Nursing homes serving primarily Hispanic residents provided poorer quality care compared to facilities whose patients were mostly white, according to Brown University research.
Details were published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association .
Researchers reached their conclusions after looking at the rate of bed sores at nursing homes with high concentrations of Hispanic patients, compared to others with low concentrations. Hispanics at nursing homes with a high rate of Hispanic residents were more likely to have bed sores, compared to Hispanics living in nursing homes with fewer Hispanic residents.
Michael Gerardo, adjunct assistant professor of community health at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, led the research. Two others served as co-authors - Joan Teno, M.D., professor of community health and medicine and an expert on end-of-life care, and Vincent Mor, chair of the Department of Community Health, whose work focuses on nursing home care among other areas.
Gerardo and the other professors said that more research is needed to determine the implications of their findings, directed specifically at the root cause for disparities between high-quality and low-quality nursing homes.
"A systemic evaluation of the difference in the process of care between high- and low-quality nursing homes is warranted in order to reduce nursing home disparities," Gerardo said.