Saturday, October 22, 2011

CDC Pressure Sore Data Briefs - NCHS Number 14 - February 2009

Data from the National Nursing Home Survey, 2004
In 2004, about 159,000 current U.S. nursing home residents (11%) had pressure ulcers. Stage 2 pressure ulcers were the most common.
Residents aged 64 years and under were more likely than older residents to have pressure ulcers.
Residents of nursing homes for a year or less were more likely to have pressure ulcers than those with longer stays.
One in five nursing home residents with a recent weight loss had pressure ulcers.
Thirty-five percent of nursing home residents with stage 2 or higher (more severe) pressure ulcers received special wound care services in 2004.
Pressure ulcers, also known as bed sores, pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers, are wounds caused by unrelieved pressure on the skin (1). They usually develop over bony prominences, such as the elbow, heel, hip, shoulder, back, and back of the head (1-3). Pressure ulcers are serious medical conditions and one of the important measures of the quality of clinical care in nursing homes (1,4). From about 2% to 28% of nursing home residents have pressure ulcers (2,3). The most common system for staging pressure ulcers classifies them based on the depth of soft tissue damage, ranging from the least severe (stage 1) to the most severe (stage 4). There is persistent redness of skin in stage 1; a loss of partial thickness of skin appearing as an abrasion, blister, or shallow crater in stage 2; a loss of full thickness of skin, presented as a deep crater in stage 3; and a loss of full thickness of skin exposing muscle or bone in stage 4. Clinical practice guidelines for pressure ulcers have been developed and provide specific treatment recommendations for stage 2 or higher pressure ulcers, including proper wound care (5). This Data Brief presents the most recent national estimates of pressure ulcer prevalence, resident characteristics associated with pressure ulcers, and the use of wound care services in U.S. nursing homes.
Products - Data Briefs - Number 14 - February 2009

94-Year-Old Beaten to Death in Nursing Home

Authorities say an 81-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder for allegedly beating to death his 94-year-old roommate at an Orange County nursing home. According to police, William McDougall allegedly took a bar used to hang clothes from a closet, and used it to repeatedly strike his roommate, Manh Ban Nguyen, about the head.
94-Year-Old Beaten to Death in Nursing Home - By his 81-year-old roommate

News

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/nursing_homes/index.html
http://www.newser.com/tag/3503/1/nursing-homes.html
http://www.carehome.co.uk/search_results_by_keyword.cfm?q=nursing+home+abuse&site=carehomenews
http://www.aperfectcause.org/predatorarticles.html
http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/Main_Site/FAQ/Nursing_Home_Abuse/News_Articles.aspx
https://www.google.com/search?aq=f&hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=nursing+home+abuse
https://news.google.com/news/section?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&csid=dd4d6f277bb74b40&redirect=true

Facility Elder Abuse Caught on Tape

Three workers at a nursing home in Pennsylvania have been arrested after being caught on tape hitting and abusing an elderly woman who suffers from dementia. Relatives of the 78-year-old woman installed a hidden camera after officials at the home rejected their suspicions that she was being abused, ABC News reports. The woman had told her daughter she was being punched and slapped by staff, asking: "Why do they keep picking on me?"
The video shows the employees "engaging in acts which I can only describe as humiliating, taunting and abusive of the victim in this case, including forcing the victim to stand topless for several minutes while the defendant and the other employees mocked her," the district attorney said
Shocking Facility Elder Abuse Caught on Tape - Hidden camera catchers workers hitting, taunting dementia patient

