Nursing Home employee accused of exposing self

 A Carmichaels man is facing several charges after police said he inappropriately touched a co-worker at the nursing home he worked at.

According to police, a woman who worked at Golden Living Nursing Home in Waynesburg told authorities that William Everly Jr., 47, inappropriately touched her at the health care facility.

The woman said Everly also exposed himself to her and a female patient inside the patient’s room.

The executive director at Golden Living Nursing Home told Channel 11’s Jodine Costanzo that Everly has been fired, and he passed all background checks prior to being hired.

“It was a total shock and we weren’t anticipating it. If we would have had any suspicion of these behaviors, the employee wouldn’t have been here,” the executive director said.

Everly is charged with indecent assault, indecent exposure and harassment. He faces a preliminary hearing on May 2.Ex-nursing home employee accused of exposing self, touching... | www.wpxi.com:

Pueblo nursing home hit with $3.7 million judgement for patient's death

A Pueblo nursing home was hit with a $3.7 million judgement Monday when a jury found its management and staff liable for the death of one of its rehabilitation patients. The jury found that negligence by Belmont Lodge Health Care Center led to the death of 88-year-old Janet Smith in May 2011.
Denver-based attorney David Levine represented Smith's daughter, Margaret, who sued after her mother's condition rapidly deteriorated resulting in her death shortly after entering Belmont Lodge for rehabilitation of two broken ankles in April 2011. Janet suffered from osteoporosis and broke both of her ankles in separate incidents, rendering her unable to walk. As a result, she was outfitted with a foley catheter so that she could urinate. Negligence related to the monitoring and care for that catheter by Belmont Lodge staff led to a severe urinary tract infection, resulting in Janet's death, Levine argued.
"The nurses failed to keep accurate records, the CNAs failed to keep accurate records, and then one of the records was doctored, falsified," Levine said. "It's not really what's in those records, it's what's not in those records," he said.
Margaret Smith says she started noticing a dramatic change in her mother's health on May 7, 2011. "When I tried to talk to her, she told me, 'I'm really tired. Why don't you just read and just let me sleep?'" Margaret had been at her mother's bedside in the days immediately prior and Janet was alert and communicative. Margaret noticed that the urine in the catheter bag had started turning darker and darker, yet no staff from Belmont Lodge came to empty it or check on it. The next day, May 8, 2011 -- Mother's Day -- Janet was found unresponsive in her room and was sent to Parkview Medical Center. Margaret says she was not notified and had arrived at Belmont Lodge to bring Mother's Day flowers to her mom, who served as a nurse in World War II and the Korean War.
"I walked in and a resident shouted to the nurse, 'Oh, God, the daughter's here,'" Margaret said. 
Janet awoke briefly while at Parkview and addressed her daughter directly. "She looked at me and said, 'I want to die,'" Margaret said. "After finding out that she had a urinary tract infection that had gone septic, which meant that it was in her blood -- it wasn't something that was just going to clear up -- I made the decision to honor her wishes and let her go."
Levine argued that incomplete and falsified record-keeping on Janet Smith by Belmont Lodge nurses and staff amounted to gross negligence. "The rules are that you're supposed to empty the (catheter) bag, clean the area, and monitor for signs of infection and there was no monitoring whatsoever," Levine said. "All you have to do is order a urinalysis and call the doctor and they didn't do either of those things."
Levine argued that long gaps between visits by nurses or staff compounded the negligence. "There are gaps of 19 hours, 22 hours, and 12 hours of no record of any CNA going in the room," Levine said.
Monday, a Pueblo jury returned with its judgement: $3.5 million in punitive damages against Belmont Lodge Health Care Center and $200,000 to be awarded to Margaret Smith for her pain and suffering.
"You don't want to be the person who sues somebody," Margaret said, adding that she never sought to profit from her mother's death, but rather sought to hold Belmont Lodge accountable. "I think that now I can probably start the proper grieving process and move on with my life," Margaret said.Pueblo nursing home hit with $3.7 million judgement for patient's death | koaa.com | Colorado Springs | Pueblo |

Nurse’s aide convicted of abusing patient

After a week-long jury trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, a former nurse’s aide was found guilty Friday of nursing home patient abuse for striking a patient with mental health problems at a local nursing home where she worked.

