Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse/Neglect

Wagner Heights Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Stockton is facing two nursing home lawsuits alleging wrongful death, elder abuse and neglect. According to a report in the Stockton Record, the wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court by the son of Robert Lampkins, who died August 15, 2015, alleging that the nursing home knowingly withheld care to the elderly man who was suffering from severe bed sores that had become infected and ultimately caused his death. Continue reading →

ProPublica has unearthed a horrifying trend. Based on their research, nursing home workers across the country are posting embarrassing and dehumanizing photos of elderly residents on social media networks such as Snapchat.

ProPublica has located at least 16 cases involving photos on Snapchat that violate these vulnerable people’s privacy and dignity.

Since 2012, ProPublica has identified 35 instances in which nursing home employees have secretly shared photos or videos of residents some of whom were partially or completely naked, out of which at least 16 involved Continue reading →

The California Department of Public Health has issued a fine and citation to a Fremont nursing home for negligent care, which officials say, resulted in the death of one of its residents.

According to a Bay City News report, the penalty of $100,000 has been slapped on Crestwood Manor, as killed nursing facility.

The nursing home has also received a Class “AA” Citation from the state, which is the most severe penalty under state law.

It usually involves a death that was caused directly by nursing home abuse or neglect.

Choking Death

The report stated that in July 2014, an unidentified resident choked on a Continue reading →

California’s Department of Public Health has failed to adequately investigate complaints made at nursing homes across the state, according to an audit released last week.

According to a report in Kaiser Health News, the audit was requested after lawmakers got reports about a backlog of complaints about Continue reading →

A report by Kaiser Health News states that Los Angeles public health officials instructed their inspectors to close nursing home neglect and abuse cases without fully or properly investigating them. According to the report, officials did so as part of their effort to reduce the backlog of nursing home health and safety complaints. The effort, which was known as “Complaint Workload Clean Up Project” had been ongoing since the summer of 2012, according to memos circulated among managers, inspectors and supervisors at the department. Nearly one-third of the 1,286 nursing homes in California are in Los Angeles County.
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An in-depth watchdog report on U-T San Diego examines numerous pages of state regulatory records which show that hundreds of seniors living in San Diego’s assisted living homes have suffered broken bones, deadly bed sores and have even been sexually assaulted in the facilities that promised them care and security. The report states that since 2008, at least 27 San Diego County seniors have died as a result of negligence and abuse suffered in these facilities.
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The California Department of Public Health has fined three Bay Area nursing homes a total of $200,000 for incidents of neglect that reportedly led to the deaths three residents. According to a news report in the San Jose Mercury News, the facility, formerly known as Kindred Transitional Care and Rehabilitation-Bay View in Alameda, was fined $75,000. O’Connor Hospital’s skilled nursing facility in San Jose was slapped with a $65,000 while St. John Kronstadt Convalescent Center in Castro Valley was fined $60,000. These are all Class AA citations, which the health department reserves for the most severe violations under the law.
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A California appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit against the owner of 16 care facilities in Alameda County stating that patients can sue these nursing homes for failing to meet the state’s nurse-staffing standards, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The owner of the nursing homes in question, Orange County-based Covenant Care, argued that only state regulators have the authority to enforce a requirement that nursing homes provide each patient with 3.2 hours of nursing care per day. A Superior Court agreed and threw out the lawsuit. However, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco disagreed and overruled that decision.

Important Ruling

The Presiding Justice, Ignazio Ruvolo, said in the unanimous 3-0 ruling that state law gives its blessing to nursing home residents to bring action against the facility to “remedy violations of their rights.” Those rights include, according to the judge, the right to live in a facility that is properly and adequately staffed. The group of patients that is suing Covenant Care is seeking to prove that the facilities violated state staffing standards at least 35 percent of the time over a four-year period beginning in December 2006.
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