BALTIMORE, MD — The sixty nursing home caregivers from across the nation who assembled in Baltimore this week have one thing in common: they’re sick of nursing homes letting workers and seniors down, and they’re ready to take the case for better staffing, training, and better care to the public. The group, SEIU Healthcare’s “Nursing Home Accountability Team,” chanted and handed out flyers during a Rubenstein speech at the SABEW Conference in Baltimore.

Rubenstein’s firm, the Carlyle Group, bought out ManorCare nursing homes last December. Carlyle had issued a “Patients First Pledge” that included providing training for caregivers, maintaining adequate staffing levels, and ensuring quality care.

Residents and caregivers point to recent care problems and problems at the bargaining table as evidence that Carlyle is not truly committed to its promises. One home in Davenport, IA was cited for more than 30 violations of regulatory standards in a recent inspection. Meanwhile, when caregivers in ManorCare’s Towson, MD facility fought for a fully-funded training program, the company fought back, offering a plan that would require caregivers, already struggling to make ends meet at their low hourly wages, to pay back some of the cost.

SEIU members at the Towson, MD facility have been working without a contract for months, struggling to negotiate for better wages, a training fund, affordable family health care, and a better pension plan. Their fight underlines Carlyle-ManorCare’s reluctance to invest real money in improving front-line conditions, so that Manor Care homes can attract and retain the stable, high-quality staff needed to provide the highest quality care.

Today’s action was part of a three-day focus on ManorCare’s broken promises. After two days of on-the-street actions to draw attention to Carlyle-ManorCare’s broken promises, the caregivers will take their case to Capitol Hill as they meet with their Senators and lobby for the passage of the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act (S2641). The bill would update nursing home regulations to take account of the increasing number of large buyouts. It requires more disclosure of who owns each nursing home, who is ultimately responsible for the care at the home, and how taxpayer funding is being spent.

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