Following a case of alleged sexual assault at the Loudonville Nursing Home, an administrator with the home has been fired. According to a spokesman for the facility, Melissa Brown was discharged from her position on Saturday.
A Waconia nursing home employee failed to take necessary emergency actions to save the life of a resident who became unresponsive and soon died, then blamed the neglect on being "tired and not thinking clearly," according to a state investigation.
The staff member at the Good Samaritan Society's nursing home should have performed resuscitation efforts and called 911 when the resident fell ill, the state Department of Heath said in a report released Wednesday.
The resident had instructed in an "advance directive" that such immediate actions be taken in critical situations, the report added.
The report concluded that the employee's neglect was responsible for the resident's death. The staff member quickly resigned when being questioned by the facility's administrative nurse, the report added.
As is its practice, the Health Department did not reveal the identities of those involved, nor did it say when the neglect occurred.
However, the resident's family identified her as Luvern Z. Kraft, 85, of Mound. One of her sons, Steve Kraft, said his mother died April 21, 2012. There was no autopsy he said, leaving him to suspect she died "I suppose of heart failure." http://www.startribune.com/local/west/190247801.html
Officials are seeking the public’s help in identifying additional victims of an Orange County nursing home employee charged with sexually assaulting a 69-year-old disabled woman.
David Moreno, 28, has been charged with one felony count each of sexual battery on an institutionalized victim and sexual penetration by foreign object of an incompetent victim, the Brea Police Department said.
"A 72-year-old nursing home resident suffering from dementia was badly injured when she jumped from a second-story window at the nursing home where she was recently admitted, police said.
The woman suffered a broken leg and a fractured hip. Police said this woman "has a history of trying to sneak away from her own home." She was in the Savoy Nursing Home at 670 County St. for two weeks prior to the incident. A nurse's aide making a routine room check discovered the woman was missing."
The Hamill Law Firm has handled several of these matters in the past.
It should be noted that Federal regulations require that residents be protected from "elopement" because of the danger of injury to them. In fact Medicare has a list of SRE or "Significant Reportable Events" that were formerly referred to as "never events" (because they should never happen!). Some of these "never events" include rape of a resident, suicide in a nursing home and falling out of a window. It is important to remember that these people are placed there by loved ones for their safety and protection because they cannot live independantly safely.
A former California nursing home director was sentenced Wednesday to three years in state prison for inappropriately medicating elderly patients at a Kern County nursing home, including one who died, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said.
Gwen D. Hughes, who worked at Kern Valley Healthcare District's facility in Lake Isabella, was originally charged in the deaths of three patients. But she pleaded no contest in October in Kern County Superior Court to one felony count of elder abuse with a special allegation that the abuse contributed to the victim's death.
California Department of Justice officials allege that Hughes, 59, ordered the hospital's director of pharmacy to write doctor's orders for psychotropic medication for 23 patients — not for therapeutic reasons, but to keep them quiet. Calif. woman gets prison for nursing home death - SFGate
For several months now, ProPublica has made redacted versionsof this same information available in an easily searchable format in our Nursing Home Inspecttool. These versions, which reside on the U.S. Centers for Medicare andMedicaid Services website, NursingHome Compare, sometimes blank out nursing home patients’ ages, medical conditions, datesand prescribed medications.
A Nashville nursing home has been fined nearly $240,000 in the past year as a result of violations of state and federal regulations that placed patients in “immediate jeopardy.”
The citations, one on May 12 for $231,972 and the other on Dec. 6 for $8,000, came after surveyors from the state Health Department inspected Crestview Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Shelley Walker, spokeswoman for the state agency, said the May citation had been paid but the $8,000 citation was still pending.
Robert Jordan, spokesman for Vanguard Healthcare, which owns Crestview, said all the nursing home deficiencies have been corrected and new management put in place at the nursing home. http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130113/NEWS01/301130063/Nashville-nursing-home-deals-with-240-000-in-fines?nclick_check=1
Carlton Decker was 85-years old. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War Two.
Mr. Decker died late last month after he was found outside the county-run Maplewood Manor nursing home in Ballston Spa. Police say he'd lived there for many years.
Investigators have been working for weeks to determine how he got out. And now they know.
The investigation revealed that Mr. Decker did not go out a second floor window at the nursing home as police first thought. They say he suffered from severe osteoporosis and would not have been able to drop or fall from the second floor.
They say he was wearing a monitoring bracelet on his ankle when he left his second floor room, walked down the hall, with his walker, to a locked door that required him to punch in a security code, known only to nursing home staff.
"Mr. Decker apparently knew most if not all of code numbers to punch into the panel to bypass the alarm, silence the alarm and exit that unit without any audible alarm at all," said Jim Murphy, Saratoga County District Attorney.
One of Mr. Decker's grandchildren, who is an employee of Maplewood Nursing Home, told police that her grandfather knew at least some of the security code to open the door.WNYT.com - Police: No charges in nursing home death
Sexual Assaults in Nursing Homes are unfortunately not rare. That is why every Nursing Home has a set of policies and procedures to prevent sexual assault, rape or battery of elders. They do this beacuse they are required by Federal Regulations to protect vulnerable elders from sexual assaults and abuse.
Common factors seen in Rape cases include the following:
- The victim suffered Dementia and there fore is unable to identify or remember the attack.
- The victim was isolated or left alone unsupervised.
- The attacker has done this before whether or not he/she has been apprehended.
- Often these assaults are not reported or are denied as imaginary episodes by a "mentally unstabe resident". Residents complaints are not believed.
- The facility denies responsibility and is slow to investigate.
- A person who reports the rape is not believed or is actually punished in some way by the facility.