Tacarra Bryson, 31, of 10 Southard Ave. is to be sentenced May 15 by Judge Gary Cook on the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison. After deliberating for nearly seven hours Thursday and Friday, the jury found Bryson guilty of punching a patient in the head while the patient was being restrained on the floor at Liberty West Nursing Center, 2051 Collingwood Blvd.Nurse’s aide convicted of abusing patient - Toledo Blade:

$900,000 for death at Kirkland adult-family home

For 22 days, caregivers at a Kirkland adult-family home guarded a secret.
An elderly woman at Houghton Lakeview nursing home suffered from pressure sores that had burrowed to the bone. No one called her family. No one alerted a doctor.
The state of Washington harbored a secret, too.
Investigators had cited Houghton Lakeview 33 times for inadequate care and substandard conditions. Two caregivers were convicted felons, barred from such work. Two others had forged nursing credentials. The public was never warned — nor were the residents in the home.
By the time the woman was rushed to the emergency room, it was too late. Jean Rudolph, 87, a retired nursing educator who had Alzheimer's disease, died in 2008 from untreated pressure sores.
The state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) and the owner's insurance company agreed to a $900,000 settlement this week with the Rudolph family.
This rare settlement reveals a state regulatory system torn between dual roles: booster of the industry as a way to control costs, as well as enforcer of its failings. With rising numbers of low-income seniors in need of long-term care, Washington and dozens of states are banking on these residential facilities as alternatives to more costly nursing homes.$900,000 for death at Kirkland adult-family home | Local News | The Seattle Times

Costs of Nursing Home Care

In-home U.S. senior care costs $16-$26 per hour, or $150-$280 for 24-hour live-in care, while a nursing home costs $180-$400 a day, experts say.
Caregiverlist.com, a website involving elder care, compiled information from more than 18,000 long-term care nursing centers as well as in-home senior care options. The options are easily searched by zip code or state.
Julie Northcutt, chief executive officer of caregiverlist.com, said many Americans do not realize the true cost of long-term care.
"Nursing home care has become the place for rehabilitation after a hospital stay, and seniors and their families often have not planned ahead for these costs, which Medicare does not cover," Northcutt said in a statement.
Medicare, the health insurance program for all seniors beginning at age 65, does not cover long-term care costs after 100 days; but Medicaid, for very low-income seniors, does cover nursing home costs but participants must meet a minimum annual income.
Senior medicaid care varies from state to state, but most states spend about one-half or more of their Medicaid budget on nursing home care or care for the elderly. Some patients "spend down" their bank accounts in order to qualify for Medicaid, Northcutt added.
Prices seniors and their families face include:
-- Nursing home costs range from $180-$400 a day or $5,400-$12,000 a month.
-- A private nursing home room can cost up to $493 a day or $14,790 a month.
-- Senior home care costs $16-$26 per hour for hourly care.
-- 24-hour live-in care ranges from $150- $280 per day.
-- Assisted living costs range from $2,500-$5,000 a month.
-- Continuing care retirement community on average costs a down payment of $250,000 with a $4,000 monthly rental fee. These facilities guarantee lifetime housing, social activities and increased levels of care including nursing home care.

by Bernard Hamill
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Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/03/12/True-cost-of-elder-care-nursing-homes/UPI-86741363140181/#ixzz2NzQf8qrT

Amgen will pay $25M to resolve kickback case including kickbacks to Kindred

The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday that biotech drugmaker Amgen Inc. will pay $24.9 million to resolve claims it paid kickbacks to increase sales of its anemia drug Aranesp.

The Justice Department said Amgen paid kickbacks to Omnicare and PharMerica Corp., which sell drugs to long-term care providers like nursing homes and hospitals, and Kindred Healthcare Inc., which runs long-term acute care hospitals and nursing and rehabilitation centers. It said Amgen wanted the companies to switch Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to Aranesp from competing drugs and tried to get consultant pharmacists and nursing home staffers to encourage the use of Aranesp in patients who didn't have anemia associated with kidney failure.

Read more: Amgen will pay $25M to resolve kickback case | Modern Healthcare http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130416/INFO/304169985#ixzz2Qp5ojo3T
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$90 million verdict against a Charleston nursing home will stand

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A $90 million verdict against a Charleston nursing home will stand for now after a judge denied the business owner's request for a new trial.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib Jr. ruled Wednesday that the verdict appropriately punished Heartland of Charleston's corporate owner, HCR Manor Care, for a history of intentionally short-staffing nursing homes to maximize profit, The Charleston Gazette (http://bit.ly/10Q2srh ) reported Thursday.

