Morgan Van Vleck, MSW

Research Highlights

What’s the question your research is trying to answer?

I am investigating the relationship between ombudsmen complaints and constructs related to nursing home quality, such as amount of nursing care and care outcomes. I am also investigating the relationship between nursing home facility characteristics, like for profit status, and nursing home resident characteristics.

Why did you choose this topic? Who did you work with?

I chose this topic because I am interested in efforts to improve nursing home quality, and understanding the impact of the long-term care ombudsmen program in relation to nursing home quality. I worked with Brett Drake, who had a massive hand in helping me assemble my data set and making me capable of research in general. I also consulted with Sojung Park and Nancy Morrow-Howell.

What conclusions came out of the research?

I found that long-term ombudsmen complaints have a significant negative relationship with percent of Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes. It is also clear that the percent of for profit nursing homes by state have a positive relationship with complaints, even when accounting for nursing care hours and resident characteristics. Care outcomes were significantly related to ombudsmen complaints, with catheter use percentage having a significant positive relationship with long-term care ombudsmen complaints when accounting for percent of for profit nursing homes. Interestingly, falls had a negative relationship with ombudsmen complaints.