Dudensing Law Founder Ed Dudensing Featured in Part One of Hunterbrook Investigation on Systemic Understaffing Crisis in Skilled Nursing Facilities Across the U.S.
June 9, 2026
Originally published by
Hunterbrook
A recent investigation by Hunterbrook reports that The Ensign Group, the largest operator of skilled nursing facilities in the United States, systematically understaffs its facilities, resulting in millions of hours of missing care for some of the nation’s sickest and most vulnerable residents.
Part one of the investigation examined millions of CMS datapoints and reviewed thousands of pages of documents, finding a 5-million-hour gap between the nursing care Ensign’s residents needed and the care they received between July and November 2024.
Hunterbrook interviewed Dudensing Law founder Ed Dudensing as part of its reporting. “The regulation is that you have to staff to meet the needs of residents, and that consistently does not happen,” said Ed. “That’s illegal.”
The investigation also found that Ensign facilities consistently failed to meet minimum state staffing requirements in California, Washington, Tennessee, and Kansas on more than 18,000 cumulative days between 2020 and 2025.
Watch Hunterbrook‘s companion video on YouTube