Tom Douglas claimed in the lawsuit that his 87-year-old mother died of dehydration and complications stemming from her 19-day stay at Heartland of Charleston in 2009.

Manor Care lawyers raised several claims, including that the damages should have been subject to the state's $500,000 medical malpractice cap. They said they will appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court.

"This is not a surprise. These rulings are consistent with those made during trial," Heartland lawyer Ben Bailey said in a release. "We believe they are wrong on the facts and wrong on the law."

The verdict was reduced from $91.5 million to $90.5 million soon after the 2011 trial after Zakaib ruled a small portion of the damage award fell under the $500,000 medical malpractice cap.

The lawsuit sparked a bill that is up for final passage Saturday that would place a limit on the amount nursing homes would be forced to pay if sued by placing them under the protections of the 2003 law that placed limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, including a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages.

If passed the law would not apply to the Heartland case. Even if it did, it would not affect the vast majority of the verdict because $80 million was awarded for punitive damages not covered by the legislation.

During her brief stay at the nursing home, the woman suffered head trauma from several falls and was confined to a wheelchair. She formed sores in her mouth that generated dead tissue that doctors had to scrape away with a scalpel, Zakaib wrote in his ruling.

Experts said during the trial that staffers at the nursing home also failed to provide the woman with basic needs, like food and water, which had been a contributing factor in her death.

"It is our hope that this will set an example," Douglas' lawyer, Mike Fuller, said of the verdict. "The community of West Virginia will not accept nursing home residents having to die from dehydration because of a corporation's failure to provide even a cup of water."

Heartland officials have said that the woman's death was a result of dementia, which is the stated cause of death on her death certificate. They also pointed out that she died 18 days after leaving Heartland.

Heartland had a history of violations, including temporarily losing its Medicare and Medicaid funding in 2011 after state inspectors found dozens of violations. In one instance, nurses' aides failed to assess a demential patient's head wound for several hours.

Zakaib also cited a 2009 survey that found the home was dangerously short-staffed.

One nursing care staffer, Tara Boweles, testified during the trial that conditions in the home were "horrible," saying: "I wouldn't put my dog there." She said patients sometimes would lay in their own urine and feces for hours.

Staff supervisor Beverly Crawford testified that employees feared getting fired for reporting patient neglect.

Zakaib found that short staffing issues arose as the company sought to keep margins high by hiring as few nurses' aides as possible. Tax forms presented at trial listed more than $4 billion in revenue in 2009, including $75 million in outright profit.

"Indeed, to accomplish punishment and deterrence of such a wealthy company, a punitive damage award must be necessarily high," Zakaib said in his ruling. "This verdict sends a clear 'deterrence' message to a multi-billion dollar nursing home corporation that its misconduct will not be tolerated in West Virginia."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Judge-denies-new-trial-in-nursing-home-lawsuit-4429837.php#ixzz2QO3nYZMY

