Nursing home worker pleads guilty to attempted sex abuse

A nursing home employee accused of sexually abusing a female resident pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Friday morning and was sentenced to over 3 years in prison.
Eugene police arrested Robert Price just before the holidays after Valley West Health Care Center called them reporting an alleged case of sex abuse at their facility.
Price pleaded not guilty to first degree sex abuse on Dec. 30.
On Friday, Price pleaded builty to attempted sex abuse.
Judge Maurice Merten sentenced Price to 3 years and nine months in prison

Nursing home worker pleads guilty to attempted sex abuse

Elders not told of risks in hip study, US alleges

Federal health regulators have accused a research team led by a Harvard doctor of ethical violations after the scientists failed to inform elderly nursing home residents of serious health risks discovered during a study of hip fractures.

Tweet Be the first to Tweet this!.ShareThis .In a letter sent last week to a Harvard-affiliated institution and two other major research universities, the Department of Health and Human Services concluded that the scientists suppressed information about the dangers to elders participating in research on how to reduce often lethal hip injuries. The regulators said the scientists should have shared their findings about the use of protective padded underwear with patients and safety boards that routinely oversee medical studies.
As a result, the federal agency is now ordering the researchers to develop a plan to contact nursing home residents in Boston, St. Louis, and Baltimore who participated in the study and may unwittingly have been placed in peril.
The conclusions of the federal report were based, in large measure, on private e-mails exchanged among the researchers, including Harvard Medical School gerontologist Dr. Douglas P. Kiel.
“The investigators themselves, in candid e-mails to one another, recognized the significance of these findings,’’ the letter states. “Yet, in the face of these developments, efforts were made to either ‘slant,’ or completely fail to report . . . information to the groups . . . that might have found this information highly relevant in their deliberations.’’

The study included more than 2,000 patients, many of whom had significant cognitive impairments.

Nursing home patients often wear padded underwear to protect their frail hips. Typically, the underwear is padded on both hips. But in the study, researchers were assessing garments that were padded on just one side.

After they started to enroll patients in 2002, data from the study increasingly indicated that the one-sided padded underwear might be causing the very problems it was designed to prevent - seniors were more often having serious falls on the padded hip side than the one unprotected, according to the regulators.

Despite the fact that investigators learned risks existed, federal regulators said, they failed to disclose it to research participants; to the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study; and to other officials overseeing the research.

The regulators found that by October 2004, if not earlier, investigators had become “sufficiently aware of the risk of increased falling to the pocketed side and the associated risk of possible hip fractures, but failed to inform subjects who were enrolling during this time of these reasonably foreseeable risks.’’
The researchers continued to enroll patients in the study until summer 2006, according to the letter sent by federal health authorities June 23.

Kiel, who is also a researcher at the Harvard-affiliated Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, declined to comment yesterday when reached by phone at his office.

Elders not told of risks in hip study, US alleges - The Boston Globe

Duluth nursing home cited

Bayshore Health Center in Duluth has been cited by the Minnesota Department of Health for failing to report multiple patient altercations and problems — including a patient with frostbitten feet and another who used his power wheelchair to ram other patients.
The report, posted May 27, stems from a state inspection March 21 and 22 that found two serious violations of federal nursing home rules, including “a situation in which the provider’s noncompliance with one or more requirements of participation has caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident.
John Stieger, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health, said a May 20 reinspection by the state found Bayshore “corrected most of the deficiencies,” including the most serious.

The state has recommended a $4,050 one-time fine, and a $200 daily fine that is still accumulating, to the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has not yet rendered a decision, Stieger said.
In one Bayshore case in the report, a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic patient who was allowed to smoke but who couldn’t light his or her own cigarette was allowed to go outside without proper footwear and suffered frostbite on both feet. The incident was not reported.
Duluth nursing home cited by state inspectors Duluth News Tribune Duluth, Minnesota

Nursing home abuse case caught on tape at the Quadrangle in Haverford, Pa.

