Sunday, October 02, 2011

Nursing Home Staffer Formally Charged with Crimes Against Resident

Nursing Home Staffer Charged with Criminal Abuse Against Nursing Home Resident

Former Stella Maris employee facing possible jail time if convicted for abuse, neglect and assault against an 82-year-old man.  The Baltimore City woman was been indicted on charges of abuse, neglect and assault on an elderly resident at a Timonium care facility. Shirleen Diane Sheppard, 57, of the 900 block of Argonne Drive, is charged with second-degree criminal abuse of a vulnerable adult, two counts of second-degree neglect, and one count of second-degree assault, online court documents show.
The charges stem from an incident that took place on Oct. 17, 2010 at Stella Maris, Inc. Sheppard was an employee at the time of her arrest.
“Abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult are misdemeanors punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000.00 fine for each offense,” neglect and assault on an elderly resident at a Timonium care facility, according to a release from the Office of the Attorney General. “The second-degree assault charge, also a misdemeanor, carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a $2,500.00 fine.”

A similar incident took place at another Lutherville senior care facility in early August.
A caregiver at College Manor reportedly robbed and assaulted a blind resident.
Jazmine Lanae Graham, of the 3806 Bayville Road is currently awaiting indictment in the Circuit Court of Baltimore County.

Nursing Home Staffer Formally Charged with Crimes Against Resident - Lutherville-Timonium, MD Patch

Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Jefferson County nursing home

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against Jefferson County and its former nursing home claiming staff failed to provide the treatment and care that could have prevented a patient's death in 2009.

The suit, filed Friday in Jefferson County Circuit Court, seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages stemming from the Oct. 4, 2009, death of Mary Elizabeth Yancey, 78, who had been at the center since 2005.
It names as defendants the Jefferson County Commission, dba Jefferson Rehabilitation and Health Center; Continuity Health Care Inc., the Montgomery contractor providing health care at the home; and several medical employees.

Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Jefferson County nursing home al.com

Study questions hospitalization of failing nursing home residents

The study of Medicare was conducted to determine how pervasive burdensome healthcare transitions are, given that patients and their families are “especially vulnerable to the adverse consequences resulting from transitions,” the authors wrote.
The study found that among 474,829 nursing home decedents, 19% underwent a burdensome transition, with some rates much higher for individual states, such as 37.5% in Louisiana.
According to tyhe new study in the New England Journal of Medicine: The authors conclude that too many residents may be going into hospitals. “For persons with advanced cognitive impairment, nursing homes are the predominant locus of care,” the authors wrote. “Despite evidence that many infections can be treated in nursing homes without a significant effect on patient outcomes, the current financial incentives are aligned toward hospitalization. Evidence from demonstration programs suggests that rates of hospitalization can be reduced with improved survival and no diminution in the quality of care.”
Study questions hospitalization of failing nursing home residents - Healthcare business news and research Modern Healthcare

One-fifth of Medicare nursing home patients with advanced Alzheimer's or other dementias were sent to hospitals or other nursing homes for questionable reasons in their final months, the new study found.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/28/MNFM1LAQGA.DTL#ixzz1ZdFYLt14

Obama Looking at Nursing Home Quality

"An estimated 40 percent of nursing facility residents are admitted to the hospital in a typical year, and one-quarter of these may be preventable, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. A congressional review panel estimates that about 14 percent of patients discharged directly from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities are sent back to the hospital for conditions that could have been avoided.

Many hospital emergency rooms are filled with frail seniors on Friday afternoons. Why? Because nursing homes know they won’t have enough weekend staff to care for their sickest residents, so they simply send them back to the hospital. The new rules could stop those practices."
Obama Cracks Down on Nursing Home Quality - Forbes

Pensioner at nursing home died after suffering a fall

A resident died following a nursing home fall, an inquest heard.

Dorothy Stephens died at the Mill View Nursing Home in Bridgeman Street, Great Lever, in May this year.  A Bolton inquest into 78-year-old Miss Stephens’ death heard she had been treated at the Royal Bolton Hospital for fractures to her pelvis following the fall at the home.
She returned to the home for nursing care but died a month later.
Pensioner at nursing home died after suffering a fall (From The Bolton News)