The Missouri Alliance for Long-Term Care Reform launched its Troubled Nursing Facilities Report with a press conference at the State Capitol.

JEFFERSON CITY – Today, members of the Missouri Alliance for Long-Term Care Reform, long-term care advocates, and impacted families announced the release of a comprehensive report on Missouri’s Troubled Nursing Facilities. This groundbreaking report exposes chronic understaffing, financial mismanagement, and systemic failures in Missouri’s nursing homes. The report also outlines critical policy recommendations for improving the quality of long-term care and protecting vulnerable residents.

Missouri ranks among the worst states in nursing home quality, with persistent violations and unsafe conditions placing residents at risk. This report reveals the extent of the crisis and calls on state leaders to take immediate action to strengthen oversight, improve staffing standards, and hold negligent operators accountable.

“This report reveals the widespread neglect, chronic understaffing, and financial exploitation practices that are harming thousands of nursing home residents,” said Nicole Lynch, Co-Chair of the Missouri Alliance for Long-Term Care Reform and the Policy and Advocacy Director at VOYCE “Missouri’s long-term care system is broken–but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Our coalition is here to demand change, to hold decision-makers accountable, and to fight for the safety and dignity of every resident.”

“I am committed to shining a spotlight on all the areas that are broken in our nursing facilities, so that this dysfunctional system can be restructured in a way that doesn’t just keep residents alive, but allows them to thrive,” said Michelle Gralnick, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Missouri Alliance for Long-Term Care Reform. “I do this to honor my parents whom I loved and lost too soon; and I do this to make a difference in the lives of people I will never know, but who deserve to feel safe and secure.”

“Last year I was attacked by one of my 30-year-old residents suffering from severe mental illnesses,” said Katherine Stewart, a nursing home worker and member of SEIU Healthcare MO/KS. “Being short-staffed, no one was around to intervene, so two of my other residents stepped in to help. As I went home with bruises and talked to my coworkers about how they have had similar dangerous experiences, we realized: how are we supposed to do our job if we’re getting hurt? Crisis intervention training would’ve helped me to calm the situation without one, hurting the resident that I care about, or two, risking my job. Without this training, you’re asking me to get attacked on the job, endanger myself and my residents, and do nothing about it.”

Missouri’s Troubled Nursing Facilities desperately need reform and additional oversight to better serve senior and other vulnerable populations that require round-the-clock institutional care. For too long, operators have treated their facilities and residents as profit sinks rather than essential care providers and the results have been irrefutably tragic. Missouri’s nursing facilities should be more than profit centers for operators and investors. They are critical community institutions that deserve attention and direction.

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