Project to reduce antipsychotic use in nursing homes loses federal funding

Kay Lazar, a writer with the Boston Globe Staff today posted this article about the proposed program to reduce the overuse of physchotic drugs in Massachusetts Nursing Homes:

"Massachusetts nursing homes, which recently pledged to lower their rate of antipsychotic use by 15 percent this year, found out Friday that they will not be receiving a coveted federal grant that would have helped fund the initiative to drive down inappropriate use of the powerful sedatives."
Project to reduce antipsychotic use in nursing homes loses bid for federal grant - Boston Medical News - White Coat Notes - Boston.com

Presidential Proclamation -- World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, 2012 | The White House

Every American deserves the chance to live out the full measure of their days in health and security. Yet, every year, millions of older Americans are denied that most basic opportunity due to abuse, neglect, or exploitation. On World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, we call attention to this global public health issue, and we rededicate ourselves to providing our elders the care and protection they deserve.

Victims of elder abuse are parents and grandparents, neighbors and friends. Elder abuse cuts across race, gender, culture, and circumstance, and whether physical, emotional, or financial, it takes an unacceptable toll on individuals and families across our Nation. Seniors who experience abuse or neglect face a heightened risk of health complications and premature death, while financial exploitation can rob men and women of the security they have built over a lifetime. Tragically, many older Americans suffer in silence, burdened by fear, shame, or impairments that prevent them from speaking out about abuse.

We owe it to our seniors to expose elder abuse wherever we find it and take action to bring it to an end. Two years ago, I was proud to sign the Elder Justice Act, which was included in the Affordable Care Act, and marked a major step forward in the fight against elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation. With the Department of Health and Human Services, we are partnering with State and local authorities to ensure seniors can live their lives with dignity and independence. With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we are working to empower older Americans with tools and information to navigate safely through financial challenges. And with the Department of Justice, we are protecting older Americans by prosecuting those who would target and exploit them.

Every day, State and local agencies, protective services professionals, law enforcement officers, private and non profit organizations, and leaders throughout our communities help protect older Americans from abuse and provide care to those who have already been affected. Together, all of us can play a role in addressing this public health crisis that puts millions at risk. Today, let us keep faith with a generation of Americans by speaking out against elder abuse, advancing justice for victims, and building a Nation that preserves and protects the well being of all who call it home.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 15, 2012, as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. I call upon all Americans to observe this day by learning the signs of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and by raising awareness about this public health issue.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.
Presidential Proclamation -- World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, 2012 | The White House

Celebrate World Elder Abuse Awareness Day!

On World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, individuals and organizations from across the world are urged to raise awareness of the various types of abuse to which older individuals are subjected. This year, take a stand in the fight against elder abuse and take a stand for dignity and respect of our elders.
To support the ongoing work that you’re doing to protect the rights of older people, the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) has made available a virtual ‘toolkit’ that includes creative ways your state and local communities can get involved in raising awareness of this issue, as well as support materials such as factsheets that can be handed out during your World Day activity. These materials are available at:
The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care :: Celebrate World Elder Abuse Awareness Day!

Texas nurse aide bites Alzheimer's patient's

Then, in a moment of pointed retaliation, the witness “unequivocally testified” that the nurse aide bent over and bit the resident on the forehead, court documents say.
A medical assessment of the resident determined that she had a bite mark with two open skin wounds on her forehead.
The nurse aide said she didn’t bite the woman and that she fainted from the pain of being bitten. She argued that it was possible her teeth hit the resident as she raised her head and tried to stand up.

Read more here: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/investigations/2012/05/arm-to-the-teeth-texas-nurse-aide-bit-on-arm-chomps-alzheimers-patients-head.html#storylink=cpy

Arm to the teeth: Texas nurse aide bit on arm chomps Alzheimer's patient's head - Watchdog Bytes

Massachusetts cites 3 hospitals for denial of care of patients

Health officials cited three Massachusetts hospitals in the past six months for wrongly sending away patients from their emergency rooms, in one case resulting in the death of a patient while en route to another facility.

In that episode, caregivers at Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River failed to provide needed medical treatment before transferring the patient, who was unstable and in respiratory distress, state investigators concluded.

In a case at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, an on-call surgeon refused to come in late at night to perform an emergency operation on a patient with flesh-eating bacteria, investigators found. The patient was transferred to another hospital, and the surgeon no longer operates on patients at St. Vincent, hospital officials said.

Hospitals that break federal rules ensuring public access to emergency services can face especially tough sanctions. Flagrant or repeat violators risk losing their right to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients, which can cost a hospital millions of dollars.