Mary and Paul French of Havertown spoke for the first time Tuesday about a case of alleged nursing home abuse caught on videotape.
The victim was Mary's mother, 78-year-old Lois McCallister.
"We are furious," said Paul French, "at watching someone you love being beaten and being abused."
"She is not the type to fight back," said Mary French. "If you look at the tape she was just trying to get away."
Last month, three staffers from the Quadrangle in Haverford were arrested. Citing negligence and misconduct, state officials in Harrisburg revoked the facility's license on Friday. The upscale facility remains open during an appeal.
Mark Ordan, the CEO of Sunrise Senior Living, Inc., which operates the Quadrangle, said what occurred was an isolated incident.
"We had three rogue employees," he told Action News. "We were shocked. We were angry that people would do something like that. We have we have been 1000 percent cooperative with the authorities."
Cooperative? Not so, says the Frenches' attorney. He says Sunrise was required to report early abuse complaints to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW).
"They were supposed to report to the government," said attorney Robert Mongeluzzi. "But they didn't."
Sunrise Senior Living has been in hot water before. On Tuesday, a spokesperson with the DPW said the company has had a long history of regulatory violation in Pennsylvania.
Last year, Sunrise promised the state it would take steps to improve its culture of care, to put residents first. It claims it does.
"We have 30 thousand people taking care of 40 thousand seniors," said Ordan. "And we put them first."
Lois McCallister is now living with Mary and Paul French. The family says Sunrise ignored their initial complaints of abuse, dismissing them as a manifestation of McCallister's Alzheimer's Disease. They hope a lawsuit they plan to file will change how Sunrise treats future complaints.
"They have to follow those rules and do something about it," said Mary French.
"Maybe the next family that comes forward, they will do something about it, rather than blame it on dementia," said Paul French.

Lawsuit planned in nursing home abuse case caught on tape at the Quadrangle in Haverford, Pa. 6abc.com

Elders suffer from poor nursing-home staffing in Kentucky

"Dental neglect at nursing home; poor staffing a problem across state"
oral care in most nursing homes in Kentucky is atrocious, and this kind of abuse and neglect is still another example of how the nursing home industry refuses to hire enough caregivers to take care of their residents.
Why is this? What's going on here where the most vulnerable of our population, our poor elderly citizens, are being mistreated day in and day out?
The answer is one word: greed.
Many of these nursing homes are owned by big corporations, many run by fat cats on Wall Street or far away from the nursing facility, where the only important report to hit their desks is the profit-and-loss statement.
Advocates for nursing home reform have been telling government leaders this for years. In Kentucky, however, no one seems to listen, or lawmakers who could help are persuaded by generous donations to their re-election campaigns not to act.
It's also a shame that the sometimes total disrespect of the elderly in these facilities by the bosses and big corporate owners reflects on the many nursing home workers who go all out to try to help
Long hours and hard work are big problems for anyone brave enough to sign on to be a nursing home caregiver.
So something's got to be done. But how?
We know we need minimum staffing standards for nursing homes in Kentucky. They would help eliminate the abuse and neglect. They would, for example, ensure that there would be sufficient front-line staff to provide oral health care to all the residents of a facility.
What would these state staffing standards look like? They would force the nursing homes to hire the number of people necessary to provide for a ratio of one direct caregiver to every five residents on the day shift, one to 10 in the evening, and one to 15 at night.
Much research has gone into such ratios on whether they will work, and the conclusions are that they provide better nursing-home care.
 
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/05/09/1735008/citizens-suffer-consequences-of.html#ixzz1M2sCWs8DCitizens suffer consequences of poor nursing-home staffing Op-Ed Kentucky.com

Family claims wrongful death at Houston nursing home

HOUSTON (KTRK) --  an elderly woman who was allegedly attacked by a nursing home employee has died, not from the alleged attack, but from an infection. Now her family is suing the nursing home, saying their loved one was abused and neglected at the Nursing Home. Eyewitness News spoke with the family and tried to get a response from the nursing home. There's been no response from the nursing home, but this family is in a lot of pain, after they say the people they trusted failed to take care of their loved one.
Rosie Bartee said, "It feels like the value of a human life is devalued."
Bartee is grief stricken over the death of her 76-year-old mother, Sandra Campion. It's a death Bartee says was caused by gross negligence on the part of the Heritage Park nursing home in Katy.
She said, "You don't treat animals that way and that's the thing."
Campion died on April 3. According to her family lawsuit filed, doctors told them she contracted a massive blood infection, from a large bedsore on her back. Photos of the wound are too graphic to show on camera.
Jason Gibson, the family's attorney, explained, "They didn't turn her like they were supposed to and as a result she developed bed sores. Eventually, a wound that was 10 inches long and four inches deep became septic, and eventually caused her to lose her life."
But prosecutors say there's more. Just one month ago, Campion survived what prosecutors say was a brutal assault. They say a worker at the facility, Myrtle Lean Tillman, tried to strangle her.
Harris County Prosecutor Lisa Collins said, "He went in and saw the victim, who is a 76-year-old female, with a sweater around her neck being held there very tightly by the defendant in this case, Myrtle Tillman."
Tillman is charged with felony injury to an elderly person
The family is suing Heritage Park for wrongful death. But they say the case is not about money, it's about justice for Campion.
"This shouldn't happen to anybody, especially the elderly, somebody that's defenseless," Bartee said.
Victim's family sues nursing home after woman's death abc13.com

