In the past three years, 94% of American nursing homes were cited for deficiencies, federal investigators said in a report released on Monday.

An estimated 17% of U.S. nursing homes were reported to have inadequacies that put in danger patients, Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services said. Drug mix-ups, insufficient nutrition, as well as abuse and lack of care for patients count among the nursing homes’ problems.

Last year, there were 37,150 complains received by the DHHS, all linked to bad nursing homes conditions. Inspectors substantiated almost 40% of them, according to the government report.

Whereas for-profit companies own most of the skilled nursing facilities – about two thirds, nonprofit groups own 27% of them and 6% are owned by government entities. And while last year 94% of for-profit rest homes were cited for violating federal standards, 88% of nonprofit ones were cited for the same reason, and 91% of government homes were in similar situations, the inspector general stated. “For-profit nursing homes had a higher average number of deficiencies than the other types of nursing homes,” said Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the DHHS.

About 1.5 million United States senior citizens live in roughly 15,000 nursing homes. Taking into consideration the increasing number of families who opt for sending their elderly relatives to such facilities, by 2030 up to 3 million of elderly will be living there, the DHHS estimated.

In order to make the nursing homes enhance the services they offer to elderly people, the government is planning to implement a ranking system that describes the general quality of care.