Linda Darlene Carter was living at Hillcrest North nursing home where she was receiving care following an automobile accident during which she received multiple blunt force injuries. She was the passenger in a vehicle that collided with another automobile at an intersection, according to reports. She died at the nursing home on March 27, 2008. The medical examiner who reviewed the case said that Carter died of “dehydration due to inadequate care” following the accident and listed her death as a homicide.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the “suspicious” death of Carter and may turn the case over to the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office. The Attorney General’s office would then decide whether to present the case to a grand jury for any criminal charges.

The lawsuit, alleging nursing home abuse and/or neglect, was filed by Cater’s son and daughter, Andrea Lawson and Anthony Cohoon, against Hillcrest Healthcare North and Hillcrest Healthcare LLC. Since the lawsuit was filed, the nursing home forged a partnership with Grace Health Care. Grace is not named in the lawsuit.

Hillcrest Healthcare President and CEO Carolyn Pointer referred comments to Grace Health Care, which declined commented based on lack of knowledge.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Family of neglected woman sues nursing home for $35 million

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The lawsuit was filed on behalf of family members of four people who died in the homes from dehydration, malnutrition and blood poisoning caused by neglected bed sores. The suit is also filed on behalf of a man who lost a testicle after being scalded during an act of abuse at the home. The suit cites “grossly substandard care, life-threatening care,” and negligence.

The nursing home group is also being sued for deceptive trade practices for promoting its nursing homes as providing quality care when, in fact, the homes have among the worst records in the state, according to the report.

The Health Care Availability Act requires all nursing homes be insured for $3 million each year with a cap of $500,000 per incident. In 2004, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment adopted a policy that allowed nursing homes to be self-insured provided they submit an affidavit stating that it has set aside $1 million for insurance claims.

However, investigators have found the affidavits are false and that the homes have no money set aside for any insurance claims. Attorneys for the families claim that the state did nothing to verify the affidavits were valid and that the nursing homes had set aside the money even though state law requires approval of self-insurance plans.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home chain accused of substandard, life-threatening care

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According to the investigation, only 20 minutes passed since a nursing home staff member saw the victim and the time of his death. An alarm also sounded when the man passed through a security door.

The resident who died suffered from dementia, a condition that often makes its victims prone to wandering. Many facilities who treat patients with cognitive disorders have security doors and alarms to alert staff when residents wander out of range.

Just last month we told you about a resident of a Massachusetts nursing home who died after the wheelchair she was in rolled down a flight of stairs. The woman had wandered off from the nursing home unnoticed. Family members argued nursing staff should have taken stronger measures to ensure her safety. She was not wearing the doctor-prescribed security bracelet that would sound an alarm if she wandered too close to the facility’s exit. Regardless, family members want to know why no one on staff even noticed her leaving. In that case, the parent company, Life Centers of America, which owns Life Care Center of Acton, was charged with manslaughter neglect of a long-term care facility resident. The company faces up to $6,000 in fines.

Sources:
Brenham Banner-Press

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home resident dies after fall down steps

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Apparently an Arbor nursing home employee was so engrossed in the television program she was watching that she simply ignored the sound of the security alarm, according to MSNBC. When employees did finally see her body lying out in the bitter cold, they tried to cover up the fact that she had wandered away on their watch and froze to death. They brought her inside, covered her up, and told police she had died in her sleep.

But police were suspicious when they found the woman, still cold to the touch, in a hospital gown and lying on a gurney hooked up to an oxygen machine. Authorities quickly surmised that the staff never made the 3 a.m. bed check and ignored the door alarm. The woman’s daughters contend that gross neglect lead to their mother’s wrongful death. They filed suit against the nursing home just one week after their mother died.

Up to four female nursing home employees are expected to face criminal charges in the case.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Police: nursing home staff tried to cover up patient’s cause of death

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Gregory Logan chose instead to fight the charge.

Last week, Attorney General Martha Coakley cleared Gregory Logan of larceny, according to Wicked Local Braintree.

