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Nursing home advocate Wes Bledsoe wants the federal government to change the way it rates nursing homes on its Web site Medicare. gov, to accurately reflect the quality of care at nursing homes, according to the Albert Lea Tribune.
Hidden video surveillance has led to formal charges of abuse and neglect of two nursing home employees in Kentucky, according to Kentucky.com. A grand jury indicted Amanda Sallee of Richmond on a charge of wanton abuse and neglect of an adult, a felony, and Valerie Lamb with reckless abuse and neglect of an adult, a misdemeanor. Both were nursing aides at Madison Manor nursing home.
A new rule issued in September by the Bush Administration has made a once routine process of obtaining information from nursing homes to back up claims of abuse and neglect almost impossible. That juggernaut has people who are suing nursing homes wrangling between state and federal officials, according to the Washington Post.
Had it not been for video surveillance in nursing homes throughout New York state, many nursing home residents who were the victims of neglect and abuse at the hands of their caregivers would still be suffering. The use of hidden video surveillance has become so effective in prosecuting the offenders there that over the past few months New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has increased the number of nursing homes that have cameras.
Shirley Gerhardt admitted her 76-year-old husband Richard into Laurel Canyon nursing home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in December of 2005. He has suffered a broken hip and just couldn’t get around well. On Christmas day, Gerhardt was placed on a bedpan, and forgotten by staff. He sat there, on the bedpan, for 24 hours as the pan began to imbed into his skin. He suffered an open wound that became infected and lead to his death just five days later, according to Wired PR News.
Wes Bledsoe, founder of the victim’s advocacy group A Perfect Cause, cautioned Norman, Oklahoma, residents to heed the warning signs of neglect in patients in the state’s nursing homes, citing a study by the national coalition Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes. The study found that nursing home residents in Oklahoma had more pressure sores compared to the national average, according to NewsOK.
A watchdog group that advocates for the developmentally disabled is pressuring Nebraska state leaders to look into the care at the troubled state-run Beatrice State Developmental Center, according to the Fremont Tribune.
Last week, when a nurse at Southtown Nursing Home in Bixby, Oklahoma, walked in on restorative aide Edward Lee Marshall giving a blind, physically and mentally handicapped patient a bath, she felt sure she had witnessed something inappropriate. It appeared Marshall was not bathing the patient, but masturbating him. She immediately contacted management, who called the police, according to The Tulsa World.
The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has issued its most serious citation against a Winchester nursing home and as a result it will lose its Medicare and Medicaid funding, according to the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader. The citation is based on claims of abuse and neglect at Winchester Centre for Health and Rehabilitation that Health and Family Services officials would not detail. However Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency executive director Kathy Gannoe says her agency has received 31 complaints about the nursing home. Almost all were resolved satisfactorily, she says. However, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to move forward on its plans to terminate its contract with the home by February 7.
A Portland, Ore., nursing home faces a $2 million lawsuit after a sexual encounter between two residents, according to The Oregonian. According to the report, staff members at Healthcare at Foster Creek saw a 61-year-old woman with dementia standing half-naked in a room with Marko Chandler, a 68-year-old resident who suffered from a lesser case of dementia. The two were not touching, but staff dressed the woman and separated the two. Nursing home staff did not call police or the woman’s family, even though they knew the woman’s cognitive disorder left her unable to consent to such activities.
