The AARP and trial lawyers say that the nursing home industry is simply trying to protect itself at a time when reports of violations at nursing homes are running rampant in the media. The opposition already has caused the powerful nursing home industry to revamp its “The Nursing Home Patient Protection Act of 2008” proposal, raising its proposed cap from $300,000 to $500,000. The lobby group also removed language opposed by AARP that would have allowed nursing homes to require their patients to sign arbitration agreements to prevent lawsuits and to require nursing home suits to have the same legal restrictions as medical malpractice claims.

According to a study conducted by the nursing home industry, Tennessee nursing homes paid nearly $5,000 on average per patient on liability costs, whereas states that had tort reform paid about a quarter of that on average per patient. A nursing home representative said that the mounting costs paid by nursing homes to defend lawsuits eats into profits that could be invested to improve patient care.

Tennessee Rep. Mike Turner, a firefighter who fought the 2003 Tennessee nursing home fire that killed 16 people, says the caps would open the door for more negligence. “These are our most vulnerable people and they earned the right to be treated with dignity in their old age,” Turner said to the paper. “I just think by capping it, we’ve done a disservice to them.”

The nursing home industry and trial lawyers have agreed to meet later this week to discuss a reasonable compromise.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Tennessee nursing homes lobby for caps on damage claims

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Earlier this month we told you how hidden surveillance cameras installed at Medford Multicare Center for Living in Suffolk, New York gave the attorney general’s office evidence enough to charge at least four nursing home employees with criminal neglect.

New York leads the nation in using hidden video surveillance to investigate whether there is abuse in its nursing homes. At least 26 of the nursing home employees in New York have been convicted based on hidden video recordings.

The hidden cameras are installed in residents’ rooms with prior permission of family or legal representatives and without the knowledge of the nursing home. Gov. Cuomo hopes the cameras serve as more of a deterrent than means for evidence.

“We’ve had reports [of abuse] for many years, but they are hard cases to make,” Cuomo said in the story. “This allows us to make cases we couldn’t make before.”

While the practice has been lauded by the president of New York AARP, some individuals in the nursing home industry argue that the cameras bring up concerns of a patient’s privacy violation.

According to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), statistics on abuse, neglect or exploitation among the elderly is hard to track. However, according to the best available estimates, as many as 1 to 2 million Americans age 65 years and older have been injured, exploited or otherwise mistreated by a caregiver.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › New York puts more hidden cameras in nursing homes

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Other states on the “worst reporting” list are Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota.

Results of the report were published in the New York Times May 15, which says the study “reveals a widespread ‘understatement of deficiencies’ including malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of prescription medications, and nursing home resident abuse.”

The study was requested by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis., Chairman, Senate Special Committee on Aging). They have introduced a bill to upgrade nursing home care and increase penalties for federal standards violations.

Beasley Allen hears from people every day who are shocked and grieved to find their loved ones have suffered at the hands of the very people they expect to provide expert care and compassion. Certainly, increasing penalties seems like a step in the right direction.

David P. Sloane, a spokesperson for the AARP, which lobbies for older Americans, praises the effort, quoted by the Times as saying it is “one of the most significant nursing home reform initiatives” in two decades.

Read the full story in the New York Times.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Alabama Among Worst

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