Depression and stress prevalent in low-wage earning nursing home workers

This study reveals findinfs that are NO surprise to anyone familiar with American Nursing homes: The prevalence of depression is common among low-wage nursing home workers — who also experience higher levels of stress than other workers — a new Harvard study finds. In one case I handled against Kindred Healthcare, the CNA accused of abusing 4 Elders with Alzheimers had worked an incredible 105 hours in one week.
“The high burden of work-family stress and depression in this group has important public health implications for the nursing home workers and their families as well as for the quality of care delivered to nursing home residents,” said Harvard School of Public Health researcher Cassandra Okechukwu.
Okechukwu and her team surveyed 452 workers, mostly women, to investigate the link between depression and stress at home and work. Participants were asked about stressors such as financial hardships, lack of food and whether they worried about work-related issues during non-work hours. Investigators found that these stressors were double the rate in nursing home workers than other professions.
Okechukwu and her team, which released their findings earlier this week, said they hope to use this information to develop interventions aimed at improving work-family problems among nursing home workers.

Study: Depression and stress prevalent in low-wage earning nursing home workers - McKnight's Long Term Care News

Nursing assistant guilty of rape of a dementia patient

I read yesterday that a former certified nursing assistant was sentenced to up to eight years in prison for raping a 69-year-old woman with dementia. Jerald Sullivan was also ordered to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty Wednesday in Berkshire Superior Court. Prosecutors say Sullivan sexually assaulted the elder woman in January 2011 while working at the Hillcrest Commons nursing facility in Pittsfield. The judge called the elder crime "reprehensible." I don't know the facts of this case but from the article ot looks like the Judge 'got it right'. I have seen Judges at criminal sentencing of abusive and assaultive nurse aides take a much more lenient approach leaving the distressed families and victims with no recourse other than the civil justice system a la the O.J. Simpson victims.

A nurse aid at a Kindred nursing facility in Massachusetts escaped any jail time even after admitting to assaulting 4 helpless dementia residents. Two subsequent civil nursing home abuse actions provided some measure of justice for the victims families but only after a protracted and hard fought battle to bring Kindred to Justice.

Federal and State Laws specifically prohibit any type of assault upon elders in nursing homes, but it takes a judge or jury to bring these laws to life.

Nursing assistant pleads guilty to raping a patient with dementia at Pittsfield nursing home | The Republic

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/local/ci_19677553

More Nursing Home Residents going home

Forty-three states have received federal funding to help transfer Medicaid beneficiaries from nursing homes to their communities, a new analysis finds.
The Money Follows the Person demonstration program, which was started five years ago and was expanded under the Affordable Care Act, had successfully transferred a total of 17,000 nursing home residents back into their communities as of Aug. 11, 2011, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

More Medicaid beneficiaries are undergoing nursing home-to-community transfers, report finds - McKnight's Long Term Care News

Nursing Home Population to Expand

According to an article in hivehealthmedia.com,
there are 3.8 million nursing home residents over the age of 65 , and the senior citizen population will increase  to over 72 million by 2030.

This means nursing homes will see over 5 million patients in 2020 and 6.6 million in 2030. With medical advances it is likely  that nursing home populations will be bigger.

http://www.hivehealthmedia.com/nursing-home-abuse-grow-future/

The Nursing Home Exodus

When Edwin Murphy was 91 he was transferred to a local nursing home for rehab and he developed pressure ulcers on both hips. He wanted to go home . Unlike some nursing home residents, he still had a home.
He didn't feel he could enjoy life being "institutionalized.” Moving disabled people out of nursing homes back into the community has become a focus for Medicaid, which now is shifting its priorities to spending more long-term care dollars on community services and less on institutions such as nursing homes.
To that end, every person admitted to a nursing home now is asked The Question: “Do you want to talk to someone about the possibility of returning to the community?” The Question is posed quarterly thereafter.

The Nursing Home Exodus, Part 2 - NYTimes.com

Investigation uncovers nursing home abuse in...

A Toronto newspaper investigation into nursing home inspections uncovered numerous incidents of poor nursing home care in Waterloo Region and cited four facilities in cases of abuse.
The Toronto Star discovered hundreds of cases of neglect and abuse of seniors while examining more than 1,500 inspection reports for long-term care homes across Ontario since the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care introduced a new inspection system about a year ago.
Inspections are done in response to complaints of poor care or the home’s reporting of an incident such as an alleged assault. The story was carried in Thursday’s Waterloo Region Record.
The newspaper report sparked action at Queen’s Park, with Health Minister Deb Matthews convening an emergency meeting Friday to find out why long-term care facilities are still not following rules on the reporting of abuse and neglect. At the meeting will be the Ontario Long Term Care Association representing two-thirds of Ontario’s 627 homes and several groups representing family and resident councils in homes.
The focus of the Thursday story was a 71-year-old woman with dementia, who is allged to have been sexually assaulted in her room by a facility staff member, who is now facing charges. Premier Dalton McGuinty responded to story saying there is “clearly more work to do” on the issue of protecting seniors. “I heard about this horrific incident and my heart goes out to the woman involved, her family and friends,” McGuinty said.
Locally, the investigation revealed 46 inspection reports of worrisome incidents in long-term care facilities in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. Six nursing homes were cited regarding reports of abuse, either by staff on resident or resident on resident.
TheRecord - Provincial investigation uncovers reported abuse in...