Three nursing home workers arrested in Delaware County

"Three employees at a well-known Delaware County nursing home are facing appalling charges. The District Attorney's Office is charging the Quadrangle nursing home workers with assaulting and neglecting an elderly patient - whose family recorded it all on a hidden camera. The 78-year-old woman told her family she was being abused and according to court documents the family found marks on her body. The family said it told nursing home officials who said the claims could not be substantiated, and pointed to the woman's dementia. Delaware County District Attorney Michael Green said the family hid the camera in the woman's room at the nursing home in Haverford. Three nursing home workers arrested in Delaware County — NewsWorks:

Nursing home worker pleads guilty

EUGENE, Ore. - A nursing home employee accused of sexually abusing a female resident pleaded guilty to a lesser charge Friday morning and was sentenced to over 3 years in prison. Eugene police arrested Robert Price just before the holidays after Valley West Health Care Center called them reporting an alleged case of sex abuse at their facility. Price pleaded not guilty to first degree sex abuse on Dec. 30. On Friday, Price pleaded builty to attempted sex abuse. Judge Maurice Merten sentenced Price to 3 years and nine months in prison. Nursing home worker pleads guilty to attempted sex abuse KVAL CBS 13 - News, Weather and Sports - Eugene, OR - Eugene, Oregon Local & Regional News:

Nursing home abuse alleged in Niagara

Two employees at a Wheatfield nursing home “joined in humiliating, distressing and violating the dignity” of two residents last April, according to state Department of Health documents obtained Tuesday.
The documents detail a disturbing event at Northgate Health Care Facility wherein one nursing assistant placed two elderly residents suffering from dementia and other mental health ailments in the same bed while another nurse made sexual comments, apparently seeking to spur inappropriate interaction, and taking pictures, the documents state.
Alicia Clemens, a certified nursing assistant, took cell phone camera pictures of the two elderly and impaired clients after she and another employee, Gloria Maxwell, placed them in the same bed together during their shift on April 14. The report concludes that Maxwell and Clemens were acting “for their own entertainment.”
Clemens and Maxwell attempted to convince the pair they were husband and wife, Gretchen Fantauzzi, senior attorney acting on behalf of Commissioner of Health Richard Daines, wrote in her report on the incident.
Using “sexually provocative commentary” to solicit physical contact between the two, Fantauzzi said sufficient evidence exists that Clemens and Maxwell brought the elderly female client, who reportedly suffers from mild retardation and schizophrenia, into the room occupied by an elderly man and his real wife.


Nursing home abuse details released » Local News » Niagara Gazette

CNA Registry Massachusetts

Information and Contacts

Public Information Requests


Massachusetts Department of Public Health - Division of Health Care Quality


99 Chauncy Street, Boston, MA 02111

Phone: (617) 753-8143

License Verification: (617) 753-8192
Should you wish to receive a copy of a portion of the Nurse Aide Registry data, please contact Peter Bilodeau at (617) 753-8140. Information currently available includes name, address and last known employer. Unfortunately, mailing labels are not available. Final requests must be received in writing. A nominal fee will be charged for the processing of the request.


http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eohhs2terminal&L=5&L0=Home&L1=Provider&L2=Certification%2c+Licensure%2c+and+Registration&L3=Occupational+and+Professional&L4=Nurse+Aides&sid=Eeohhs2&b=terminalcontent&f=dph_quality_healthcare_p_nurse_aide_contact&csid=Eeohhs2

Lawsuit Study on Nursing Homes Released

A study published in the March 31 issue of the New England Journal of
Medicine  included the following findings on Nursing Homes:

