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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.
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.
Sexual abuse. It is one of the most unimaginable crimes against those who are dependent on others, but yet the reports keep coming.
This week in Framingham, Massachusetts, the Boston Herald reported that a former nursing home aide was charged with sexually molesting a 62-year-old woman at Sudbury Pines Extended Care who had recently suffered a stroke which had greatly limited her ability to speak.
Serious staff shortages at nursing homes in Alberta, Canada, are contributing to resident neglect according to provincial New Democratic Party (NDP) reports in the Edmonton Sun. Last week, the party released 300 reports from unionized workers that allege that staff is so overworked at homes there that they routinely do not feed, bathe, turn or take residents to the bathroom, ultimately denying them their dignity. The report warned that seniors in long-term care were treated like “castaways” and left by staff unattended for hours.
Only four people managed to escape. But the others – 23 people who were unable to walk or crawl to safety – perished in a devastating fire at a government nursing home in Podyeisk, Russia, according to CBS News.
The larceny and conspiracy trial of a man whose family once owned one of the largest nursing homes in Dedham, Massachusetts, began this week, according to the Patriot Ledger. Gregory Logan served as the administrator of Logan Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Braintree, one of the family’s five nursing homes. Logan and his uncles Joel K. Logan and Todd Logan were all accused of raiding patient accounts for personal use between January 2001 to June 2003.
Joe Bilgen said the sexual abuse his father endured at the hands of Ohio nursing home night shift nurse John Riems was akin to child abuse because Riems victims had similar states of mind. The fiancé of another victim told the Associated Press that Riems was an, “ancient evil spirit of torment.”
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.
When investigators tested the opened tub of King Nut peanut butter from a Minnesota nursing home, it confirmed their fears. The peanut butter was contaminated with salmonella – the same exact strain of the bacteria as the one linked to three deaths and more than 400 reported cases of salmonella poising in 43 states, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota Star Tribune. An elderly Minnesota woman who had other health problems was among the victims who died.
Tennessee nursing homes are lobbying the legislature to put a cap on the amount of damages that plaintiffs can collect in court, according to a report in Nashville, Tennessee’s The City Paper. Sixteen states, including Tennessee, do not put monetary limit for damages such as pain and suffering, which has resulted in millions of dollars in damages awarded to victims for nursing homes‘ violations of patient care. The nursing home industry says without damage limits, nursing homes in those states become a target for out-of-state trial lawyers.
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