Massachusetts cites 3 hospitals for inappropriate care of patients in emergency rooms

Nursing Home Nightmare

"Kill me or let me die," were Alan's dying words, one month after the trauma of his forced eviction from a nursing home that didn't want him anymore. Those words still haunt my sister and I, knowing in our hearts the nursing home trauma killed him prematurely.
Alan (not his real name) was going to die anyway, terminally ill with Alzheimer's and Lewey Body dementias.
But dying in terror wasn't part of the plan. We never expected as prophetic, his WWII-generated fears as an orphan being "taken away by police."
We believe the living nightmare of his being"Baker-Acted" was the result of having to go on Medicaid.
Medicaid reimbursement to health care facilities is less than Medicare or private insurance. Nevertheless, we'd been assured a Medicaid-paid room would be available, as a current resident of the nursing home, once his Long Term Care insurance ran out.
We were wrong to believe them.
My sister and I shared a grim bond that Christmas day. Her husband Alan just died the day before. My husband died exactly ten years before, the day after.
We spent the day in stunned awareness of the painful irony.
This article isn't about us, however.
It's about advocacy.
My sister spent almost every day in the nursing home with Alan for two years. Caregivers relied upon her for help. I was there when she couldn't be. We did that and more. Still, this happened.
After the shock of Alan's death, anger set in.
The cruel acts perpetrated on him would not go unanswered. Many, fearing retribution if challenging caregivers, don't speak up and nothing changes.
Nursing Home Nightmare: Alan's Story Part II - Life in the Slow Lane

Attorney Hamill files Wrongful Death Suit against Massachusetts Nursing Home

Hamill Law Office recently filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit in the Berkshire County, Massachusetts superior court on behalf of the Estate of John B. Satiro against Sweet Brook nursing home. Satiro was fatally injured by a fall at the Williamstown facility. Plaintiff Satiro was a resident of Sweet Brook transitional care and living center located at 1561 Cold Spring Road in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Sweet Brook Transitional Care and Living Center is owned by Des Senior Care Holdings, LLC, of Fort Lee, NJ.
According to the complaint (Berkshire county docket # 2012-1248) filed by attorney Hamill, Satiro was injured when staff members dropped him from a hoyer lift while attempting to transport him.
Elder Advocate Attorney files Wrongful Death Suit against Massachusetts Nursing Home

Bridgewater nursing home sued by family of ill woman killed

The family of a Bound Brook woman killed trying to cross Route 22 in 2010 is suing the nursing care facility where she was living at the time.Anastasia Zavitsanos was a 74-year-old resident of Brandywine Assisted Living at Middlebrook Crossing when she “eloped” through a side door of the facility about 1:15 a.m. May 12, 2010, according to the lawsuit filed late last month in Superior Court in Somerville.
The lawsuit claims Zavitsanos, who was admitted to the facility in 2004, was known by the staff to suffer from schizophrenia, psychosis, short-term and long-term memory loss and to be “an elopement risk” who “wanders with exit-seeking behaviors.”
The lawsuit accuses the facility and its officers of negligence, deviation of standard care and gross neglect, improper management, resident rights violations and consumer fraud and seeks unspecified damages for Zavitsanos’ death.
Bridgewater nursing home sued by family of ill woman killed crossing Route 22 | MyCentralJersey.com | MyCentralJersey.com

No procedure for flu detection at Nursing Home

A report into the nursing home where seven residents died following a flu outbreak has found there was no procedure for an early detection of influenza.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) published a report into the Nazareth House nursing home, Fahan after nine elderly residents died between March 22 and April 8. Seven of the deaths have been classified as possibly caused by an influenza related illness.
Two inspections by HIQA found deficits in the standard of nursing home cleanliness and hygiene and the maintenance arrangements for equipment. A number of shower chairs and commodes were not in a satisfactorily clean condition and were rusty. The report was also critical of communication procedures at the home, which can accommodate 48 residents. It found that senior management was not communicated with in a timely manner and there was a lack of clarity and accountability about how information on the outbreak had been reported.
No procedure for early flu detection at Nazareth House - HIQA - Local - Donegal Democrat

Holding VT. nursing home owners accountable

Glori Law and Susan Petrie's father was living in a nursing home just 10 days when they learned he was being attacked by another resident who was mentally unstable.

"My dad had bruises on his face when he was in the funeral home," Law said. They later discovered it wasn't a first time offense. "This person was quite violent and had been doing this. There were a lot of people that had been attacked," Petrie said. A medical examiner ruled the attacks were the cause of their father's death.

But on Tuesday there was change in the nursing home law. "Today is closure," Petrie said. "I felt very guilty because I was the one who made the decision for him to go into the nursing home."

Holding nursing home owners accountable - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

Nursing Home Owner Cheats Government, Neglects Residents

Not enough food for nursing home residents. Little air conditioning or heat. Roofs leaking to the point that barrels and plastic sheets were used to catch rain water. Trash that piled up in dumpsters. Flies and rodents everywhere, along with rampant mold and mildew.
These were just some of the abusive conditions that elderly residents of three Georgia nursing homes lived under for several years.
The primary culprit: the owner of these nursing homes who, despite having received more than $32.9 million in payments from Medicare and Medicaid for residents’ care, elected to pocket much of the money instead.
FBI — Nursing Home Abuse: Owner Cheats Government, Neglects Residents

Camera Catches Abuse in Nursing Home

A woman used a high-resolution video surveillance camera to record a nurse beating her mother in a nursing care home. She placed the camera in her mother's room after she noticed she had bruises on her arms and hands only six weeks after moving into the home.