man charged in neglect-related death

Authorites on Wednesday charged an Independence man with criminal involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 1 death of his disabled mother, who died from complications of neglect. Prosecutors allege that James E. Owens failed to provide adequate “nourishment, hygiene and medical care” to his 74-year-old mother. An autopsy determined that Carol F. Brown died from complications of “infected decubitus ulcers and sepsis” due to neglect. Owens, 52, told detectives that he did not feed his mother or summon medical help after he thought she had suffered a stroke because she had said she wanted to die at home, according to a police affidavit filed in Jackson County Circuit Court. At the hospital, a maggot was removed from an open wound on one of Brown’s legs, according to court documents.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/21/3331992/independence-man-charged-in-mothers.html#storylink=cpy
Independence man charged in mother’s neglect-related death - KansasCity.com

New Mat may prevent Pressure Sores

People permanently confined to bed can develop bed sores. New smart cushioning is intended to eliminate the discomforts of lying and sitting. An integrated sensor system equalizes pressure selectively.

Anyone confined to a wheelchair or a bed has to deal with numerous complications. Frequently, they suffer from bedsores or decubitus ulcers as physicians call them. Bony prominences, such as the sacrum, coccyx and ischium, are especially endangered spots. Unrelieved pressure can lead to tissue necrosis. Damage can extend into the periosteum and, at the worst, into bones themselves. The ulcers are entryways for germs, which can trigger sepsis.

While hitherto available passive aids such as air, gel or vacuum cushions relieve pressure, they do not relieve the affected area optimally. Some patients are also unable to actively control the distribution of pressure and alleviate their own suffering. They are dependent on others for help. Personal care assistants or family caregivers must constantly keep an eye out for the formation of pressure ulcers.

A newly developed sensor mat will take over this job in the future and thus prevent tissue damage: researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF in Magdeburg are endowing textile cushions with the capability to “feel” by outfitting them with smart sensor systems.
 http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/12/Life-Science-Test-Measurement-Sensor-Mat-helps-prevent-bed-sores/

Nurse Aide CNA - guilty in Cleveland nursing home abuse

A Cleveland nursing assistant CNA has pleaded guilty in the nursing home abuse of an Alzheimer's patient whose son recorded the mistreatment on a video camera hidden in an air purifier in the woman's room.
Maria Karban, 26, of Cleveland pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal assault on an elder Thursday in Cuyahoga County and faces up to six months in jail. Her attorney declined comment until the sentencing next month.
Karban and another nursing aide are accused of abusing Esther Piskor, 78, between April 8 and May 15 at a at MetroHealth Medical Center facility.
Virgen Caraballo, 45, of Cleveland pleaded guilty last month to seven felony counts of patient abuse or neglect and also is to be sentenced in January.
MetroHealth has fired the women and two other employees.
Woman pleads guilty in Cleveland nursing home abuse

Nursing Home Resident killed in California

Authorities say an 81-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder for allegedly beating to death his 94-year-old nursing home roommate at an Orange County nursing home. According to police, William McDougall allegedly took a bar used to hang clothes from a closet, and used it to repeatedly strike his roommate, Manh Ban Nguyen, about the head.

Detectives are still investigating a possible motive for the nursing home assault, which occurred at Palm Terrace Healthcare Center, a 99-bed residential facility in Laguna Hills. Nguyen, who was found beaten around the head, was pronounced dead at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center.
The report does not say whether either man suffered from alzheimers or had a past record of mental illness or felony.
http://www.newser.com/story/102052/94-year-old-beaten-to-death-in-nursing-home.html

Nursing Home Abuse caught on Tape

Three workers at a nursing home in Pennsylvania have been arrested after being caught on tape hitting and mocking an elderly woman who suffers from dementia. Relatives of the 78-year-old woman installed a hidden camera after officials at the home rejected their suspicions that she was being abused, ABC News reported. The woman had told her daughter she was being punched and slapped by staff, asking: "Why do they keep picking on me?"