The announcement comes nearly three years after charges were initially filed against the men. All three were initially charged with taking more than $600, 000 of the $34 million in Medicare funds during that time while also failing to provide basic goods and services to the residents of their facilities. They also were accused of failing to remit deductions withheld from employees’ wages and for a company-sponsored retirement plan. The investigation also revealed that the facilities frequently experienced shortages of food, medicine, personal hygiene items and linens. Vendor bills often went unpaid which resulted in lapses of services such as pest control and medical waste pickups.

“There are two sides to every story. I was accused of stealing from the elderly, and I refused to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit,” Gregory Logan said to reporters.

In 2003, a judge put four of the homes into receivership and the fifth went into receivership a year later. Since then, two of the homes have closed and three were sold to other companies.

Now cleared of wrongdoing, Gregory Logan says he is distancing himself from his family and hopes to continue in health care management.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home founders’ grandson cleared of larceny

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Lloyd was indicted earlier this week on eight charges, seven of which are felonies, by a New Castle County grand jury for financially exploiting and physically neglecting the man, who had suffered from strokes, partial paralysis and seizure disorder. He has since died from unrelated causes.

According to the report, police were asked to go to the home in September of 2007, after someone had reported a man was unattended in Lloyd’s home. The man was found unattended on the second floor of the home. The home had no electricity, was unkempt and was littered with dog feces. Adult Protective Services was called but did not remove the man from Lloyd’s care.

Seven months later the man was admitted to Christiana Hospital with four bedsores. He was later released back into Lloyd’s care, but at a different address. Six weeks later, a caseworker from Protective Services went to check on the man and found him alone in the dining room. He was lying on a hospital bed with no sheets and surrounded by debris and food on the floor around him. He was admitted back to the hospital and treated for bedsores. This time, Protective Services removed the man from Lloyd’s care.

An investigation also determined that Lloyd was still taking the man’s Social Security checks even after the man was taken from her care.

Police are now looking for Lloyd. Anyone with information of her whereabouts should contact Newark Police Detective Andrew Rubin at Andrew.Rubin@cj.state.de.us or call Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP 3333.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Police look for woman accused of neglect, exploiting elderly man

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She also gave authorities a false name, for there was a warrant out for her arrest after she failed to appear in court two weeks ago on a charge of driving with a suspended license. She was also on probation after pleading guilty to a Jan. 6 marijuana possession charge.

Deputies placed Peay under arrest and charged her with two counts of neglect of a disabled person. They also arrested her for the outstanding warrants and for giving a false name to a law enforcement officers. She is being held in Manatee County jail on $12,120 bond.

The nursing home administrator said Peay had worked for the company for several years, but that she was fired over the incident. Residents of North West Care Center are routinely taken on field trips to sporting events or to the theater; however, employees must follow strict guidelines, such as never leaving a resident alone. As a safety measure, North West Care Center is conducting training sessions for all staff.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Caregiver leaves patients alone at ball game

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Last week, Cole’s family filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the nursing home seeking more than $75,000 in damages.

Cole’s wife visited her husband daily and, noticing his weight loss, questioned nursing home staff about his eating habits. She was told he was fine, according to the story. However, a State Health Department investigation noted that staff had reported that Cole refused to eat or take medication and that he ate nothing at 15 out of 24 meals he was served during his first 20 days at the facility when he lost all the weight. A nutritional supplement was recommended by a dietary manager but the supplement was never ordered. A doctor was notified about Cole’s refusing of medications and food but there was never any mention of his dramatic weight loss, according to the report.

On Dec. 29, 2006, Cole was sent to the hospital. He was discharged to a different nursing home for hospice care on Jan. 10. He died on Jan. 21, 2007.

The investigation into the case found the home negligent in the care it provided Cole by “not preventing his dehydration, not maintaining his weight and not notifying his doctors of his dramatic weight loss,” according to the story.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Nursing home sued for wrongful death of man with dementia

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But the damage had been done. Even after Raybon had been stabilized by a hospital and then admitted to another nursing home, his health spiraled downward. He suffered from more bedsores and infections and died soon after.