Nursing Homes Overmedicating Seniors With Dementia

Nursing homes are treating dementia sufferers with powerful antipsychotics despite FDA advice to the contrary, according to a Health and Human Services report spotted by Pro Publica. The FDA began requiring antipsychotics to carry warning labels in 2005 stating the increased death risk they pose for dementia patients. But 88% of 1.4 million Medicare claims for the drugs in 2007 were for those diagnosed with dementia. Drug companies are pushing the drugs to nursing home doctors for such treatment even though off-label marketing like that is illegal, the department’s inspector general said in a statement.
“Despite the fact that it is potentially lethal to prescribe antipsychotics to patients with dementia, there's ample evidence that some drug companies aggressively marketed their products towards such populations, putting profits before safety,” he said. The report also slaps Medicare and Medicaid administrators for lax monitoring of nursing homes’ use of the drugs. In the first half of 2007 alone, the US paid $116 million for claims violating Medicare rules, the report finds.
Nursing Homes Overmedicating Seniors With Dementia: Health Department Report

Nursing Home Abuse Increasing

Families turn to nursing homes to give the elderly the care and attention they need, but a congressional report out Monday says 1,600 U.S. nursing homes — nearly one-third — have been cited for abuse, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker.Some 5,283 nursing homes were cited for abuse violations, according to a review of state inspection records requested by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. These homes were cited for nearly 9,000 abuse violations from January 1999 to January 2001."We found examples of residents being punched, choked or kicked by staff members or other residents," Waxman said.
Nursing Home Abuse Increasing - CBS News

Trenton nursing home employee charged with sex assault

An employee of the Royal Health Gate Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility has been charged with sexually assaulting a 56-year-old patient there on multiple occasions, police said Monday.
Eric Brown, a 34-year-old city resident, was arrested Saturday. He attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself in police lockup Sunday night, but was rescued and taken to Capital Health’s Crisis Unit, police said.
Brown faces four counts of aggravated sex assault for the alleged string of rapes.
“Apparently he did this to the same victim a couple of times,” Sgt. Steve Varn said.
Royal Health Gate is a rehabilitation home located on the 1300 block of Brunswick Pike. Director of nursing Eileen Meyer said yesterday the care facility was investigating Brown’s actions.
 http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2011/10/nursing_home_employee_charged.html

Elder abuse murder lands mother & daughter in jail

A mother and daughter with ties to Albany are in jail near Augusta charged with murdering a relative in an elder abuse case.
Columbia County investigators Friday arrested 48-year-old Deborah Hill and 18-year-old Brittany Hurst .
Deputies found their aunt, 85-year-old Blanche Carpenter, dead last week inside a home in Martinez.
Investigators say the mother and daughter moved to Martinez from Albany to take care of Carpenter.
An autopsy reveled she died of neglect, and detectives tell us she was living in deplorable conditions and suffered from bed sores.
They believe she may have been dead for some time.
Additional charges are pending against Hill and Hurst

Elder abuse murder lands mother & daughter in jail - Live, Local, Late Breaking news, weather, and sports

Sutton Bridge woman ‘starved in care home’

An elderly dementia patient from Sutton Bridge died because staff at a care home did not give her sufficient food, a jury at Lincoln Crown Court was told on Wednesday. Edna Barnes, 82, was allegedly given little more than one-tenth of the daily food and drink needed for an adult woman to survive during here time at the Adderley Care Home at Long Sutton.
Felicity Gerry, prosecuting, told the jury that staff at the care home were too busy concentrating on their own Christmas preparations and Mrs Barnes, a grandmother and a mother of eight whose home was in Sutton Bridge, deteriorated rapidly during her stay.
She was admitted to Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, with severe dehydration and passed away four days later on December31, 2008.
Mrs Barnes was able to consume pureed food and liquids but records from the home indicated she was given as little as 275mls of fluid intake a day when an adult woman needed between 2,500 and 3,000 mls.
Miss Gerry said: “The amount she was given was obviously inadequate. It was not very much at all.
“It is no coincidence that this neglect took place around Christmas. You may think that Christmas and holidays were prioritized over patient care.”
Mrs Barnes needed one-to-one feeding which would take up to an hour per meal but the health authorities provided extra funding to pay for additional staff time.

Sutton Bridge woman ‘starved in care home’ - Crime and Courts - Lynn News