Investigators: Wisconsin’s worst nursing homes

Some of the worst nursing homes in Wisconsin continue to violate state and federal regulations designed to protect our sickest and most vulnerable seniors. And a FOX6 Investigation shows you where they are, so you can make an informed decision before placing your loved one in a troubled nursing home.
FOX6 Investigators: Wisconsin’s worst nursing homes | FOX6Now.com – Milwaukee News & weather from WITI Television FOX6:
When Richard Witt was a younger man, he had the talent of an Olympic figure skater and the good looks to land any girl. But there was only one girl he wanted. He married Kathy Witt on November 23rd, 1963.
“It was the day after President Kennedy was assassinated,” Richard Witt recalls. “It’s a terrible way to remember that.”They spent the next 44 years raising a family in Hartford, Wisconsin, where Richard was elected mayor in 1983. But politics were never Kathy’s thing. She preferred to be outdoors, interacting with nature and playing with her grandchildren. “It was a good life,” Witt says. The good life got harder when Kathy was diagnosed with cancer in 1990. “The doctors at that time were telling me that she had maybe two weeks to live,” Witt said. But Kathy was a fighter. She survived ovarian cancer. Then brain cancer. Cervical cancer. Spine cancer. And, finally, breast cancer. Five cancers in 18 years and Kathy beat them all. She had fallen from her bed and struck her head on the floor. She was flown to Froedtert Hospital. The next day, Richard made the heart-wrenching decision to remove his wife from life support. “And the nurse came in and said, ‘Mr. Witt she’s gone,’” Witt describes, his voice quivering, tears welling up in his eyes. What happened at Mayville Nursing and Rehabilitation would become the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit and testimony before the Wisconsin Senate. “The alarm did go off on the nurses desk, so she did try to get someone to help her,” Witt said during his testimony in January of 2011. Witt told state lawmakers his wife wasn’t supposed to get up without assistance and a blood pressure check. But when she pressed the nurse call button that day, nobody came. So she tried to get up on her own. “One nurse walking a patient to another room happened to notice her sitting on the edge of her bed, yelled back down the hallway stating that Kathy was sitting on the edge of the bed, and the other nurse said, ‘I’ll get there as soon as I can,’” Witt told the Senators. But by the time staff members got there, Kathy was already on the floor. “Granted you have a lot of patients down these halls, but that is not my problem,” Witt now declares. “That is your problem.” The wrongful death lawsuit was dismissed after an out-of-court settlement, but in the years since Kathy’s death, Mayville Nursing and Rehab has been repeatedly cited by state and federal inspectors for providing residents with poor quality care. A FOX6 investigation found that no other Wisconsin nursing home has been fined more money for health violations the past three years than Mayville.

by Bernard Hamill
Nursing Home Abuse

Nurse fired for reporting Abuse

Nurse Annie O'Malley says she was fired from the MetroHealth Prentiss Center nursing home for reporting what she believed to be abuse inside the facility.
"I don't think Tina or the Prentiss Center wants to have any more bad publicity," OMalley said.
Tina Szatala is the nursing home's chief administrator. O'Malley was referring to her and the series of reports that Investigator Tom Meyer aired in June 2011 regarding the abuse of Esther Piskor, 78, a resident suffering from Alzheimers.
O'Malley says she contacted the state about an incident in September of last year regarding a 90-year-old resident who was alone in her room, screaming and crying for help. The resident needed assistance to go to the bathroom.
O'Malley says when nurses' aides didn't respond, the resident decided to climb out of bed and into a wheelchair.
"The bed was in the high position. 4 rails up. This woman crawled out of bed, which she could have killed herself, getting out of bed," said O'Malley
http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/287284/45/Investigator-Nurse-says-she-was-fired-for-reporting-alleged-abuse


by Bernard Hamill
Nursing Home Abuse

Need for Nursing Home reform

On the lawn of the state Health Department, flanked by the daughters of a 96-year-old woman who was physically abused by two Oklahoma City nursing home aides last year, Wes Bledsoe said the department should amp up its inspections and investigations process immediately.

Eryetha Mayberry sat in a wheelchair and suffered from dementia when two nurses aides at Quail Creek Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center were arrested on abuse complaints last April.
Mayberry's daughters set up a hidden video camera after they noticed some of their mom's personal items missing. But instead of catching a thief, the tape revealed two women pushing the women's mother and gagging her with gloved hands.
One of the women, Lucy Gakunga, 24, is now serving a prison sentence at Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McLoud. Her co-defendant, Caroline Kaseke, 29, has not been convicted and remains at large.
Bledsoe said it is unconscionable that the state Health Department is not investigating the nursing home and said it reflects the department's attitude about this type of abuse.
He said the department cited only six of the state's 300-plus nursing homes for failing to protect residents from abuse in the past 31/2 years, despite 57 such citations in the 31/2 years before that.
“That, to me, is scandalous,” Bledsoe said.

The state investigated more than 1,240 complaints at nursing homes last year alone, and cited 1,000 of them for deficiencies, Huser said.
Twenty citations have been issued against nursing homes since May 2009 for failure to protect residents from abuse.
http://newsok.com/daughters-of-abused-nursing-home-patient-call-for-reform-in-oklahoma/article/3763498

by Bernard Hamill
Nursing Home Abuse

Negligent Nursing Homes Grab 5 Billion Tax Dollars in One Year

 If members of both polital parties bothered to read a report released last week by the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, they might find some common ground in saving American taxpayers money on Medicare.

