IN theory, tort reform is a reasonable idea. No one wants to see frivolous lawsuits clogging the courts. But the way it’s being pursued by Republican leaders in the Missouri House, it would be a shield for owners of nursing homes in which vulnerable patients have been abused or neglected.

Buried inside the GOP tort reform measure, House Bill 273, is a provision that would prohibit nursing home inspection reports from being used in civil trials. Who would benefit most from that change? Nursing home owners who have been cited repeatedly for endangering the patients in their care.

The bill would make it more difficult for patients and their families to bring lawsuits against substandard nursing homes, because without documentation of other inspections, it would be harder to prove a pattern of abuse or neglect.


Proof of repeated violations is important in such cases, because juries are reluctant to award damages for patient deaths or injuries that appear to be aberrations at otherwise well-run homes. But juries are not as lenient in cases where a nursing home owner knew about dangerous conditions and refused to correct them. The nursing home industry argues that large damage awards siphon money from their wallets that would be better spent on patient care. But large damage awards are not only meant to punish abusive homes, they also send a powerful warning signal to others in the industry. Besides, there’s no guarantee that the money would go to patient care. That’s especially true with for-profit nursing homes. A 2001 study concluded that for-profit homes provide “worse care and less nursing care” than those run by nonprofit groups.

One could argue that tough enforcement of existing nursing home standards is the job of state regulators, not the courts. But a weakness in Missouri law lets nursing homes escape fines — even for serious violations — by simply filing paperwork to correct violations. For example, when four elderly women died from the heat in less than two days in April 2001 at Leland Health Care in University City, regulators proposed $144,000 in fines. That modest fine was thrown out by a judge after the home filed a report saying that it would fix its air conditioning.

Lawsuits are often the only way to send a message to nursing home owners, and to get justice for abuse and neglect victims. Missouri lawmakers need to reform the state’s toothless laws to protect the old, sick and vulnerable — not politically connected nursing home owners.