The video shows the employees "engaging in acts which I can only describe as humiliating, taunting and abusive of the victim in this case, including forcing the victim to stand topless for several minutes while the defendant and the other employees mocked her," the district attorney said. "The way the defendants allegedly abused this victim is inexcusable. Patients suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s are among our most vulnerable citizens." The three employees have been charged with offenses including aggravated assault.
Article

Insurance Industry Manufactures Crises and Harms America

Great article today from Center for Justice and Democracy on the planned phony insurance 'crisis' planned by insurance companies to manufacture falsehoods to the American public in order to deny Americans access to the Courts and to advance tort reform.

The first definitive expose of 35 years of manufactured insurance crises. So far there have been three. They document how this industry is now creating a fourth.

Imagine an industry that sold a product which every person and business in America needed. This product was so important that the industry could literally threaten the economy of a state by pulling its product out. The seller of this product was accountable to no federal agency and regulated only by very weak state agencies. It was also exempt from anti-trust laws so the entire industry, including so-called “competitors,” could use the same collusive pricing agencies to help determine the product’s price – price fixing that would land others in jail. Other laws permitted it to keep its financial data secret, enabling it to routinely mislead lawmakers, regulators and members of the media about its financial condition. This secrecy allowed it to create phony “crises” to help promote its own legislative agenda, padding its bottom line at the expense of everyday Americans.

The industry’s economic cycles lead to what are known as “hard” and “soft” insurance markets; there have been three full cycles in the past 35 years, with soft markets characterized by stable or low rates (good for policyholders but disliked by the insurance industry) and hard markets, characterized by sudden and astronomical rate hikes for policyholders. These hard markets lead to sometimes devastating “liability insurance crises.”
While the existence of this self-made cycle is clear to insurance industry insiders, insurers often
publicly deny the cycle’s existence while their lobbyists try to take advantage of skyrocketing
rates to push for so-called “tort reform.”
A bill has recently been introduced to eliminate the anti trust exemption irrationaly enjoyed by insurers over the years at the expense of policy holders: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/63997-democrats-want-to-revoke-insurances-antitrust-exemption-in-healthcare-bill

See
http://hamill-law.com/Repeat_Offenders.pdf

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/insurance-companies-premiums-rate-hikes_n_1149685.html

http://centerjd.org/content/study-repeat-offenders-how-insurance-industry-manufactures-crises-and-harms-america
Study: Repeat Offenders: How the Insurance Industry Manufactures Crises and Harms America centerjd.org

Former nursing home employees claim firing for reporting fired for reporting maggots

Three former employees of a Pittsfield Township nursing home where maggots were found on a patient have sued the nursing home and its parent company alleging they were fired for reporting patient abuse and neglect at the facility.
The three all worked as certified nursing aides at Whitehall Healthcare Center of Ann Arbor and were involved in the state’s investigation into the discovery of maggots in a patient’s genital area last summer, the lawsuit states.
One was fired after filing a complaint that brought the state to the facility to investigate a patient’s fall, the lawsuit states. Two others were fired after they and the employee who filed the original complaint told state investigators about the discovery of the maggots, the lawsuit claims.

Ex-nursing home employees: We were fired for reporting maggots at Whitehall

New York Scores a dismal rating on Nursing Home Care

New York has a surprisingly poor record in providing long-term care for its residents, according to a new score card comparing all 50 states and the District of Columbia on the availability and quality of services. New York ranked 41st.

The rankings, published by AARP, the Commonwealth Fund and the Scan Foundation, incorporated data on 25 measures of long-term carefor the elderly and the physically disabled, and on the support services given to family members who provide care like bathing and feeding in the home. The report focused primarily on services for people who need assistance with routine activities of daily life but may also need medical care.
New York’s poor marks on the quality of care delivered and quality of life provided are especially disturbing. The state ranked 44th in the percentage of high-risk nursing home patients who develop bed sores, which is often a measure of neglectful care. It ranked 50th in the percentage of home health patients and 28th in the percentage of nursing home patients who were sent to the hospital, which is often considered an indicator of inadequate care in the system.
It also ranked 50th in the percentage of disabled adults living in the community who always or usually get the support they need. This is an ominous statistic given the drive to move larger numbers of people out of institutions and into community-based care. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/opinion/bad-grades-on-long-term-care.html?_r=1&ref=nursinghomes

Drug tampering by nurses in Kansas nursing regulations

A nurse with a prior felony conviction for forging prescriptions dilutes morphine solutions for five Halstead nursing home patients. Another nurse convicted of stealing drugs from patients at an nursing home gets another job in Topeka, where she adds tap water to a painkiller prescribed for a 105-year-old patient.
Still another nurse fired from her last job at a Wichita hospital over drug discrepancies gets a new job in Salina, where she's later accused of taking home syringes full of morphine and replacing the medicine with a dangerous sodium chloride solution.
Drug tampering cases by 3 Kansas nurses highlight gaps in state nursing regulations | The Republic