The elderly nursing home resident lives in an Alzheimer’s unit at Champaign County Nursing Home in Urbana, Illinois. The nurse who is accused of attacking him had worked at the home for just a few weeks before the incident occurred. Two people at the nursing home witnessed the attack and called police. Though the victim didn’t require medical treatment, Hill was arrested and charged with aggravated battery to a senior citizen. It is a Class 3 felony, which carries a sentence of probation to two to five years in prison.

According to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, aggressive behavior is common among people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. According to the Foundation, “Disruptions commonly occur if a person with Alzheimer’s feels their personal space has been invaded, for example, during dressing, bathing, or a doctor’s appointment. It’s important to understand that someone with Alzheimer’s is more likely to misinterpret certain actions and respond aggressively.”

That said, those who care for individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia should be specifically trained on how to minimize aggression in patients and how to handle aggression when it occurs. For more on caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s who has become disruptive, see the alzinfo.org discussion at http://www.alzinfo.org/treatment/communicating/default.aspx#4.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home aides need training to handle dementia patient aggression

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Rose of Sharon nursing home pressured Larry to pay his mother’s bill. He promised to sell her house, but instead took out the loan. And still, the bill was left unpaid. The nursing home contacted the county’s adult protection department which found that Larry had been pocketing his mother’s social security and pension checks, totaling $3,000 per month. Reports also show that Larry drained nearly $11,000 from his mother’s checking account, leaving her with a balance of just $86.

Larry told police he was using the money from the sale of his mother’s house to carry out her wishes. He paid utilities and medical bills, paid his son’s mortgage, and gave another $10,000 to $20,000 to his nephew. But none of the money went to pay for his mother’s care.

Larry was accused of intentionally exploiting his mother, though he claimed he was simply just poor at managing money. He was charged in Ramsey County District Court last week with theft by swindle.

The county began paying for Nora’s hospice care last spring, according to reports.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home resident’s son charged with theft by swindle

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When Whalen learned that his friend’s death was being investigated, he assumed it was protocol for all nursing home deaths to be investigated by coroners. However, nursing homes in Illinois are not required to report deaths of patients in their care to the coroner’s office. Doing so would enable the coroner to investigate the deaths for possible abuse or neglect.

Morgan County coroner Jeff Lair has made investigating all deaths that occur in nursing homes in his county a policy, and believes a law should be passed so that all nursing homes in his state must report patient deaths to their local coroners.

Only the states of Arkansas and Missouri require nursing homes to report patient deaths for potential investigation. This law spurred the Illinois Department of Public Health to enact a year-long pilot project in 10 Illinois counties – including Lair’s – where all nursing home deaths were reported to coroners. The pilot project was completed last summer. During that time, 3, 669 nursing home deaths were investigated and in eight of those, coroners reported suspicious circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Despite the results, it is unlikely a law will be passed in Illinois requiring nursing homes in the state to report patient deaths. The public health department said legislation would have to be spearheaded by the Illinois Coroners and Medical Examiners Association. And that association said the results just simply were not sizeable enough and likely the law would not come with much-needed funding to carry out the practice statewide.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Pilot project has coroners investigate all nursing home deaths

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It appears the impact of this case is being felt in the McHenry County coroner’s race, according to the Daily Herald.

Democratic challenger David Bachmann claims his five-term Republican opponent Marlene Lantz should have done more to ensure the safety of the victims at Woodstock Residence. Bachmann says the home reported a total of 36 deaths in the years 2004 and 2005 combined. There were the same number of deaths during the first nine months of 2006, he said.

Bachmann, a former funeral home director, contends, “Had Miss Lantz gone out to the nursing home in April or early May, she would have caught this.”

Lantz argued that there was no reason for her office to have been suspicious, as the patients who died were in hospice care or had a terminal illness.

The McHenry County Coroner’s Office exists to provide people of McHenry County with a thorough investigation in the event of a death. The election will be held November 4, 2008.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home investigation impacts coroner race

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It seemed as if there was no one else to care for them.

A recent investigation has revealed that the residents there were subjected to deplorable living conditions, resulting in the nursing home closing and the Cincinnati Health Department being stripped of its ability to license and inspect skilled nursing homes and residential-care facilities, according to the Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer.

It all began last February when Cincinnati police officer Aaron Layton dropped by the facility in search of a suspect. He didn’t find the person he was looking for, but what he did find stopped him in his tracks. The condition of the home was sickening.