The camera disguised as a table clock, caught Jonathan Aquino, 30, hitting the old woman six times on the face, arms and abdomen. Another footage showed the old woman, who had severe arthritis, being man-handled by caregivers. The Daily Mail reports Aquino was jailed for 18 months for assault, and four other staff at the care home were sacked after Jane Worroll showed the nursing home manager footage of nursing staff abusing her 81-year-old mother, Mary Worroll, at the care home.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/323488#ixzz1stYOhABP

Nursing home residents with dementia improperly given antipsychotics

From April 29th Boston Globe: an article about excessive medication of our nursing home elders who should not be on anti-pyschotic med:
"Ledgewood Nursing home is one of many nursing homes that have commonly used antipsychotic drugs to control agitation and combative behavior in residents who should not be receiving the powerful sedatives. Nineteen percent of such Ledgewood residents - those without a diagnosis for which the drugs are recommended - received the medications, anyway, exposing them to the risk of dangerous side effects.
“There is a lot of guilt about putting your mom in a nursing home, and I felt I made a competent choice,’’ Weingartner said. “I wish that what I know now, I would have known then.’’
The situation she encountered at Ledgewood is alarmingly common in Massachusetts and across the nation, a Globe investigation has found. Federal data show that roughly 185,000 nursing home residents in the United States received antipsychotics in 2010 contrary to federal nursing home regulators’ recommendations - often elderly people like Murphy who have Alzheimer’s or other dementias.
The drugs, which are intended to treat severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, can leave people in a stupor. The US Food and Drug Administration has issued black-box warnings - the agency’s most serious medication alert - about potentially fatal side effects when antipsychotics are taken by patients with dementia.
Nursing home regulators have for years collected data about individual homes’ use of antipsychotics but have not publicly released facility-specific information, citing patient privacy concerns. The government finally provided the data to the Globe, 19 months after the newspaper submitted a Freedom of Information Act request.
The data show that in more than one in five nursing homes in the United States, antipsychotics are administered to a significant percentage of residents despite the fact that they do not have a psychosis or related condition that nursing home regulators say warrants their use. The proportion of homes using antipsychotic drugs in this fashion is even higher in Massachusetts


Nursing home residents with dementia often given antipsychotics despite health warnings - The Boston Globe

Nursing home violence

Two years into the state's fight to close a troubled South Side nursing home, the facility remains open and even has successfully booted out two state-appointed monitors who were installed to ensure patient safety.
Police reports and state health department inspections allege a pattern of patient-on-patient violence at the Rainbow Beach Care Center, a 200-bed facility that houses and treats indigent adults with mental illness.
In the most serious episode in July, two male residents were accused of pinning down a 45-year-old female patient and raping her. When police arrived at Rainbow Beach to investigate that allegation, they learned that the two men had allegedly attempted to sexually assault a second seriously disabled female resident just weeks before.
The state, which had moved to revoke the facility's license in April 2010, placed monitors at Rainbow Beach in the wake of those attacks. But earlier this year, an attorney for the facility persuaded a Cook County judge to issue a temporary restraining order barring them from the premises.
State authorities say the push-back from Rainbow Beach underscores how vigorously some nursing home operators are using the courts to contest enforcement efforts, even as the industry presses for legislation that patient advocates say could water down nascent state reforms.
Nursing home violence: Troubled Chicago facility expelled two state monitors - chicagotribune.com

Consumer Group Bashes SNF Industry for Inferior Care Despite “Astonishing” Profits

Nursing homes remained “highly profitable” despite Medicare reimbursement cuts, but they’re still providing inferior elder care, says citizen advocacy organization Families for Better Care—a claim that the American Health Care Association (AHCA) was quick to counter.
Despite “astonishing” recent nursing home earnings reports for publicly traded nursing homes, resident care remains “mediocre at best” with too many residents troubled by untreated pressure sores, falls, abuse, or other negligent medical practices, contends Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care.
“The industry’s analysts framed the Medicare adjustment as an eventual doomsday for the nation’s nursing home market. But the industry’s own reports show quite the opposite, revealing surging revenues, strong profits, and expansion through acquisitions,” said Lee in a statement. “The industry is wallowing in strong profits while failing to consistently provide quality care.”
Even after the average 11.1% Medicare cuts to skilled nursing facility payments that went into effect last October, the industry remained a “thriving enterprise” with many companies reporting better than expected operating results, according to Lee. The resident advocacy organization cited one company’s annual revenues spiking nearly 200%, while another called 2011 an “exceptional year.”
“The reason care declines in nursing homes is that executives unnecessarily target labor costs to offset any reimbursement adjustments,” Lee said. “While this obviously maintains a robust bottom line for investors and cushy CEO salaries, the decline in frontline staff puts residents in jeopardy for harm while simultaneously creating dangerous working conditions for employees.”
A study released last November shows a steady decline in nursing hours for Medicare-licensed facilities and what Families for Better Care calls an unacceptably high level of deficiencies.
Consumer Group Bashes SNF Industry for Inferior Care Despite “Astonishing” Profits : Senior Housing News