Based on interviews with patients and nursing home employees, the report states that the male resident touched female residents’ breasts, tried to kiss them and cussed loudly in the common areas. One aide said the alleged abuser would target women with cognitive disorders.

According to the report, the alleged abuse began in December and continued until early June, when the male resident was moved to an inpatient psychiatric unit. “Due to Administrative staff’s failures to implement policies and procedures for abuse, failure to recognize abuse, and failure to effectively manage facility resources, sexual abuse occurred for 10 residents,” the report states.

The simple fact that the nursing home did nothing to protect its residents is unfathomable, not to mention a direct violation of nursing home residents’ Bill of Rights, which states that residents are to “be free from mental and physical abuse.”

To condone such acts makes the home just as guilty as the abuser, if not more guilty for sitting by and allowing the abuse to happen. Yet, no criminal charges have been filed nor fines levied against the nursing home for its role in the abuse. Authorities say those measures should be handled by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and an investigation is underway.

Sources:
News Tribune
CBS 2 Chicago

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home did not stop resident’s sexual abuse

Caregivers of individuals who suffer from dementia and live at home should take precautionary measures to ensure their family member’s safety. This includes installing deadbolt or slide-bolt locks on exterior doors and limited access to potentially dangerous areas of the home. (Never lock a person with dementia in a home without supervision.)

Many nursing homes also take steps to keep patients suffering from cognitive disorders from wandering out of the home, such as keeping units locked and making sure residents prone to wander wear bracelets that trigger an alarm if they wander outside a safe area.

Even with such measures in place, some patients still manage to escape. Earlier this week the Chicago Tribune reported that an 81-year-old Illinois man who suffered from dementia was found dead on the side of a road after wandering out of his nursing home. He had slipped out a window.

And late last month we told you about an Ohio woman with dementia whose body was found 100 feet from the nursing home where she had wandered from earlier that evening.

For information on how to keep your family member safe, visit the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Wandering injuries, deaths a big concern for those with dementia

DuPage County, Illinois

The freezing death of Sarah Wentworth has sent chills through the Itasca, Illinois, community where she lived – and subsequently died – at a nursing home. Wentworth suffered from dementia, which leaves its victims prone to wandering. She wore a band that would signal an alarm on the door if she wandered through it. Unfortunately, the nurses aide on duty the night Wentworth died was too caught up on a television show to pay attention to the alarm. Wentworth was left outdoors for five hours before she was found. By then it was too late and nursing home staff are being blamed for trying to cover up their negligence.

A state attorney wants to ensure more needless deaths like Wentworth’s don’t happen in nursing homes. He is urging the Illinois Department on Aging to establish an Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team to investigate claims of violence against elderly residents age 60 and older, including accessing previously restricted information such as nursing home records. The team would be made up of state attorneys, the sheriff, the county coroner, nursing home associations and senior citizen agencies.

A similar death review team was established last summer to review fatalities among senior citizens in domestic living situations. That team can investigate home care cases and retirement homes, but cannot investigate nursing home claims.

State approval for the Elder Abuse Fatality Review Team should come within the next few months. Team membership would be solicited shortly thereafter.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › State attorney hopes to form nursing home death review team

Which makes Wentworth’s death even more mind-boggling. She was found dead Feb. 5 outside in the nursing home’s courtyard wearing nothing but a hospital gown, according to the Chicago Tribune. Investigators say she must have been outside about 90 minutes before she was found. But that was plenty of time for the elderly woman to freeze to death.

Wentworth’s family is understandably distraught as they deal with the unfathomable way the elderly woman died. In an effort to find answers and justice, the family has filed a lawsuit alleging neglect and abuse on the part of The Arbor of Itasca nursing home.

Unfortunately, these sad cases of nursing home residents wandering outdoors and perishing in the cold, winter temperatures is not uncommon. In December we told you the story of a 95-year-old Missouri woman, Fannie Mae Rooks, who wandered outdoors in the early morning of Christmas eve. It was between 36 and 40 degrees outside and a light rain was falling. By the time she was found, it was too late. Investigators in that case believe the weather contributed to her death.

In both cases, no criminal charges have yet been filed, but Wentworth’s family members hope justice is served and their mother’s death vindicated.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Illinois woman freezes to death outside nursing home

One such contributor is Tim Boyle, owner of Friendship Manor in Grinnell, Iowa, and president of the board of the Iowa Health Care Association, a lobby group that represents nursing homes.

Friendship Manor made news recently after it was fined $112,650 – one of the largest fines ever imposed against an Iowa nursing home. The home was charged with neglecting an 89-year-old woman who died while in residence at Friendship Manor. The victim, Ruth Louden, lived independently and was in good health until she broke her leg and moved into the home for recovery. She complained of excruciating pain but it was only after a physical-therapy aide noticed Louden’s leg smelled like “rotting meat” and that blood was seeping through her medical stocking, that Louden was rushed to the emergency room and treated. Doctors noticed the dressing on her wound had not been touched since it was applied four weeks earlier. Louden’s leg had to be amputated, but she never recovered. She died just a few months later.

The Tribune quotes the Des Moines Sunday Register, which reported that 11 fundraisers were held at Iowa nursing homes. Some of the biggest recipients of contributions from the Iowa Health Care Association Political Action Committee in 2008 included Iowa Democratic Party and Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, the Republican party of Iowa, Senate Minority Leader Ron Wieck, and Iowa Gov. Chet Culver.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Iowa lawmakers receive money from nursing home lobby group

According to The Daily Herald, a 15-month investigation into the deaths at the Woodstock Residence in Woodstock, Ill., led to the indictment in April of two nurses – Marty Himebaugh of Lake in the Hills, Ill., and her supervisor, Penny Whitlock of Woodstock, Ill. Himebaugh faces charges of criminal neglect, obtaining morphine by fraud and unlawful distribution of a controlled substance. Whitlock was charged with criminal neglect and obstructing justice. Woodstock Residence has since changed management and is now called Crossroads Care Center of Woodstock, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune also states that the health department report does not specifically name Himebaugh or Whitlock, however the criminal indictment suggests that the two nurses are the ones involved in the investigation. An Illinois Department of Public Health report claims Himebaugh administered drugs such as morphine to restless patients to calm them and gave overdoses to others she deemed had lived long enough. The report is based on interviews with coworkers, some of whom voiced concerns as much as six months before Himebaugh was let go in the wake of police investigations.

Whitlock, a former director of nursing at Woodstock Residence, reportedly told Himebaugh, “I don’t care if you’re the angel of death, just don’t let me know about it,” according to The Daily Herald.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home deaths were not merciful