Fellow Patient Charged in NY Nursing Home Rape

 "A 78-year-old woman was beaten and raped in her bed by a fellow patient at a Brooklyn nursing home, the police said yesterday.
The police arrested Samuel Irving, 43, early yesterday and charged with rape and assault in the Friday night attack. Mr. Irving, a double amputee, was homeless before getting a room at the nursing home, Greenpark Care Center at 140 Edwards Street in Fort Greene, and lived down the hall from the victim, an administrator at the home said.
When a nurse doing her rounds passed the victim's room and turned a corner about 8:30 p.m. on Friday, the suspect rolled his wheelchair into the room and closed the door, the administrator, Paul Parawan, said yesterday. When the nurse noticed the door closed three or four minutes later -- it is supposed to be open at all times -- she opened it and saw Mr. Irving on top of the victim, slapping her, Mr. Parawan said."Fellow Patient Charged in Nursing Home Rape - New York Times:

One Third Of Patients Harmed By Their Nursing Homes

A national report on nursing homes was released this week by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In a large sampling of Medicare patients discharged from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities in one year, roughly a third of the patients were harmed by their treatment in the nursing homes, the study found. And most of that harm could have been prevented.

The report can be found here: Nursing Home Report.

A Third Of Nursing Home Patients Harmed By Their Treatment : Shots - Health News : NPR

101-Year-Old Blind Alzheimer’s Patient Raped Inside Nursing Home

"A 64-year-old man is accused of sexually assaulting a 101-year-old blind and nearly deaf Alzheimer’s patient inside a nursing home Monday.
Albert Thompson was also a resident at Poplar Point Health and Rehabilitation in Midtown.
A certified nursing assistant told police she saw Thompson assaulting the woman, who is bed-ridden.
Thompson lived across the hall from the victim.
Poplar Point isn’t commenting about what happened, but a woman with a loved one there had plenty to say.
The woman says she was shocked it happened at a nursing home and has asked the staff to keep a close eye on her mother, who suffers from dementia.
“A 101-year-old? That was like, wow, unbelievable! It should have..I wouldn’t say been caught right then, but they should have been watching her a little more carefully,” said the woman.
She also says the nursing home has been trying to keep it quiet."Police: 101-Year-Old Blind Alzheimer’s Patient Raped Inside Nursing Home | WREG.com:

Holmwood House nursing home failures uncovered

There have been eight substantiated allegations of abuse or neglect at Holmwood House, Westbury-On-Trym, in the last two years.
Admissions to Holmwood have been temporarily suspended twice since June 2012 and, under a voluntary arrangement, no-one with nursing needs is currently being admitted.
The home's owner Ghassan Al-Jibouri said he had "nothing to hide" and his first concern was the health and welfare of residents.
The safeguarding incidents were uncovered by the BBC through a Freedom of Information request.
They include a woman being dropped from a hoist, mistakes with medication, neglect through short-staffing, and poor manual handling.There have been eight substantiated allegations of abuse or neglect at Holmwood House, Westbury-On-Trym, in the last two years.
Admissions to Holmwood have been temporarily suspended twice since June 2012 and, under a voluntary arrangement, no-one with nursing needs is currently being admitted.BBC News - Holmwood House nursing home failures uncovered:

Nursing Home Assistant accused of Raping elderly patient

A Pittsfield man faces charges for allegedly trying to rape a female Nursing Home resident last weekend at the nursing home where he worked at in Lee Massachusetts.

Paul Shartrand, 46, an employee at Laurel Lake Center for Health and Rehabilitation, was arrested in response to a complaint from another employee that a disabled elderly woman had been sexually assaulted in her room.

I just obtained a Nursing Home Rape Jury Verdict in Middlesex County, Massachusetts for a victim of a Rape. Another Rape was recently reported in a Brockton MA. Nursing Home.

Nurse's assistant accused of raping patient at Laurel Lake - Berkshire Eagle Online

Nursing home fire in Stoughton MA. under investigation

The Stoughton Fire Department is investigating what sparked the small fire recently at The Copley at Stoughton Nursing Care Center located on Sumner Street. No one was hurt and none of the 116 residents were evacuated.
According to Stoughton Fire Captain Jim Bertram they responded to a report of a brush fire a half mile from the nursing home. “You could see a live wire on the telephone poll that arced with other wires,” Bertram said. “That energized the other wires and back-fed into the wire connected to the call box at the nursing home,” he said. A jolt of electricity from that wire caused the fire, he said.
"Nursing home fire in Stoughton under investigation - News - The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA - Quincy, MA:

Nursing Home employee fired for forging check of Elder Resident

An employee of Talahi Nursing & Rehab Center was fired for forging a check of a resident at the St. Cloud facility on University Drive Southeast.

