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

Lawsuit filed against nursing home for an alleged sexual assault

A lawsuit has been filed against at Watertown CT. nursing home after one of the patients was allegedly sexually assaulted.
The woman died a few weeks after the incident and her family is now hoping to get enough money to cover funeral costs.
While the criminal investigation remains open, a family member of the alleged victim, a woman now deceased, has filed a civil suit.
The complaint claims that around July 17, 2010, an elderly woman who lived at the Apple Rehab Bunker Hill facility in Watertown, was sexually assaulted by an unidentified person.
The attack supposedly happened in her bedroom, but does not specify if the suspect was an employee, guest, or another resident.
The family argues there was "negligence and carelessness" by Apple Health Care.

In this complaint, a family member of the victim claims the nursing home or rehab facility failed to protect the victim from sexual assault, failed to provide adequate security, and failed to report the assault to family members as well as police.
But a spokesperson for Apple Health care says, "Apple Rehab's policy includes a full investigation into the facts and findings and continues to commit full resources to uncover the facts which continue to unfold."
Meanwhile, the family is asking for Apple Health care to pay more than $15,000 to cover the costs of medical and funeral costs. The family claims because of the reported incident here, the woman suffered a fear of sexually transmitted diseases, conscious pain and suffering, severe emotional distress and eventually death.
The criminal investigation to this is ongoing by the Watertown Police Department and the civil litigation will be held at Waterbury Superior Court.
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/crime/lawsuit-filed-against-nursing-home-for-an-alleged-sexual-assault#.URpzZKVEGuI

by Bernard Hamill 

See more articles:

Nursing Home Abuse

Rape in Nursing Homes

Judge rejects mistrial claim in Sacramento elder abuse trial

The judge rejected an effort Friday by lawyers for Emeritus Corp. to call off the Sacramento civil trial where the survivors of an Alzheimer's resident are suing the assisted living giant for elder abuse and wrongful death.
Emeritus attorneys wanted a mistrial on grounds that plaintiffs lawyer Lesley Ann Clement improperly contacted several current and former company employees – and "coerced" one of them – to influence their testimony.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Judy Holzer Hersher turned back the motion, as well as an Emeritus attempt to disqualify Clement from the case, in a tentative ruling she released Thursday.
Hersher confirmed her ruling Friday, telling the Emeritus lawyers who continued to push for the mistrial and the disqualification, "I frankly have not heard anything today that changes my mind about these circumstances."
Outside court, the attorney who represented Clement called the Emeritus action "frivolous" and "a smear campaign." The attorney, Jim Murphy, said the defense action filed Jan. 25 suggests they believe they are losing the trial.
"Desperate times require desperate measures, and this was a desperate measure by a desperate party – I think they can read the tea leaves," said Murphy, a San Francisco lawyer who specializes in representing embattled attorneys and judges. "The testimony is not going well for them. http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/16/5194796/judge-rejects-mistrial-claim-in.html

by Bernard Hamill 

Massachusetts Nursing Homes Cited for Violations

Over the past three years, Massachusetts nursing home inspectors acting on behalf of the U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services found 27 elder care deficiencies at a long-term care facility in Tewksbury and penalized the home with $13,000 in fines. Eight miles away, a nursing home in Wilmington was found to have six deficiencies and fined $117,160, the highest civil monetary penalty CMS levied in Massachusetts during that time period. The difference in the strictness of sanctions is the severity of the deficiencies. Woodbriar of Wilmington was penalized when a patient died of drug toxicity after a medication dosage error. At Blaire House of Tewksbury, none of the deficiencies was categorized as serious. CMS classifies deficiencies as serious if they harm a patient or put a patient in immediate jeopardy. Nursing homes with serious deficiencies are fined, but a review of inspection surveys in a database created by investigative journalism group ProPublica shows that less severe citations can pile up without penalties being imposed. In Greater Lowell, CMS has reports for the 27 facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid, putting them under the agency's jurisdiction. Of these 27 nursing homes, four have been found deficiency-free: Life Care Center of Acton, Littleton's Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley, Seven Hills Pediatric Center in Groton, and Lowell's D'Youville Transitional Care, the short-term rehabilitation facility affiliated with D'Youville Senior Care.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_22609556/widely-varying-sanctions-at-area-nursing-homes#ixzz2LBgVs2tc

by Bernard Hamill 
See more articles:
Nursing Home Abuse

Union battling nursing homes places Globe ad highlighting HealthBridge’s antipsychotic track record

Union battling nursing homes places Globe ad highlighting HealthBridge’s antipsychotic track record:

