Elder Abuse Lawyer Comments on Nursing Home Quality of Care Performance Study

I wrote this article today outlining some statistics regarding the current state of nursing home care in America:
Elder Abuse Lawyer Comments on Nursing Home Quality of Care Performance Study

• 146,000 deficiencies were issued to nursing homes for violations of federal regulations in 2010, indicating many quality issues in the nation’s nursing homes. 23 percent of the nation’s nursing facilities received deficiencies for poor quality of care that caused actual harm or jeopardy to residents.
• 43 percent of nursing homes failed to ensure a safe environment for residents to prevent accidents.
• 30 percent of nursing homes received deficiencies for failure to meet professional standards, 28 percent for failure to provide comprehensive care plans, 23 percent for giving unnecessary drugs, 21 percent for poor clinical records, 20 percent for failing to ensure resident dignity, 20 percent for poor housekeeping, and 19 for failure to prevent pressure sores.
• Facilities with more RN staffing have higher quality of care on average. The average staffing levels were below the level recommended by experts.
• About 90,000 residents (6.5 percent) have pressure sores.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/quality/nursingcare/prweb8968967.htm -

Massachusetts Law against Sex Offenders living in Nursing Homes

Level 3 Sex Offenders Living in Nursing Homes a Crime in Massachusetts:

It is a crime for a Level 3 sex offender to "knowingly and willingly" live in any convalescent or nursing home, infirmary maintained in a town, rest home, charitable home for the aged or intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded which meets the requirements of the DPH under G.L. c. 111, § 71. Penalties for committing this crime are as follows:

• First conviction: imprisonment for not more than 30 days in a jail or house of correction;
• Second conviction: imprisonment for not more than 2 ½ years in a jail or house of correction nor more than 5 years in a state prison or by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment; and
• Third and subsequent conviction: imprisonment in a state prison for not less than 5 years; provided, however, that the sentence imposed for such third or subsequent conviction shall not be reduced to less than 5 years, nor suspended.

Crimes against the elderly have become all to common. Many states like Massachusetts try to protect elders in nursing homes from predatory attacks by former sex offenders by requiring registration and or outright exclusion from nursing homes. 
Source: Massachusetts 

Allegations of abuse of a nursing home patient

A Rankin County woman is accusing a nursing home of abusing her elderly mother.
It is an allegation officials at the Brandon facility deny.
Betty Lovern Chambers has posted pictures on her Facebook page that show injuries her Tommi Lovern, 74, suffered last week.
"I feel strongly in my heart that it is abuse and neglect," Chambers said.
She said a nurse at the Brandon Nursing Home &Rehabilitation Center called her at 1:30 a.m. on January 25th telling her that her mother was admitted to the hospital after she fell from her wheelchair.
"I went over to the nursing home to confront the nurse on duty which was Crystal Wheaton...Her exact words to me were 'I had had enough," Chambers said. "So I gave her an Ativan to calm her down, and I didn't want her to wake the other residents."

Allegations of abuse of a nursing home patient - Flash Player Installation

What Keeps The CNA Going?

Good article on the challenges facing CNA's in Nursing Homes. The writer mentions the "G" (Greed) word as a factor in the compromise of elder care in nurssing facilities.
Some excerpts: "When a resident is a two assist meaning that there needs to be two people to care for them by state law and only three CNA's on a shift all the residents suffer. Lights are ignorned residents fall, and some are left in their own feces or with there pants down because a CNA can't get back to them to help. As someone looking in on this it is sad that in some of these Nursing Homes where one unit like rehah pays for the entire place yet employees are told there is are enough funds to hire more help. The other day I read about the oath doctors take in the medical profession, and after reading it again I certainly question why this abuse continues. For these men, and women who give of themselves they get burnt quickly, and much of the time sugar and coffee are two drinks that keep them going. How good is that for their bodies, and minds? As I wrote before there is no Humanity where this is happening.

A growing number of physicians have come to feel that the Hippocratic Oath is inadequate to address the realities of a medical world that has witnessed huge scientific, economic, political, and social changes, a world of legalized abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and pestilences unheard of in Hippocrates' time.
One is told it will get worse? why? this writer still says greed, and employers trying to squeeze the most out of an employee. During Hippocrates time there where no CEO's of companies no issues with states, and federal government it was about patients~!! As in this verse, I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone. Speak to anyone in a nursing home and see how many are being harmed by the lack of care~!!!!

New Year's Resolutions? What Keeps The CNA Going? - Syracuse Job Search Examiner.com

Suspicious Elder Deaths Rarely Investigated

Joseph Shepter died in January 2007 at age 76. On Shepter's death certificate, the nursing home's chief medical officer, explained that the cause was heart failure brought on by clogged arteries.

Shepter's family had no reason to doubt it. The local coroner never looked into the death. Shepter's body was interred in a local cemetery.

A tip from a nursing-home staffer would later prompt state officials to re-examine the case and reach a very different conclusion.

When investigators reviewed Shepter's medical records, they determined that he had actually died of a combination of ailments often related to poor care, including an infected ulcer, pneumonia, dehydration and sepsis.
Investigators also concluded that Shepter's demise was hastened by the inappropriate administration of powerful antipsychotic drugs, which can have potentially lethal side effects for seniors.
Prosecutors in 2009 charged two former colleagues with killing Shepter and two other elderly residents. They've pleaded not guilty. The criminal case is ongoing.

Gone Without a Case: Suspicious Elder Deaths Rarely Investigated - ProPublica

Soaring numbers of patients die with bedsores and infected wounds

Numbers of nursing home patients dying with bedsores and infected wounds soaring
Seventy five patients are dying in hospitals and care homes every day while suffering from conditions caused by neglect, new figures show.
In 2010, more than 27,000 people died with bedsores or infected wounds - a rise of more than 50 per cent in a decade.
Bedsores are caused when patients are not turned regularly, or are left in poor hygiene. They may become infected if not spotted and treated quickly.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the English Patients Association called the figures "horrifying".

She said: "When people are admitted to hospital, they are weak and vulnerable, and they have to trust in the health service to care for them.
"Instead, tens of thousands of people are dying every year while afflicted with bedsores and infected wounds - this is as shaming as an indictment of the care they received as it is possible to see."
Earlier this month Mr Cameron announced that nurses would have to undertake hourly ward rounds to check whether patients are hungry, in pain, or need help going to the lavatory.
It followed spot checks by NHS regulators, which found that half of 100 hospitals were failing basic standards to treat elderly with dignity, and ensure they were properly fed.
At Alexandra Hospital, in Redditch, West Midlands, failings were so fundamental that it was warned last May that it was breaking the law.
Since then, families of more than 20 patients treated there have contacted lawyers alleging major failings and indignities suffered by their loved ones, including patients left in soaking sheets or dying without food or crucial medication.
Soaring numbers of patients die with bedsores and infected wounds - Telegraph: