Researchers from the University of California recently found that residents at non-profit nursing homes and public nursing facilities are much less likely to suffer abuse at the hands of their caregivers than those in for-profit facilities. This conclusion was based on state inspections of nearly 14,000 nursing facilities with no more than 16 residents/patients.

The researchers, whose study is published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health, warn families that the health and welfare of elderly family members is much too precious to leave to profit-driven operations.

According to researchers, the primary problem facing for-profit facilities is a lack of adequate staff. In fact, for-profit facilities had 31.7% fewer nurses than non-profit and public homes. Additionally, private facilities averaged six deficiencies in the areas of quality of care, quality of life and administrative problems, per home, while non-profit facilities averaged only four deficiencies per home.