Officer Layton got a search warrant and returned 16 days later with other investigators and officers in tow. They were shocked at what they found: exposed wires, leaking sewage, soiled and torn mattresses, vomit on the floor, broken toilets, unqualified employees, improperly stored drugs and people languishing in their own waste.

“There was no compassion, no sympathy for people who were living in these conditions,” says Councilwoman Laketa Cole. “The very people you’d expect to be a proponent for them, failed them.”
The Ohio Department of Health reportedly inspected the facility in January and found 10 deficiencies. Just eight days before the raid in March, the state had cleared the facility of seven of the 10 problems cited, the Enquirer stated.

After months of debate, the City Council concluded city health inspectors had failed to protect the residents and ordered the city’s health department’s licensure and inspection responsibilities be handed over to the state.

Facilities administrator Abe Fischer could serve jail time because of 27 alleged building and fire code violations. He could learn as early as next week if the residential-care facility will lose its city license. The state began fining Fischer this spring – a bill that has reached more than $100,000 – and mandated that he no longer take on new Medicaid cases, according to the story.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Health department stripped of nursing home responsibilities

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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

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The Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act is sponsored by New Mexico’s senior senator, Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis.

This process could greatly reduce the number of nursing home abuse and neglect cases that plague the long-term care industry. These are tragedies we hear about daily in the news, like the report two days ago of the Jacksonville, Ill., woman suing her father’s nursing home for his wrongful death just 19 days after he was admitted; or the painfully sad story last month of the four nursing home aides in Minnesota who taunted and molested 15 residents suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia simply to “get a good laugh.”

“This bill is an important step in providing the safeguards needed to prevent abuse and mistreatment by those who care for our elderly and disabled,” Sen. Domenici was quoted as saying in The Daily Times. “I hope the Senate will pass it during this legislative session.”

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Senate to consider Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention bill

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Jennifer Hopley, Mr. Hopley’s daughter and administrator of her father’s estate, filed an 18-count wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home, two doctors, a nurse, and other facility staff. According to the story, the suit claims negligence in Mr. Hopley’s death for not properly monitoring his blood sugar levels and subjecting the patient to “great mental and physical pain prior to his death.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the nursing home created dangerous conditions for residents by employing staff at levels below the national average for similar long-term facilities. The lawsuit contends that Golden Moments also was under capitalized and that there are state and federal tax liens are against the facility exceeding $250,000, according to the report.

According to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC), an information dissemination service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in 2006. Overall, the risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of people without diabetes of similar age.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Family sues Illinois nursing home for wrongful death

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“We believe the vast majority of nursing homes are doing a very good job and working hard to deliver quality care,” Sen. Kohl told the committee. “But we must protect the rights of those who receive inadequate care to hold the facilities accountable.” He said the bill would “send a strong message to underperforming facilities that harmful care is not acceptable.”

Sen. Martinez said the practice of nursing homes requiring residents to sign mandatory arbitration agreements is an overreach of the original purpose of the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act, which he says provides for voluntary arbitration agreements. Requiring a mandatory arbitration agreement as a condition of admittance to a facility is taking advantage of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, he said.

“I was a practicing attorney for many years, and I believe alternative dispute resolution is a legitimate way to resolve disputes,” Sen. Martinez said, “but it should apply to … people in similar positions when entering an agreement to arbitrate. Prospective nursing home residents – our nation’s most vulnerable population – should not be forced to sign an arbitration agreement as a condition of being admitted to a nursing home.”

Senators Martinez and Kohl pointed out that when patients and their families are at the point of entering a nursing home facility, the patient often is in need of immediate care. Sometimes there are no alternative facilities in close proximity to the patient’s home. Families feel they must sign the agreement in order to ensure their loved one gets needed care right away. Most, they say, do not realize they are relinquishing their rights to go to court.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, spoke in opposition of the bill. He expressed concern that removing arbitration arrangements from nursing homes will cause a rise in long term liability costs and ultimately result in a worse quality of care for the nation’s elderly. He said he believes the proposed Senate bill will result in small business owners going out of business and less well-off seniors unable to afford resulting higher prices.

“I am deeply concerned about nursing home abuse,” Sen. Hatch said. “The abuse of a patient’s trust cannot be tolerated.” However, he said, he feels the problems are being addressed by the nursing home industry.

Sen. Martinez disagrees. Arbitration, he says, “remov[es] the one incentive the industry has to self-regulate and police itself and provide a level of care that I believe is what all of us would like to see for our most vulnerable residents.”

A webcast of the meeting is available at the web site for the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › U.S. Senate debates arbitration

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