Two Lawsuits Filed Against Same Nursing Home. Is There A Problem?
Over the past few years, I begun to notice a trend in nursing home litigation-- more lawsuits getting filed against particular facilities. Sure, an incident can occur during a momentary lapse of judgment-- at any facility -- at any time, but is there reason to be concerned when we see multiple lawsuits piling up against particular facilities? There will always be the cynics out there who insist an influx of lawsuits involving a particular facility is really due to copycat behavior on the part of families lining up to 'cash in' when they see other's recovering from situations involving poor...
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Nursing Home Injury Laws: Illinois
Hard to believe, but since we initiated Nursing Home Injury Laws last year, we have helped many families get the resources they need following an injury or death of a loved one in a nursing home or medical facility. Nursing Home Injury Laws, has links and resources related to some of the most commonly encountered nursing home injuries including: medication errors, falls, elopement, sexual abuse and bed sores. Though many nursing home injury cases involve similar fact patterns, the cases need to be evaluated on an individualized basis, due to the individual state's laws. Over the next few weeks I will...
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New Medicare Report On Medical Errors In Hospitals Reinforces Ongoing Problems
There's some saying that has been jumbled back-and-forth about how many patients were feeling fine until they went to the hospital and got sick. Well, as corny as the saying may be, a trip to the hospital may be one of that last places you want to go--- particularly when you look at data released from Medicare concerning hospital safety data. After evaluating bills bills that hospitals submitted to Medicare for payment between October, 2008 and June, 2008, CMS, looked through the billing codes used to quantify the type of treatment provided to each patient. The results demonstrate that many...
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Dialysis Related Injuries Can Be Prevented With Basic Precautions
When a person’s kidneys no longer work properly, dialysis can filter waste products from their blood. Your kidneys keep your blood clean and balanced. They filter 200 quarts of blood every day, filtering out waste and excess water, which becomes urine. Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two most common causes of kidney disease. As your kidney health declines, your renal function worsens. If your kidneys have less than 25% of their kidney function, serious health problems can occur. And, if your kidneys have less than 15% of their kidney function, dialysis or kidney transplant is required. About 11.5%...
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Hospital Errors: Study Finds Preventable Errors Continue To Harm Patients At Alarming Rate
“Don’t go to the hospital if you don’t want to get sick” is frequently said in jest by many of my colleagues who represent people who have been harmed by mistakes made in hospitals. Now, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine regarding errors made at North Carolina hospitals reinforces this saying. The study evaluated hospital data from 2002 to 2007 and looked at patient charts that contained codes for medical conditions that where generally associated with errors made by hospital staff. Amongst the common errors made by hospitals include: Severe bleeding during an operation Breathing...
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Contractures In Nursing Home Patients Put Them At Risk For Developing Decubitus Ulcers & Other Injuries
After working on many cases involving the development of pressure sores in a nursing home or other long term care settings, I am convinced that contractures are a tremendously under-appreciated threat to patient health. Like many ailments, we are now learning that getting older should not necessarily mean developing disabling conditions such as contractures- with the proper nursing care. What are contractures? Contractures are a medical condition where a joint is held in a fixed position (frozen joints) due to the shortening of a muscle or tendon due to stress exerted on the muscle or spasticity (uncontrolled muscle movement). Older...
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Nursing Home Spotlight: Warren Barr Pavilion, Chicago, Illinois
Warren Barr Pavilion is a large 221 bed nursing home facility located in the near north side of Chicago. According to the government’s Medicare website , the facility received only two out of five stars, which is a below average rating. This is in large part to the facility’s high number of health deficiencies. In the past year, the facility had eleven health deficiencies, which is higher than both the average health deficiencies for both nursing homes in Illinois and across the United States. The facility’s most significant health deficiencies were improper care and services and risk of falls/accidents. The...
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Spotlight On Palos Hills Extended Care Nursing Home
If you suspect poor care in a nursing home, one of the most important things to do is to document the mistreatment. Obviously, this can be a difficult—if not impossible-- for an individual who may not be familiar with the system. Perhaps the easiest way to document poor care is to file a complaint with the state health department. The complaint will trigger an investigation (or survey as they are commonly known) by the state’s department of public health into the alleged poor care. These investigations tend to be thorough and usually entail chart reviews, employee interviews, resident interviews and...
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A Recipe For Danger: Nursing Shortage Could Reach 1M By 2020
An aging nursing population, the growing need for nursing services and an insufficient number of facilities to train new nurses are coming together to create a 'nursing crisis', according to a recent article in The Iowa Independent. The congruence of factors will lead to dramatic shortages of nurses both in Iowa and on a national basis. The American Health Care Association estimates the the nursing shortage will explode in coming years. Among the nursing shortage numbers predicted by the AHCA include: July, 2009: 116,000 vacant nursing positions in hospitals and 19,000 vacant nursing positions in long-term care facilities. 2010:...
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Maryland Nursing Home Fined For Neglecting Patients
Rarely do nursing homes have isolated problems. Rather, problems with patient care usually stem from a culture of poor staff training and under-staffing. Case in point-- The Summerville at Potomac nursing facility in Maryland. Following a routine inspection, state and county nursing home surveyors discovered numerous violations governing patient care in nursing homes. Among the violations, the surveyors discovered: improperly care for pressure ulcers, mismanaged patients' medication, lack of fall precautions for patients prone to falling and patients with excessive weight gain and loss. According to Wendy Kronmiller, director of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Office...
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