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Private Equity Nursing Homes: Not So Sick

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By Arlene Weintraub

Private Equity Nursing Homes: Not So Sick

Nearly half of the largest U.S. nursing home chains were bought by private equity firms in the past decade. Press reports last year suggested these owners have focused more on the bottom line than on quality care, prompting congressional hearings. Now two policy professors at Harvard Medical School say those worries were overblown. Indeed, they conclude, for 7 of 9 criteria—including weight loss and restraint use—such nursing homes improved more than their nonprofit or for-profit counterparts. In looking at quality issues, the researchers took into account local conditions such as nursing shortages in certain cities. “The main issue is not private equity,” says co-author David Stevenson. “There are instances of poor quality everywhere.”