Nursing home abuse and negligence has become one of the most serious forms of personal injury plaguing our senior population in the United States today. Here is a list of nursing home abuse-related stories that were in the news lately:
AA Citation: Pacific Coast Manor, a nursing home in Santa Cruz, was fined $100,000 after a state investigation concluded that inadequate care led to the death of a 71-year-old woman, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported. The nursing home reportedly failed to monitor the woman’s narcotic medications, which led to her death. The facility received the AA citation, the most severe penalty for a nursing home violation.
Resident dropped: Sky Harbor Care Center in Yucca Valley is also facing a $100,000 fine after state investigators determined that a female resident died from complications as a result of being dropped on her knees by a nursing home employee, according to the Riverside Press Enterprise. This was the second big fine in one week for this nursing home. The other one had to do with a 91-year-old woman, who had been dropped on her head by another employee.
Accident: Only weeks after its license was fully restored, a Pennsylvania nursing home was slapped with another $3,000 fine after a female resident was dropped while being lifted by a mechanical device. Laurel Cresh had been on provisional license for nearly 24 deficiencies found during an inspection in March.
Fighting back: A Tennessee nursing home is fighting a state fine and ban from accepting new patients. The state’s health department had found numerous violations during investigations at the Hermitage nursing home in October and November.
Hike in citations: The USA Today reports that more nursing homes are being cited for serious violations ™. According to the newspaper, from 2000 to 2006, the number of citations issued for putting patients in “immediate jeopardy” increased by 22 percent. Inspectors reportedly found nearly 2,000 violations just last year, which put patients in danger at 850 of the country’s 16,000 nursing homes.
Lawsuit filed: A family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Portland nursing home alleging that employees dropped a family member on the floor and did not respond to her cries for help. The lawsuit alleged that Linda Ober broke both legs above her knees when she fell, but that hospital employees simply stuck her back in her bed and told her that she had not taken a fall and the “pain was all in her head.”