• African Americans tend to reside in lower-quality nursing homes compared with whites, who have increasingly turned toward private-pay, assisted-living facilities.

• In 2000, African Americans were more likely than whites to be in nursing homes cited for deficiencies, including those causing harm or immediate jeopardy, and in homes terminated from Medicare and Medicaid.

• African Americans were less likely to be in nursing homes with the highest staffing level of direct-care providers and the highest ratio of registered nurses to all nursing staff. They were more likely to be in understaffed facilities and in facilities housing predominantly Medicaid residents.

• The five states with the highest racial disparities in quality of care were Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, and Minnesota.

• Nursing home segregation was highest in the Midwest, where the minority population is concentrated in urban centers, and lowest in the South, where it is more evenly distributed across urban and rural area

For more information on the Commonwealth Fund study, go to www.commonwealthfund.org.

A recent in-depth investigation of Chicago nursing homes by the Chicago Reporter also revealed that homes that served primarily African American residents tended to have the lowest federal quality rating, less staff and fewer highly qualified staff members, more violations of state and federal standards, and were more often the subject of civil lawsuits and administrative complaints even compared to homes that served primarily white residents of similar economic status.  Staff of the Chicago Reporter and a Chicago community activist presented the data and their agenda for reform at the NCCNHR conference in Washington last month.  For more information on the Reporter’s fine and distressing findings, go to http://www.chicagoreporter.com/search/index.php?tag=16.