The Inspector General report reveals that in 2009 nursing home conglomerates bilked U.S. taxpayers to the tune of more than $5 billion for care that by all legal definitions was substandard at best, negligent at worst. A full 37 percent of nursing homes across America receiving Medicade reimbursements did not meet plan-of-care standards for residents

Negligent Nursing Homes Grab 5 Billion Tax Dollars in One Year:

by Bernard Hamill
Nursing Home Abuse

MRSA rampant in Southern California nursing homes, caused by understaffing

A new study shows a super bug is rampant in nursing homes.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is a staph infection that is resistant to several common antibiotics.

The germ was found in 20 of the 22 Southern California nursing homes examined in the study.

The nursing homes agreed to be in the study only if their names weren't released.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, swabbed the noses of nursing home residents between October 2008 and May 2011.

The study's lead researcher said these facilities need more nursing home infection control interventions.

Marian Hollingsworth told Team 10 she saw how quickly a loved one can contract MRSA.

Her father contracted MRSA after just a day inside a San Diego nursing home. A nurse called and told her about the infection.

"I found out later that by law, a doctor was supposed to call and inform us of the infection and we were supposed to get information on how to limit the spread and we never did," Hollingsworth said.

MRSA is spread through contact -- either by touching someone with the germ or touching an object with it.

"He was kept near the front desk in a wheelchair a lot. So everyone who went in and out of the facility was exposed to him," said Hollingsworth.

10News - MRSA rampant in Southern California nursing homes, says new study - 10News.com - News

by Bernard Hamill
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Nursing home giant guilty in wrongful death suit - Understaffing and cost cutting

A Sacramento Superior Court jury has returned verdicts of wrongful death and elder abuse against the nation's largest assisted living company.
The Sacramento Bee reports ( http://bit.ly/15wNTw4) the trial now enters the punitive-damages phase for Emeritus Corp, a Seattle-based company with annual revenue of $1 billion.
A suit was filed on behalf of Joan Boice, an 82-year-old resident with Alzheimer's disease who died shortly after leaving an Emeritus facility in Auburn five years ago. When she left, the newspaper says, Boice had at least four major bedsores that were listed as significant factors in her cause of death.
Plaintiffs attorneys argued that understaffing and lack of training represented a strategy on Emeritus' part to cut costs.
An Emeritus spokesperson says the company stands behind the quality of care it provides.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/06/5240403/nursing-home-giant by Bernard Hamill
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-guilty-in-w by Bernard Hamill
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Nursing home giant guilty in wrongful death suit - AP State News - The Sacramento Bee

by Bernard Hamill

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Need for Full Time Nursing Home Dr's

Jonathan M. Evans is a geriatric physician. A firm believer in onsite physicians at nursing homes, he explained, “The thing that matters most is being there – being there for patients when they're sick; being there for families when they're in need; being there for staff to provide support and ongoing education. You can't be part of a team if you're not present.”

Should the nursing home physician communicate directly with patients and family members rather than through the staff? Evans’ answer is -- “Why the hell not?”

Evans pointed out, "A doctor should always communicate with a patient directly unless a patient is not able to make medical decisions and has a medical proxy to guard confidentiality.” In the absence of a full-time physician, dementia patients are at a disadvantage. The doctor reads charts, talks to staff, talks to patient, but fails to communicate with family.
If a physician talks with family rather than just reading charts, patients can be helped more effectively. In the absence of a full time physician, there is a disconnect.
http://newamericamedia.org/2013/03/full-time-nursing-home-docs-should-be-mandatory.php

by Bernard Hamill 
Nursing Home Abuse

Ct Nursing home residents called 'monkeys,' left hungry

A Litchfield nursing home has been ordered to hire a new manager, improve resident care and pay a $2,000 fine after findings that administrators left residents hungry, denied them information about their personal finances and openly referred to them as "monkeys."
Multiple residents of Fernwood Rest Home Inc., a 68-bed facility, told inspectors from the state Department of Public Health that administrators would tell them they had to "go shopping to feed the monkeys," a state DPH report says.
A staff member of the nursing home confirmed complaints from residents that administrators would put a chain across the dining room door while the staff was making a "gourmet breakfast for themselves," and would instruct staff members to "keep the monkeys out" of the room while they were eating.

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/State-Rest-home-residents-called-monkeys-left-4337142.php#ixzz2NBerE0oz