Overdoses, bedsores, broken bones: What happened when a private-equity firm sought to care for society’s most vulnerable

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November 25, 2018 at 9:04 p.m. EST

The HCR ManorCare nursing-home chain struggled financially until it filed for bankruptcy in March. The number of health-code violations found at the chain each year rose 26 percent between 2013 and 2017, according to a Washington Post review. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

POTTSVILLE, Pa. — To the state inspectors visiting the HCR ManorCare nursing home here last year, the signs of neglect were conspicuous. A disabled man who had long, dirty fingernails told them he was tended to “once in a blue moon.” The bedside “call buttons” were so poorly staffed that some residents regularly soiled themselves while waiting for help to the bathroom. A woman dying of uterine cancer was left on a bedpan for so long that she bruised.