Five large U.S. nursing home chains provided information on lawsuits brought against them between 1998 and 2006. Researchers looked at the alleged reason for the suit and the outcome.
During that period, plaintiffs filed 4,716 claims against 1,465 nursing
homes. On average, each nursing home was sued every two years.
The most common Nursing Home harms alleged were fall-related injuries (27 percent) and pressure ulcers or bedsores (16 percent). Other claims were for dehydration,
malnutrition and excessive weight loss, physical or verbal abuse and
medication errors.
Sixty-one percent of the claims resulted in a payment, which averaged
nearly $200,000.
Researchers then analyzed the likelihood of a nursing home being sued based
on 10 measures of quality gleaned from two national databases, including
one that tracks the health of nursing home residents on a monthly basis.
Nursing homes that had the most nurse's aide hours per resident-day -- a
measure of how well staffed a nursing home is -- were also slightly less
likely to get sued, but again, not by much -- 45 percent compared to 41 percent
annually for those with the lowest staffing levels.
One measure for which there was a significant difference in the likelihood
of lawsuits was pressure ulcers or bedsores. Nursing homes with the lowest
pressure ulcer rates had a 6 percent chance of being sued in a given year
because of bedsore-related complaints compared to 11 percent for the
worst-performing nursing homes.
Concluding that lawsuits have little effect on quality of care, the authors
say that other long-term efforts, such as public reporting of nursing home
conditions and performance-based reimbursement schedules, may be needed to
encourage improvements.

Kara Murphy - Quincy CNA Nursing Aide Sentenced for Abuse

Atrium Abuser Sentenced Wed. 3-30-11. Quincy District Court, Quincy, MA.

Update: April 6, 2011:

Kara Murphy, The Certified Nurse Aid who worked at The Atrium in Quincy,  pleaded guilty in Court to 7 counts of assault and battery on an elderly or disabled person on 3-30-2011.

The DA's office read the abuse charges, the judge asked her if she is pleading guilty to all the details as presented, and Murphy said yes.  The details include punching and slapping one elder victim (H) and assorted acts against others.

The DA's office asked for some jail time to be served.  Defense attorney Karen Wayne asked for time served on house arrest. 

The Judge explained in court the seriousness of crimes, and what pleading guilty means.  Sentence finally handed down was 1 year probation, anger management group, and no work with elderly or children until probation is up, according to a Court observer.
Hamill Law office is currently representing an elder victim of these terrible assaults.

National Disability Rights Network

National Disability Rights Network

Nursing Home Long Term Care Guide

National Consumer Voice for Quality Long Term Care has published a "Consumer's Guide to Choices and Advocacy" entitled "Piercing Together Qaulity Long Term Care". It is available on PDF here.

About The Guide

Danger in NY State run Homes for the Disabled

A New York Times investigation found widespread problems in the more than 2,000 state-run homes. In hundreds of cases reviewed by The Times, employees who sexually abused, beat or taunted residents were rarely fired, even after repeated offenses, and in many cases, were simply transferred to other group homes run by the state.
And, despite a state law requiring that incidents in which a crime may have been committed be reported to law enforcement, such referrals are rare: State records show that of some 13,000 allegations of abuse in 2009 within state-operated and licensed homes, fewer than 5 percent were referred to law enforcement. The hundreds of files examined by The Times contained shocking examples of abuse of residents with conditions like Down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy.
At a home upstate in Hudson Falls, two days before Christmas in 2006, an employee discovered her supervisor, Ricky W. Sousie, in the bedroom of a severely disabled, 54-year-old woman. Mr. Sousie, a stocky man with wispy hair, was standing between the woman’s legs. His pants were around his ankles, his hand was on her knee and her diaper was pulled down.
The police were called, and semen was found on the victim. But the state did not seek to discipline Mr. Sousie. Instead, it transferred him to work at another home.
Roger Macomber, an employee at a group home in western New York, grabbed a woman in his care, threw her against a fence, and then flung her into a wall, according to a 2007 disciplinary report. He was then assigned to work at another group home.
Mr. Macomber, in fact, was transferred to different homes four times in the past decade for disciplinary reasons. It was not until last year, after he left a person unattended while he went into a store, that he was put on employment probation and eventually dismissed.
Over the past year, the state agency overseeing the homes, the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, has repeatedly declined to make its top officials available for interviews. A spokesman, Herm Hill, said that the vast majority of the agency’s employees were conscientious, and that its hands were often tied because of the disciplinary and arbitration rules involving the workers’ union. Mr. Hill emphasized that the agency takes allegations of abuse “very seriously.”


For the Developmentally Disabled, Harm in Safe Havens - NYTimes.com