Illinois To Receive Big Bucks To Improve Nursing Home Safety. Will It Help?
Many Illinois Nursing Homes may soon be stepping upon some new wealth under a recently devised tax-plan that that is intended to provide for an increase in the number of state nursing home surveyors and increased staff at troubled facilities. By taking advantage of a Federal Government matching-fund program, the program is expected to provide $145 million in new funding for nursing homes in Illinois. According to a report on the program in The Republic, Illinois officials have allocated $20 million for purposes of hiring 160 new nursing home surveyors and the balance of the funds will be put towards...
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Financially Troubled Nursing Home Charged Cited For Discontinuing Dietary Supplement In Patients With Severe Weight Loss
A Connecticut nursing home has been cited by the Department of Health for discontinuing a dietary supplement without first consulting any doctors, dieticians or nurses. The abrupt discontinuation is believed to be responsible for a sizable-- 11% weight loss in a patient at South Windsor Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. When at the facility, state inspectors discovered another patient with a similarly drastic weight loss--- losing 22 pounds over the course of three months at the facility. Incidentally, serious money troubles have plagued South Windsor over the past year and according to new reports the nursing home is now in receivership....
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As Budgets Get Slashed, Regulation Of Long Term Care Facilites Takes Back Seat
A disturbing example of the the fall-out from state budget cuts, will be the escalation of unregulated skilled nursing and assisted living facilities caring for seniors and the disabled. Delayed inspections--- or inspections of facilities that simply never occur--- will become the new 'norm' in many states that simply do not have sufficient manpower to regulate facilities within their state. Just recently, Maryland's layoffs at the state's Office of Health Care Quality, has made it physically impossible for officials from the state to conduct mandated surveys of long term care facilities within the state. According to a state investigation,...
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Sexual Abuse Of Patient In Chicagoland Nursing Home
Even with strict federal and state laws protecting nursing home patients, somehow people completely unfit for the job manage to find their way into positions where they are caring for an incredibly vulnerable group of people. Recently, the Chicago Tribune reported on a horribly shameful incident involving the sexual assault of a nursing home patient by a supervisor at the facility. Twenty-two-year-old, Angelo J. Bird of Woodstock, a CNA and midnight shift supervisor has been charged with sexually assaulting a disabled elderly woman at Crystal Pines Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Crystal Lake, IL. The 93-year-old sexual assault...
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Jury Finds Nursing Home Responsible For Alzheimer's Patients Injuries
After two hours of deliberations a Kentucky jury has awarded a former nursing home patient more than $1 million in damages for injuries she sustained while a patient at the facility. The nursing home negligence lawsuit alleged that Cambridge Place Nursing Home in Lexington, KY was negligent in looking after an Alzheimer's patient who managed to gain access to an equipment storage room without the knowledge of staff at the facility. Ultimately, the woman sustained multiple injuries as a result of a fall she sustained in the restricted area including: broken facial bones, bleeding in her brain and multiple...
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What Can Nursing Homes Do To Protect Patients From Violence Within Facilities
Nursing homes are supposed to be quaint places for the elderly to relax and recreate with each other. Right? Sure, I guess it depends upon the circumstances, but most people would be shocked to learn that episodes of violence do occur on a regular basis. Just recently, and 89-year-old man at a Tennessee nursing home died after he got into an altercation with a new roommate. According to news reports, the man who suffered from Alzheimer's became upset when a new roommate was brought into his room and a fight ensured. Shortly after the fight was broken up he became...
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State Surveyors Discover Medications Continually Withheld At Conn. Nursing Home
While it is the responsibility of a doctor to prescribe medications for nursing home patients, the daily task of administering the medication falls squarely on the shoulders of the nursing home staff. Nursing home staff have a duty to both administer the proper medication-- at the interval prescribed--- to each patient. Not surprisingly when patients get the wrong medication or it is not timely given the results can be catastrophic. As a nursing home lawyer, I was disturbed to hear of a Connecticut nursing home where the staff withheld medications from a broad cross-section of patients at the large skilled...
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Never Discount The Real Impact Of Sexual Abuse On The Disabled
Concerned about their daughter's health, the family of Violet Townsend immediately sought medical care for the 29-year-old woman when they noticed blood on the seat of her wheelchair while visiting her at Grande Oaks Nursing Home (Ohio). After receiving care at a nearby hospital, it was determined that Ms. Townsend's injury was consistent with a sexual assault and tested positive for a STD. What makes Ms. Townsend's situation unique and her situation especially troubling is that a brain injury she sustained in 2006 has left her immobile and unable to communicate. An investigation into the incident by both officials at...
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Elder Abuse Lawsuit: Woman Accuses Nursing Home Of Unnecessary Drugging In Order To Take Over Social Security Payments
Very disturbing allegations have surfaced in a nursing home negligence lawsuit filed against a California nursing home by a former patient at the facility. Marsha Davis has filed a lawsuit against Country Villa of Seal Beach alleging that the facility improperly gave her psychotropic medications (Ativan) without a prescription in order to take over her social security payments. If proved to be true, this is undoubtedly a form of elder abuse both in terms of the inappropriate drugging as well as the misappropriation of the woman's finances. According to Medicare regulations applicable to nursing homes: each resident’s drug regimen must...
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Nursing Homes Must Protect Patients From Violence Perpetrated By Other Patients
Yet another episode of nursing home violence was reported at a facility in Southwest Florida when a resident attacked his roommate over a disagreement as to the positioning of the window curtains. Even though there was a nurse nearby, the victim of the abuse suffered severe facial bruising and fractures that required medical attention at a hospital. An unknown risk Probably the last thing patients and families consider when selecting a facility is the possibility of violence--- perpetrated by another patient at the facility! Leaving families further in the dark is the fact that poor decision making on the part...
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