In bold, bright red lettering, a full-page advertisement in December 2012 Boston Globe warns readers that elderly nursing homes residents in three HealthBridge Management-owned Massachusetts facilities are given antipsychotic drugs at rates much higher than the national average -- despite federal warnings about lethal side effects from the powerful sedatives.
The ad was paid for by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, a union that represents thousands of workers in five states, including Massachusetts, and is affiliated with a labor group battling Healthbridge in six Connecticut nursing homes.
The ads detail the high rates of antipsychotic use at Holyoke Rehabilitation Center; Lowell Health Care Center; and Newton Health Care Center -- measured by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that regulates nursing homes.
The latest CMS data show that roughly 75 percent of residents at Holyoke Rehabilitation Center who do not have a medical condition that would warrant use of antipsychotics are receiving the drugs. At the Lowell facility, the rate is 64 percent, and in Newton it is 38 %
Earlier in 2012, a Globe series found that antipsychotic overuse is prevalent in many of the nation’s 15,600 nursing homes, and that rates are considerably higher in Massachusetts.
http://bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2012/12/18/union-battling-nursing-homes-places-globe-highlighting-healthbridge-antipsychotic-track-record/kJPoegAyrCYOoAvJf0JuWN/story.html


by Bernard Hamill

High fines for nursing North Carolina homes

State and federal nursing home regulators have imposed some of North Carolina’s heftier fines on Triad nursing homes during the past several years, including a High Point nursing home hit with a pair of penalties totaling $372,970.

The region is home to 11 skilled-nursing facilities where government inspectors found “serious deficiencies” in patient care or nursing home accommodations, according to information compiled from Medicare files by the ProPublica nonprofit journalism group.

News & Record : High fines for nursing homes

by Bernard Hamill

See more articles:
Nursing Home Abuse

Chronic underfunding means short staffing for Maine nursing homes

Staffing Levels can affect the quality of nursing home care. That is why proper funding is crucial to long term care residents in nursing homes. 107 nursing homes in Maine are continuing to deal with chronic underfunding from the state according to a recent article. Over the past five years, the nursing homes have been underfunded by $122 million in state and federal funds, and some places run an average of $340,000 short every year, according to the Maine Health Care Association, a trade group that represents most nursing homes in Maine.
The payments fall short because they are based on a 2005 formula, so even as utility and other costs have gone up, the payments have not. "I've had to cut back on the night shift," one nursing home employee said. "I don't have an afternoon-evening receptionist. We don't do any overtime."

Chronic underfunding means short staffing for Maine nursing homes | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram


by Bernard Hamill

See more articles:
Nursing Home Abuse
Rape in Nursing Homes

Administrator fired over nursing home assault - YNN, Your News Now

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.

Police say Richard Ragone, 64, a convicted rapist, worked at the home as a maintenance worker. They say he sexually abused a 91-year-old woman in her room. Ragone faces charges of sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person.  Administrator fired over nursing home assault - YNN, Your News Now


by Bernard Hamill

See more articles:
Nursing Home Abuse
Rape in Nursing Homes

Waconia nursing home resident dies as 'tired' staffer fails to give CPR

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

Police Seek Additional Victims Of Nursing Home Employee Charged With Sexually Assaulting Disabled Woman

 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.

Moreno, who was a maintenance worker at Emeritus Senior Living in Yorba Linda, allegedly entered the victim’s room between June 1 and July 24 and sexually assaulted her leaving behind physical evidence, according to officials.   Police Seek Additional Victims Of OC Nursing Home Employee Charged With Sexually Assaulting Disabled Woman, 69 « CBS Los Angeles


by Bernard Hamill

See more articles:
Nursing Home Abuse
Rape in Nursing Homes

Woman injured in jump from Massachusetts nursing home window

From the Southcoast today news on Feb 5th, 2013:

"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.

by Bernard Hamill 
See more articles:

Nursing Home Abuse

Woman injured in jump from nursing home window | SouthCoastToday.com

Nursing Home Abuse Caught by Hidden Camera Video ABC News

Videos showing purported abuse in Nursing Homes that were caught on videotape:

Nursing Home Abuse Caught by Hidden Camera Video ABC News - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YEuivTYI64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Qpdp8hrXg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbIVoof9WTY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R3ehdW_OF4

Calif. woman gets prison for nursing home death

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

Feds Release Nursing Home Inspections, Free of Censor’s Marks - ProPublica

Feds Release Nursing Home Inspections, Free of Censor’s Marks - ProPublica: In response to a Freedom of Information Act request byProPublica, the government has released unredacted write-upsof problems found during nursing home inspections around the country. ProPublico is making them available for download.

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.