Raybon’s daughter, Yolanda Latimore, repeatedly pleaded to management at Tucker Nursing Home to take better care of her father, to no avail. A DeKalb County jury found that Raybon’s months of suffering was unjust. After a four-year lawsuit, the jury awarded Raybon’s daughter $1.25 million. The defendants are expected to appeal the case, according to the story.

Bedsores, also known as pressure sores or decubitus ulcers, are a serious problem with patients who are bedridden. Nursing home patients are among the most susceptible. Bedsores form when skin and tissue break down from constant pressure and bad circulation. They occur most often in the hips, lower back and heels. At first, the skin becomes red and irritated and eventually open sores develop.

If left untreated, the open sores can bore down into the muscle and bone, known as decubitus ulcer formation. Treatment of serious decubitus ulcers may include drying out the wound, excising the dead tissue, and administering systemic antibiotics. To prevent the occurrence of bed sores, bedridden individuals must be moved every two hours to minimize rubbing, pressure and friction.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Patient’s daughter wins lawsuit in death from serious bed sore

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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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There is truly a special place … well you know where … for people who would do something like this. According to the report, which was carried by local CBS affiliate WCCO, the nursing assistants allegedly spit in residents’ mouths, poked their breasts and touched their genitals, and teased them.

Nursing home abuse has to be one of the most incomprehensible acts I encounter in my work with personal injury cases. I just don’t understand how people who are supposed to offer care and comfort, security and peace, could be so cruel. Particularly in the case of Alzheimer’s or dementia patients, who so often are bewildered and afraid, adrift in unclear memories and unsure of what is happening around them to begin with. To abuse these defenseless people – it’s just inexcusable.

Unfortunately, there is still no system for compiling official national statistics about nursing home abuse and neglect. According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, as a result no one knows precisely how many older Americans are being abused, neglected or exploited.

The major types of elder abuse are physical abuse, which includes inappropriate use of drugs and physical restraints; sexual abuse; emotional or psychological abuse, which, in addition to verbal attacks or intimidation includes enforced social isolation and treating an older person like an infant; neglect; abandonment; and financial or material exploitation.

It is most often left up to the individual – family members of loved ones – to monitor the care provided by their chosen nursing home facility. Too often, distance prevents regular visits, and families are left to worry, and hope for the best.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › a special place …

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According to the news story, the abuse occurred at the Oak Hills Living Center from August 2007 through February 2008.

In addition to the abuse, family members say Curnutt was neglected, left in soiled bedding and clothing.

KOTV quotes Curnutt’s father, Richard Curnutt, as saying, “He’s incontinent. Been left wet. Been left dirty. I’ve had to go down and say, ‘please change James.’”

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Oklahoma man abused, neglected

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CMS is the federal agency that manages Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, and Medicaid, the health program for the poor.

On its web site, CMS says the new system is being designed as an easy way for the public to understand their assessment of nursing home quality, and will provide the public with a way to make meaningful distinctions between high-performing and low-performing homes. The rankings will be posted on the agency’s Nursing Home Compare Web Site, with plans to launch the program in December.

In June and July, the CMS is asking the public to visit its site and provide feedback about the new star rating system. A sample screen shot of the proposed star ratings also is available.

A press release on the agency web site quotes Kerry Weems, CMS acting administrator, as saying, “More than three million Americans rely on services provided by a nursing home at some point during the year. The new ‘five star’ rating system will provide a composite view of the quality and safety information currently on Nursing Home Compare to help beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers compare nursing homes more easily.”

According to CMS, this will be the first time the agency has offered a rating system for the fee-for-service, or traditional Medicare progra. Currently, the Compare web site assists beneficiaries and their families in making nursing home choices by providing information on individual measure of quality of care, staffing, and survey inspection information.

Medicare already lists troubled nursing homes in its online database, but that system can be hard for the general public to understand or to navigate. It is hoped that the new system will be easier to use, and therefore more effective for decision making.

Another hope is that by being listed as low performers with the easily identifiable star system, nursing homes that are below par will be motivated to improve, CMS officials say.

