Next Avenue: The 5 vulnerabilities that led to the colossal failure of nursing homes

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Patricia Olthoff-Blank thought everything was going just fine at her mother’s nursing home in rural Buffalo Center, Iowa. Virginia Olthoff had lived there for 15 years, and the administration communicated frequently with her family about her care.

Then Olthoff-Blank got a 3 a.m. call from an emergency…