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Ruth: The Florida Legislature failed to protect seniors

 
Andjelani Bernard, 6 plays in one of the many crowded hallways at John Hopkins Middle School on Sunday, September 10, 2017 in St. Petersburg. The school filled classrooms and hallways with  people evacuating before Hurricane Irma makes landfall. The shelter welcomes people from the area with pets and those with special needs.
Andjelani Bernard, 6 plays in one of the many crowded hallways at John Hopkins Middle School on Sunday, September 10, 2017 in St. Petersburg. The school filled classrooms and hallways with people evacuating before Hurricane Irma makes landfall. The shelter welcomes people from the area with pets and those with special needs.
Published Sept. 18, 2017

Florida loves its geezers — until they become annoyingly inconvenient.

We've all seen the glitzy advertising aimed at senior citizens featuring robust, active retirees enjoying the carefree lifestyles of Florida's elder set. Golf. Tennis. Cocktail parties. Beautiful people, without a varicose vein in sight.

And it is indeed a wonderful life. But don't get too old, or too infirm, or contract the most fatal geriatric affliction of all — too broke. Then you are simply a dead old coot drooling. Good luck. And goodbye.

Last week in the wake of Hurricane Irma, eight residents of the 152-bed Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died after the facility's air conditioning system failed, raising the internal temperature to over 100 degrees.

Officials at the nursing home say they called Gov. Rick Scott and begged Florida Power & Light to help. Perhaps so. But apparently it never dawned on anyone at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills that there was a hospital directly across the street. What? They never noticed that big building with an emergency room only yards away?

And eight elderly residents who had lived long lives, raised families, enjoyed careers and hoped for a peaceful retirement died wallowing in their own sweat (and worse) as the heat sapped their breath away.

Welcome to Florida, the senior citizen haven of indifference.

It didn't need to end this away for the dearly departed.

Back in 2006, after Hurricane Wilma had visited her wrath on the state, the Florida Legislature moved heaven and earth to assist motorists stranded on the interstates and protect residents of high-rise buildings who can't climb stairs. Thanks a bunch.

But there was one other measure that didn't fare so well. A bill that would have required all nursing homes to install generators capable of cooling and running their facilities withered on the vine after the nursing home industry objected to the cost.

After all, simply because nursing homes are supposed to be in the business of providing care — and safety — for their residents, why should they be required to make sure the lights and the air conditioning will never be cut off? If a few old fuddy-duddies are all that worried about remaining cool, they can always move to a nursing home in North Dakota. You can take this amenity stuff only so far.

So a compromise bill was filed, setting aside $57 million to reimburse some nursing home operators for half of the costs of installing generators if they would also agree to take in additional patients who needed to be evacuated during intense weather incidents.

That bill passed in the Florida House but died in the Florida Senate, which wilted under pressure from the nursing home industry. Years went by without a major hurricane striking Florida, and the always-looming threat to nursing home residents faded. And then Ms. Irma arrived.

And because the Legislature sided with the big money interests of the nursing home industry — and make no mistake, it is an industry — no one paid any attention to at-risk senior citizens until the body bags showed up.

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Did Hurricane Irma contribute to the death of eight seniors? Yes. But the Florida Legislature also has blood on its hands, by putting nursing home corporate interests above the welfare of some of the state's most vulnerable citizens.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 70 percent of all U.S. nursing homes are owned and operated by for-profit corporations. Many of these businesses offer low wages, experience regular turnover of employees and return high profits to shareholders. After all, the one commodity American will never run low on is old, sick people.

Think of these companies as cash coots.

Former Florida House member Dan Gelber, who sponsored the cost-sharing legislation, told the Miami Herald, "The Legislature is horrible when it comes to everything that doesn't have a tragedy behind it. They have one now."

Yes, they do.

You can be reasonably assured the 2018 legislative session will see bills calling for nursing homes to install generators. Better late than never, even though it will have taken Tallahassee 12 years to act to protect senior citizens from miserly nursing home operators.

Not all nursing homes or assisted living facilities are potential death traps for their residents. But enough of them are, treating elderly patients as little more than widgets impacting the bottom line.

Death is a common event in a nursing home. But after a long life, these people deserve to pass with dignity, not because the Florida Legislature couldn't be bothered with caring about them.