is senior attorney and deputy director of policy advocacy at the Pa. Health Law Project

Anyone who has ever burned his or her mouth on hot food or drink can try to imagine the horrifying last days of Ronald Myers. But, try as I may, the tragedy remains completely incomprehensible.

Myers, 79, had a cup of boiling-hot cereal poured into his mouth by an aide at a Montgomery County assisted-living facility, according to authorities. Myers, who had Alzheimer's disease and could not feed himself, suffered burns to his lips, tongue, mouth, and throat. He died two weeks later. He did not get timely medical attention, and the incident was not immediately reported to the authorities, officials said.

The incident occurred in October, but the story has been in the news recently because of charges filed against an aide at the Cambridge Brightwood facility in Hatfield Township. The state has taken steps to revoke the facility's license.

This is not the first time a resident has been burned at a personal-care or assisted-living facility in Pennsylvania. This is not the first time that a resident of such a facility needed medical care and didn't get it immediately. And this is not the first time a reportable incident like this has gone unreported to the state.

Recent examples of other troubling incidents include the deaths of two residents at a Willow Grove facility, where a long history of abuse and neglect should have prompted a state shutdown long before any lives were lost. A Cambria County home was closed in January after an alleged sexual assault. And last month, residents of a personal-care home near Pittsburgh suddenly found themselves homeless and without care when the facility's owner was charged with embezzling so much money that the residents had gone without food and the staff had not been paid.

These are only the stories that have made it into the news during a war, a national election, and a major economic crisis. Dozens more unreported stories are out there; many have been shared by residents, family members, and assisted-living staff on the Web site of the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Consumer Alliance.

The victims' loved ones want to see protections established so that no one else has to go through similar experiences.

The days of denial about abuse and neglect in the state's assisted-living facilities must end now. Too many Pennsylvanians have suffered needlessly and died prematurely because our state lacks adequate protections for residents of these places. How many more tragedies have to find their way into the newspapers before our lawmakers take appropriate action?

Standards must be established to ensure that every assisted-living facility employs an adequate number of well-trained employees, correctly identifies and addresses care needs, and recognizes residents' rights.

For the first time, rules governing the operation of assisted-living facilities are spelled out in proposed regulations that were released by state officials last summer. While this is a positive step, the regulations would not give residents and families all the protections they deserve.

For example, the regulations do not require that employees of assisted-living facilities have a certain level of state-approved training or basic first-aid training. Nor do they require that there be enough staff on duty to tend to all resident needs.

Would any of that have made a difference for Ronald Myers? We may never know.

We do know, however, that people in assisted-living facilities need more personal and medical attention than people in personal-care homes do. Yet the proposed regulations hold assisted-living facilities to little more than the lower standards for personal-care homes.

We also know that the assisted-living industry will be caring for increasing numbers of Pennsylvanians as the baby boomers age, and as some of them develop more care needs.

And we know that now is the time to get this right, because the proposed regulations are being finalized this summer.

We must make sure these facilities are places to which we can confidently entrust the care of our mothers, husbands, and grandfathers. Pennsylvanians should tell their legislators that the forthcoming rules must put consumer protection first. Perhaps this time the shameful mistreatment of a fellow human being will prompt positive change.