY, April 27, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- Nonprofit nursing homes in the United States generally provide better care than their for-profit counterparts, says a study in the April issue of Medical Care Research and Review.

The researchers reviewed 40 comparisons of nonprofit and for-profit nursing home care published between 1990 and 2002. They reviewed data on areas such as staffing, use of restraints and pressure ulcers. The results showed that nonprofit homes generally perform better than for-profit homes, especially in measures of patient care.

Pressure ulcers were more common among residents of for-profit nursing homes, which used psychoactive medications and physical restraints more often than nonprofit homes.

"We don't really know what it is about not-for-profit homes that allows them to perform better. It could be as simple as them being required to put any profits back into the homes," study author Michael Hillmer, a doctoral candidate in health policy at the University of Toronto, said in a prepared statement.

More information

The American Medical Association has more about nursing homes.

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