Saturday, October 19, 2013

Coroner condemns "institutionalised abuse" after five pensioners died

Nursing Home home where five pensioners died through neglect was plagued by “institutionalised abuse”, an inquest heard yesterday.
Blundering staff at Orchid View gave vulnerable residents wrong drugs doses, left them alone in soiled bedding and clothes, and manhandled them.
One OAP, Jean Halfpenny, died after being given an overdose of the blood-thinning drug warfarin.
But whistleblower Lisa Martin told the hearing she was ordered to shred the 77-year-old’s drugs chart after she had gone to hospital bleeding to death.
She said a colleague declared: “S***, we can’t send her to hospital with those. They will shut us down.”
Coroner Penelope Schofield said those involved in neglect at the £3,000-a-month care home in Copthorne, West Sussex, should be “ashamed”.
She spoke at the Horsham inquest into the deaths of 19 OAPs over two years. The home was shut in 2011.
A five-week inquest heard how some residents were given wrong doses of medication, left soiled and unattended due to staff shortages and there was a lack of management.
Call bells were also often not answered for long periods or could not be reached by elderly people living at the home, which was deemed "an accident waiting to happen".
Ms Schofield said: "There was institutionalized abuse throughout the home and it started, in my view, at a very early stage, and nobody did anything about it.
"It was completely mismanaged and understaffed and failed to provide a safe environment for residents."
Ms Schofield added: “There was ­institutionalized abuse throughout. This, to me, was from the top down.”
Orchid View care home: Coroner condemns "institutionalised abuse" after five pensioners died - Mirror Online

by Bernard Hamill
See more articles:
Nursing Home Abuse
Rape in Nursing Homes

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Serious violations found at Kindred nursing home

GREENFIELD -- An inspection of Kindred Transitional Care and Rehabilitation Milwaukee found 23 federal violations, according to the Journal Sentinel. The report was filed in early August, and inspectors levied fines of nearly $40,000 to the nursing home.
Violations include numerous examples of giving residents the wrong dosage of medication, and in one case even switching two patients medications. The inspection also found five violations that put the residents in "immediate jeopardy," meaning they could cause harm or even death to the residents.
The Health Department will make an unannounced follow-up inspection in the future to see if Kindred fixed any of the violations, and if they fail they may lose their license.
Serious violations found at Greenfield nursing home - 620 WTMJ - Milwaukee's Source for Local News and Weather