Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse/Neglect

Center for Medicare Advocacy, a watchdog group, is reporting that the nursing home industry is getting an extra $1.5 billion toward reimbursement, from Medicare next year. According to an article in Naples Daily News, nursing home advocates say this amount is clearly inflated and the windfall to skilled nursing facilities comes with “no strings attached.”

There is absolutely no reason to believe or expect that this money will go toward improved quality of patient care or a better quality of life for nursing home residents. This is unfortunate considering there are estimated to be more than 1.5 million nursing home residents in the United States. In fact, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released earlier this year, said about one-fifth of all nursing homes were cited in 2007 for serious deficiencies, most of them to do with negligence or abuse. Poor quality of care continues to harm a number of nursing home residents, placing them in immediate risk of death or serious injury.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a bill that protects the rights of nursing home residents to hold long-term care facilities accountable in court for negligence and abuse. According to this news report, the bi-partisan bill titled The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2008 – is sponsored by Senators Herb Kohl, a Democrat and Mel Martinez, a Republican.

The need for this legislation was spurred by the fact that a number of nursing home residents and their families were finding out that they were unable to sue negligent nursing home facilities. This was because they had signed binding contracts at the time of admission stating they wouldn’t sue the facility. Basically, by signing these agreements, residents and their families sign away their right to hold negligent and abusive facilities responsible even in case of serious injury and/or death.
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A Vallejo nursing home staff’s negligence caused a resident to choke to death, state investigators ruled as they cited and fined the facility in connection with the incident. According to a news article in the Times-Herald the AA citation issued to Crestwood Manor skilled nursing facility carries a $100,000 penalty imposed by the California Department of Public Health.

The patient suffering from dementia was reportedly on a pureed diet and was considered “high-risk” for choking and had a history of trying to stuff food into his mouth. The AA citation essentially means that the nursing home’s negligence was directly responsible for the man’s death. The report also says it is not known how the man got the roll, which was available in a vending machine.

Clearly, this was a preventable death. Either the nursing home staff wasn’t paying attention and left this elderly resident to himself in the dining room or the nursing home was not sufficiently staffed to attend to and take care of all of the facility’s patients. Families place their loved ones in nursing homes believing that they will get a superior quality of care and attention than if they lived in their homes.
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State officials slapped a $100,000 fine on a Hemet nursing home owned by Valley Health System in connection with the death of a resident, who died two days after suffering a head injury, the Riverside Press Enterprise reports. Hemet Valley Nursing Home received an AA citation, which is the most severe citation issued by the state for the worst nursing home abuse violations where the nursing home’s negligence can be shown to directly cause the death of the patient, 81-year-old Olga Baroncini.

Baroncini reportedly hit her head on a bed rail. Nursing home staff also knew that the patient was taking two blood thinners, which meant she had an increased risk of bleeding if injured. Baroncini died two days after she suffered the injury from a brain bleed. Baroncini’s family had requested the investigation.

The state investigators’ report shows that the nursing home did not follow any of the required procedures. Baroncini’s medical record did not include the head injury. She had reportedly hit her head against a chair when a physical therapist was visiting her, but the nursing home records stated that she hit her head against a bed rail. Neither the physical therapist nor the nurse on duty thought the woman’s injury was significant, the report said.
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Current and former residents of 17 Los Angeles and Orange County skilled nursing homes settled for $2 million in a class-action lawsuit, which alleges that these nursing homes understaffed their facilities and did not provide proper training to their nursing staff, which resulted in poor quality care and negligence. According to a CBS News report, the Brea-based Sun Mar operates at least eight nursing homes in Los Angeles County and six in Orange County that are facing allegations of nursing home abuse and neglect.

This class-action lawsuit was reportedly filed on behalf of Warren Richardson, a former resident at Anaheim Healthcare Center, who developed pressure sores as a result of the understaffing at that nursing home. Since many of the class members are deceased, the settlement mandates that the unclaimed money be reverted back to Sun Mar to be utilized for staffing their understaffed facilities.
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The family of a neglected elder in Orange County has filed a lawsuit against a Laguna Hills nursing home alleging negligence and understaffing by the nursing home owner, The Orange County Register reports. The family of 91-year-old Therese Sperry is suing Villa Valencia Health Care Center owned by Virginia-based Sunrise Senior Living.

There is a history of nursing home negligence and abuse issues at the nursing home in question, having received five health and safety citations over the last 10 years from state health regulators. The same nursing home also recently paid $2 million in damages in connection with the death of another patient. According to the lawsuit filed by Sperry’s family, the woman who had Alzheimer’s, developed pressure ulcers on her feet during her two-week stay at the nursing home, which they say went untreated. As a result, the ulcers spread to her muscles and bones causing great pain and suffering until she died.
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Unites States lawmakers are now taking a hard look at sex offenders in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which has becoming a significant problem and an important component of the issue of nursing home abuse in this country. According to a recent article in USA Today, federal lawmakers are becoming more and more convinced that nursing homes must be required by law to tell people if there is a sex offender present in the nursing home.

Between 2005 and 2006, several states, including California, Illinois, Minnesota and Oklahoma, passed laws requiring that long-term care homes receive notice about sex offenders who are admitted to their facilities. Sex offenders make their way to nursing homes in many ways. Some are sent there from prisons if they need long-term care. Others are admitted to nursing homes by social service agencies.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report in 2006 found that at least 700 registered sex offenders live in nursing homes and care facilities across the country. The problem here is that the law is not very clear in requiring that nursing homes inform residents and their families about these sex offenders.

Some states require that schools, churches or neighborhoods be notified when sex offenders move in to an area, but few specify that nursing homes be informed when a sex offender is admitted. The same GAO report looked at laws in eight states and found that 50 percent did not mandate that nursing home operators or residents be notified about sex offenders who move in.
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Exploitation by nursing homes is hitting an all-time high or an all-time low, whichever way you want to look at it. According to this in-depth report by the Wall Street Journal, nursing homes across the country are trying to evict frail and ill residents and replacing them with shorter term residents who are likely to bring in more revenue.

What does the law say? Can nursing homes actually kick out the weak and vulnerable to make a quick buck? Federal law and state laws are supposed to protect nursing home residents from eviction. But the loophole in the law is that these laws don’t protect residents of assistant living facilities.

Particularly vulnerable to eviction are those who are dependent on Medicaid. Still, patient advocates and state officials say many nursing homes are crossing the line when they use some excuse to get rid of those residents who are simply inconvenient or too expensive to keep on such as those with dementia or those who depend on Medicaid to pay their bills.
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Seniors and their families these days are so anxious to get a spot in a nursing home that they are signing away their rights to sue over poor nursing home care in such facilities, according to an Associated Press news report. This trend has sparked a debate between law makers, nursing home advocates and trial lawyers. Rest home officials say such agreements are a good way to settle disputes over issues like negligent nursing home care, while advocates for the rights of the abused believe that families should not give away their right to hold negligent nursing homes accountable in a court of law for substandard care.

The report gives examples of nursing home patients who have been pushed into a corner because they signed these waivers. A Senate panel, which is investigating the growing use of these waivers by nursing homes, says more than 100 lawsuits have been filed in the past five years by victims of nursing home abuse and negligence, challenging such contracts. Victims’ family members say they didn’t understand the implications of the agreements they entered into, sighting the extreme stress to find a nursing home for their loved ones as their reason for forfeiting their basic rights.

Many victims and their families believe that these waivers are increasingly becoming a shield that large corporations that own nursing homes hide behind. It is more profitable for nursing homes to cut staff and provide mediocre or substandard care than spend the money to be fully staffed by trained and qualified personnel.
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A nursing home facility in Bakersfield was fined $100,000, the stiffest penalty imposed by the state Public Health Department, in connection with the death of a patient from adverse medication interactions. According to an article in the Bakersfield Californian, the patient’s death occurred when the nursing home was run by Pleasant Care Corp., which has since paid the fine.

This is one of 15 AA citations issued by the California Health Department this year. California only issues AA citations when a patient’s death is directly caused by a nursing homes negligence.

According to a report filed with the state, the patient was admitted to the nursing home in September 2006 and prescribed the blood thinner Coumadin and an anti-inflammatory drug, Mobic. On Oct. 19, 2006, the patient was taken to a hospital for low blood pressure and bloody stool and died 12 hours later.

Preceding their bankruptcy, Pleasant Care settled a $1.3 million lawsuit brought by former state Attorney General Bill Lockyer in 2006 as a result of allegations of elder abuse and negligent care. Pleasant Care facilities received more than 160 violations of state regulations over the previous five-year period. That is more than 2.5 violations that they were cited for. On one knows how many there really were.
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