Recently our firm was retained by the family of an 85 year old dementia patient who they believe was the victim of a sexual assault or rape. Rape is defined as the unconsented to penetration by body part or object of the sexual organs.
The facility, a Kindred Nursing Home in Massachusetts continues to deny not only that they are responsible in any way but that she was not the subject of a sexual assault. Even though she was found in the bathroom with heavy bleeding and blood clots from her vagina and also with a large bruise and swelling to her labia. The victim did not even recieve a hospital examination until the following day!
Our firm has filed suit in Superior Court for damages.
29-year-old Nurse Aid Lisah Jacobs was arrested on Monday and charged with larceny and criminal possession of drugs.
The director of the Livingston County Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, Frank Bassett, did not want to go on camera, but told News10NBC that Jacobs was an employee and is no longer. He says he's grateful for another employee who came forward with information about Jacobs.
Bassett says an employee at his facility was told by a community member that Jacobs might be pocketing pills. Bassett said his employee then did exactly what they should have, they went directly to management, who went directly to the Livingston County Sheriff's Department. And within 24 hours, sheriff's deputies arrested Jacobs.
So how does something like this happen at a place where our loved ones are supposed to be safe?
Bassett says this kind of thing can happen anywhere. He says there is an important element of trust with all of his employees. No one is standing over their shoulder all day long. Bassett says he believes Jacobs was filling out paperwork, saying patients asked for medications, when in reality, he believes, she was just taking those pills for herself.
News10NBC asked how many patients were affected. Bassett said “a few”, but doesn't have an exact number.
News10NBC spoke with an ombudsman from Lifespan. Her job is to be an adovcate for those in nursing homes.
Alana Russel, Lifespan Ombudsman Program, said, “There are systems in place in terms of supervision. It's pretty independent, adult work. I've never seen anyone on a shift by themselves, there are other co-workers, but no holding hands.”
When it comes to monitoring the safety, cleanliness, and staff at nursing homes, that is the responsibility of the New York State Department of Health. Every year, they are responsible for conducting a survey of each facility that they license.
Those surveys are done unannounced and last anywhere from three days to a week. You can access the results of those surveys anytime you want online.
Alana Russel, Lifespan Ombudsman Program, said, “There are systems in place in terms of supervision. It's pretty independent, adult work. I've never seen anyone on a shift by themselves, there are other co-workers, but no holding hands.”
When it comes to monitoring the safety, cleanliness, and staff at nursing homes, that is the responsibility of the New York State Department of Health. Every year, they are responsible for conducting a survey of each facility that they license. http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2898919.shtml?cat=566 Protecting your loved ones living in a nursing home | www.WHEC.com
A woman is suing McDowell Nursing & Rehabilitation, LLC, after she claims it is responsible for her father’s injuries and death. Wisteria, LLC and AMFM, LLC were also named as defendants in the suit.James Allen was a patient of the defendants Nursing Home from Nov. 9, 2010, until Dec. 6, 2010, according to a complaint filed Jan. 4 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Claudia Ross claims during Allen’s residency, he suffered serious injuries from a pattern of poor care, neglect and abuse rendered by the defendants and their staff, including uncontrolled high glucose, severe dehydration and urinary tract infections.
The negligent care and abuse of Allen by the defendants caused significant destruction on his physical condition and proximately contributed to his death on Dec. 10, 2010, according to the suit.
Ross claims the defendants failed to exercise a degree of care, skill and learning required or expected of reasonable, prudent healthcare providers in their profession.
The defendants inadequately trained their employees and were aware that their employees were unqualified and inadequately trained, yet retained them as employees to care for residents, according to the suit. http://wvrecord.com/news/257063-woman-blames-nursing-home-for-fathers-death-2
As an ombudsman for the Area Agency on Aging sees the best and the worst in Northeast Ohio’s nursing homes.
“Sometimes you see violations that are so serious that — not just as an ombudsman but as a member of the public — you look at that [and ask], ‘Why didn’t someone pay or have to face consequences for this particular activity?’ ”
Across Northeast Ohio, police and inspection reports hint at some of the most egregious actions committed in nursing homes: three sexual-assault cases in a dementia unit at a Canton facility; a 90-year-old woman beaten with a clothes hanger at a Stow facility; two elderly residents physically abused by a nurse’s aide in a Boardman facility; and pending investigations and charges throughout Ohio’s network of 956 nursing homes.
Officer Kevin Green of the Stow Police Department said he believes that officials only find out about and prosecute a small percent of the cases of abuse in facilities.
“It’s the hidden dragon,” said Green, who is the interim senior-services officer for his department. “It’s a very frustrating crime because there is an element of trust that is violated in these cases. These people and families have placed their trust in a facility, and that bond is broken when there is abuse.”Youngstown News, Facilities skirt prosecution in many elder-abuse cases:
Chester Rusek believed his roommate in a Town of Tonawanda nursing home was stealing from him.
So on a recent Monday morning, Rusek retaliated and repeatedly beat the 86-year-old roommate, Salvatore Trusello, with a 2½-pound magnet as Trusello lay in his bed in Kenwell-DePaul Senior Living Community on Delaware Avenue, police said.
Then, Rusek, 87, who gets around with the use of a walker, shuffled down the hallway and told the attendant to get help.
“He’s going to need medical attention,” Rusek told the attendant, according to police reports. “I just beat his [expletive].”
“I didn’t want to kill him,” Rusek later told police. “I just wanted to get even.”
Rusek was arrested for the Nov. 26 attack and charged with assault on the nursing home resident and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, said Town of Tonawanda Detective Lt. Joseph Carosi.Nursing home resident accused of beating roommate - City & Region - The Buffalo News:
