Nashville nursing home fined nearly $240,000

A Nashville nursing home has been fined nearly $240,000 in the past year as a result of violations of state and federal regulations that placed patients in “immediate jeopardy.”
The citations, one on May 12 for $231,972 and the other on Dec. 6 for $8,000, came after surveyors from the state Health Department inspected Crestview Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Shelley Walker, spokeswoman for the state agency, said the May citation had been paid but the $8,000 citation was still pending.
Robert Jordan, spokesman for Vanguard Healthcare, which owns Crestview, said all the nursing home deficiencies have been corrected and new management put in place at the nursing home.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130113/NEWS01/301130063/Nashville-nursing-home-deals-with-240-000-in-fines?nclick_check=1

WNYT.com - Police: No charges in nursing home death

Carlton Decker was 85-years old. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War Two.
Mr. Decker died late last month after he was found outside the county-run Maplewood Manor nursing home in Ballston Spa. Police say he'd lived there for many years.
Investigators have been working for weeks to determine how he got out. And now they know.
The investigation revealed that Mr. Decker did not go out a second floor window at the nursing home as police first thought. They say he suffered from severe osteoporosis and would not have been able to drop or fall from the second floor.
They say he was wearing a monitoring bracelet on his ankle when he left his second floor room, walked down the hall, with his walker, to a locked door that required him to punch in a security code, known only to nursing home staff.
"Mr. Decker apparently knew most if not all of code numbers to punch into the panel to bypass the alarm, silence the alarm and exit that unit without any audible alarm at all," said Jim Murphy, Saratoga County District Attorney.
One of Mr. Decker's grandchildren, who is an employee of Maplewood Nursing Home, told police that her grandfather knew at least some of the security code to open the door.WNYT.com - Police: No charges in nursing home death

Anatomy of a Nursing Home Rape

Sexual Assaults in Nursing Homes are unfortunately not rare. That is why every Nursing Home has a set of policies and procedures to prevent sexual assault, rape or battery of elders. They do this beacuse they are required by Federal Regulations to protect vulnerable elders from sexual assaults and abuse.

Common factors seen in Rape cases include the following:
- The victim suffered Dementia and there fore is unable to identify or remember the attack.
- The victim was isolated or left alone unsupervised.
- The attacker has done this before whether or not he/she has been apprehended.
- Often these assaults are not reported or are denied as imaginary episodes by a "mentally unstabe resident".  Residents complaints are not believed.
- The facility denies responsibility and is slow to investigate.
- A person who reports the rape is not believed or is actually punished in some way by the facility.

Recently our firm was retained by the family of an 85 year old dementia patient who they believe was the victim of a sexual assault or rape. Rape is defined as the unconsented to penetration by body part or object of the sexual organs.

The facility, a Kindred Nursing Home in Massachusetts continues to deny not only that they are responsible in any way but that she was not the subject of a sexual assault. Even though she was found in the bathroom with heavy bleeding and blood clots from her vagina and also with a large bruise and swelling to her labia. The victim did not even recieve a hospital examination until the following day!

Our firm has filed suit in Superior Court for damages.

by Bernard Hamill

See more articles:
Nursing Home Abuse
Rape in Nursing Homes