The Nursing Home staffer used a blank check and the resident's rubber signature stamp to endorse the check for $300, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

Nursing home employee fired for check forgery

Florida: proposed nursing home bill bad for Seniors

The  nursing home proposal now before the Florida Legislature 'may soon become the state's most epic failure for elderly nursing home residents."

"Here are five facts about the sweetheart deal that's designed to rob residents of their rights" according to an article today by Brian Lee. Guest column: 5 reasons to defeat nursing home bill

nursing home death highlights bigger issues

 "When the heart and lungs of Resident 11 stopped working, no one at the nursing home Dexter Health Care attempted revival with CPR."

State and federal regulations, however, say CPR should have been attempted. The death led to the largest state fine against a nursing home in Maine in 2013.Across the nation, there have been dozens of cases recently documented in which nursing home staff failed to give CPR to those who needed and wanted it.This time it happened in Maine, even though the state statistically performs better than most others.“Its a serious problem,” said Toby Edelman, senior policy attorney with the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a national organization based in Willimantic, Conn.Dexter nursing home death highlights bigger issues | The Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME:

Nursing Home workers charged with Neglect of Amputee

The New York state attorney general has filed criminal charges against 10 nursing home employees of Blossom North Nursing and Rehabilitation Center after an investigation which relied on a hidden camera in a patient’s room. The victim was a paralyzed double amputee.

The victim’s son brought the matter to the Attorney General.
The charges claim a pattern of "pervasive neglect”, including failing to dispense required medications.

10 charged at nursing home - 13WHAM 13WHAM-TV - Top Stories

Elderly woman found with pillows across the face in nursing home

 "A WOMAN was discovered dead with pillows covering her head and face in a Sidcup nursing home, an inquest heard today. Irene Schoepff, 82, was found on the morning of of March 5, 2012, with one pillow on her face and another on top of her head.
Staff at Sidcup Nursing Home in Hatherley Road told South London Coroners' Court they do not know how the pillows ended up in that position.
PC Arif Cuneyt attended the scene shortly after she was discovered.
He said: "I was suspicious when I saw the position of the pillows."Elderly woman found with pillows across the face in Sidcup nursing home (From News Shopper):

Endangering Maine’s elderly

 "Over the past three years, Maine inspectors have gone to Maine’s 107 nursing homes a total of 380 times, during which they documented 1,462 violations, according to data from ProPublica, a watchdog journalism group that provides a searchable database of nursing home deficiencies."

But most of those problems, recorded in a document called a statement of deficiencies, are minor.Inspectors categorize the deficiencies to give the public some idea of their severity level. The vast majority of violations are not considered to be serious — that is, they don’t show an isolated incidence or a pattern that jeopardizes the immediate health or well-being of residents.There are 12 categories of severity.Just a handful of nursing homes — six in Maine — have been guilty of the three most serious categories, according to the inspectors, a team of state-employed nurses, licensed social workers and health facility specialists trained to inspect long term care homes on behalf of both the state and federal governments.But, in each of those serious cases, the implications have been frightening.

'Endangering Maine’s elderly | The Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME:

Massachusetts nursing home aide accused of raping elder woman

A nursing home assistant has been accused of raping an elderly patient in a Brockton Nursing Home.

The alleged incident happened at the Champion Rehabilitation and Health Center on Beaumont Avenue.

Family members of the victim reported the incident, which led to the arrest of 50-year-old Jean Belimarie Saturday.

Police say Belimarie was working as a certified nursing assistant at the center at the time. He is facing one count of rape and will be in court at a later date.

On 7-1-11 There was a state inspection noting a possible "deficiency" in "Health" related inspection: "1) Hire only people with no legal history of abusing, neglecting or mistreating residents; or 2) report and investigate any acts or reports of abuse, neglect or mistreatment of residents."

I just obtained a jury Verdict for 2.5 Million Dollars for an 85 year old woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted in a Kindred Nursing Home.

Brockton nursing home assistant accused of raping patient - Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

News On Preventable Deaths In Hospitals

In 1999, Americans learned that 98,000 people were dying every year from preventable medical errors in hospitals. That came from a widely touted analysis by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called To Err Is Human. This was the “Silent Spring” of the health care world, grabbing headlines for revealing a serious and deadly problem that required policy and action.
According to a new study just out from the prestigious Journal of Patient Safety, four times as many people die from preventable medical errors than we thought, as many as 440,000 a year.
Back in the old days, the IOM experts had very little concrete information to use in estimating the extent of killer errors in hospitals. But with innovations in research techniques led by Dr. David Classe, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and others, we now have more tools to tell us where the bodies are buried.Stunning News On Preventable Deaths In Hospitals - Forbes:

Minnesota nursing home issued citation in death of resident

A St. Cloud nursing home has been cited by state regulators in the case of a resident who became ill, then unresponsive, and died minutes later while staff made no effort at resuscitation.St. Cloud nursing home cited in death of sick resident | Star Tribune