New Study Finds Nonprofit Nursing Homes Provide Better Care

A new study led by P.J. Devereux and an army of other researchers finds that nonprofit nursing homes provide better care than for-profits.  Their meta-analysis of 82 individual studies of nonprofit vs. for-profit nursing homes found that nonprofit facilities delivered higher quality care than for-profit facilities for two of the four most frequently reported quality measures: (1) more or higher quality staffing and (2) less prevalence of pressure ulcers, sometimes called bedsores.  The results also suggest better performance of nonprofit homes in two other quality measures: less frequent use of physical restraints and fewer noted deficiencies (quality violations) in governmental regulatory assessments.  According to the meta-analysis, in 40 of the 82 studies, all statistically significant comparisons favored nonprofit facilities. In three studies, all significant comparisons favored for-profit facilities. The remaining studies had less consistent findings.