Descriptive information about the quality rating system and its progress may be obtained after June 22 on the CMS Hot Topics web page.

Comments and suggestions about the new nursing home rating system should be sent to BetterCare@cms.hhs.gov.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Five-star care

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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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Sadlier transferred her mother, Rita, from a hospital to a nursing home, thinking she would get rehabilitation. Instead, her mother received poor care and even an injury. Although Rita was there for just a week, Sadlier says she saw so much nursing home neglect that she had to take her mother out of the home.

Rita was initially taken to the hospital around April 4th of this year. She went in for congestive heart failure, thin blood and liver problems. On April 18th, after the hospital determined Rita was doing better, she was transferred to a nursing home. “My impression was that she would be rehabilitated to get back to where she before she went to hospital,” Sadlier says. “She wasn’t in the best of health, but she was getting by. I didn’t expect her to start doing cartwheels or anything. It was supposed to be for rehab.”

On her first visit to the nursing home, Sadlier was shocked by what she saw. “I went into her room and my mother was lying naked in bed,” Sadlier says. “No gown or anything. I’ve never, ever seen my mother like that-she was modest. So I had to go and find someone to get me a gown and help me put it on her.”

Next, Sadlier says that Rita was being given medication and had to go to the bathroom. “My mother was heavy, so I know they might have had trouble helping her to the bathroom,” Sadlier says. “But the nurse said ‘just go’ even though there was no catheter or bedpan nearby. All I could think was, ‘Don’t we use bedpans anymore?’ She went to the home so she could learn to do things herself again, and she was being told to ‘just go’ where she was.”

The problems did not stop there. Sadlier says that her mother, who had congestive heart failure, had fluid restrictions. However, on Rita’s meal tray someone had written a note to staff: “Force fluids.” Another time when Sadlier was visiting her mother, no one even brought in a food tray. She says she had to go ask for one and is certain that if she had not been there, her mother would have missed that meal.

Sadlier says her mother was also supposed to have a special mattress, but one was never put on the bed. After visiting her mother and finding her naked in bed yet again, Sadlier had enough. “She was supposed to be there for rehab, but she was always just laying there. The hospice said that she wasn’t good enough for rehab, but that’s what she was admitted for. The physical therapist said that she was in the wrong section; that she had been put in the Alzheimer’s section instead of rehab and the home said that there were no beds available in rehab to move her to. But I found out later, there were. My daughter’s friend works at the home and told us that someone else had been transferred from the hospital directly to the rehab section. They lied to me.”

After an enormous struggle to have her mother removed from the nursing home, Sadlier was finally allowed to take her mother home. However, even that was complicated. “The ambulance didn’t bring her to my home,” Sadlier says. “They took her to the hospital because the nursing home sent the wrong paperwork–it didn’t have my signature on it. And she was on the gurney, upside down, with her hands tied to the side of the bed. It broke my heart. She had ulcers all over her butt, back, arms and legs. The ambulance attendant took pictures of it because he remembered her from earlier when she went into the hospital.”

Just over a day later, at age 79, Rita died at her daughter’s home. “She was home for a day before she died,” Sadlier says. “I’m just so thankful that I got her out of there. I would never have been able to live with myself if she died in that nursing home. There was so much going on there and I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want them to treat her worse.”

Since helping to care for her grandmother, Sadlier’s daughter has decided to become a nurse. “She told us we have to turn people who are in bed (like my mother was) every two hours,” Sadlier says. “They never did that for my mother at the home. I was there quite a bit. So were my aunt and my sister. None of us saw them turn her or care for her properly.”

Source: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/01651/nursing-home-negligence.html

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Speak out!

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Shortly after entering Olive Branch Senior Care, Nelms had to be taken to a hospital because of infected pressure sores, weight loss, malnutrition and dehydration, the lawsuit alleged.

He died six days later from the infected pressure sores, one of which was so advanced it went to the bone and was infected with his own feces, according to the lawsuit.

The nursing facility is owned by Brown Development Inc. and D. Brown Enterprises Inc.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › $1 million neglect verdict

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