Terms To Better Understand Your Nursing Home
For families seeking information on a particular nursing home or additional information about a specific event, the need for such information usually comes at a time when external pressures abound. In order to fully appreciate such information, it is important to have a complete grasp of the terms involved. I was happy to find concise definitions of many nursing home terms that pop up both in the nursing home selection process and beyond recently published by the Detriot Free Press. I frequently receive inquiries from blog readers about such terms, so I decided it would be worthwhile to include them...
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Nursing Home With History Of Problems Now Faces Wrongful Death Lawsuit Related To Poor Care of Patient With Tracheostomy Tube
We've spent a fair amount of time talking about nursing homes on Medicare's Special Focus Facility (SFF) list, which can be simply referred to as a compilation of the country's worst nursing homes. As the name implies, nursing homes appointed to the SFF list faced heightened scrutiny with more frequent inspections due to a pattern of improper care and patient neglect. Assuming facilities improve the care they provide to their patients, they can graduate from the list. For facilities not inclined to make the necessary changes, an uncertain future faces them as continued problems could result in cuts in...
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Florida Nursing Home Earns Spot Amongst Nations Worst
If you are a nursing home operator, I suspect you'd cringe when you hear about Medicare's list of Special Focus Facilities. Special Focus Facilities (SFF) are nursing homes identified by Medicare that have a pattern of problems related to poor patient care. Earning a spot on the SFF list really should be a major wake up call for the facilities to quickly improve patient care or risk losing funding from Medicare and Medicaid--- the primary source of all nursing home funding. Put another way: improve your care or go out of business. Oak Manor Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, a Florida...
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Special Focus Facilities: The Worst Nursing Homes Of All
I get a large number of questions from nursing home patients and families regarding focused on finding the 'best' facilities available. For some reason, I get an even larger number of people who ask me who the 'worst' facilities are. Maybe there's some sport associated with identifying these facilities? But for to today, let's feed the need to identify the poor performing nursing homes-- the Special Focus Facilities. If you are a nursing home operator or employee the Special Focus Facility (SFF) is definitely a club you want no part of. Rather, the SFF was created by The Centers...
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Authorities Investigate North Carolina Nursing Home After Lab Test Determines Patient's Death Related To Morphine Overdose
Officials at the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation are looking into the nursing care provided to patients at the Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home after laboratory tests confirmed that the death of an Alzheimer's patient may have been related to a morphine overdose. The investigation was triggered after the blood lab results determined that an 84-year-old patient at the facility had 'toxic' levels of morphine in her body at the time of her death. Lab results revealed that the nursing home patient had morphine levels of more than 50,000 nanograms per milliliter at the time of her death. Putting...
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A Word To The Wise- Stay Out Of Illinois Nursing Homes
If you've been reading recent Nursing Homes Abuse Blog headlines, this will not come as a surprise, but some of the worst nursing homes in the country are right here in my backyard-- Illinois. According to a report from the General Accounting Office (GAO), Illinois ranks has some of the worst nursing homes in the country. After analyzing factors such as: staffing levels, prevention of bed sores (also called: pressure sores, pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers) and prevention of abuse, the GAO report determined that 47 Illinois Nursing Homes are among the group of facilities categorized as 'most poorly' performing. The...
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Extendicare Nursing Home Added To Government 'Watch List' Following Abuse Of Resident
The Richmond Health and Rehabilitation Complex, otherwise known as 'Madison Manor' has been added to the Special Focus Facility List following the disclosure of a videotape nursing assistants at the facility physically abusing, failing to provide food and failing to clean an 84-year-old resident at the facility in August. The family of the woman placed a hidden camera in the woman's room after they discovered more than 30 unexplained bruises on her body during a visit. The Kentucky Attorney General filed criminal charges against three of the CNA's involved in incident and one has already pleaded guilty. Madison Manor dismissed...
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Nurses Caught Administering Insulin To Non-Diabetic Nursing Home Residents
New York Nursing Home inspectors were recently called to investigate, Hilltop Nursing Home, following two incidents where nurses at the facility gave insulin to non-diabetic residents. The residents went into shock and were hospitalized. According to a report from the New York Department of Public Health, the two incidents were investigated following tips made on the telephone hot line. One of the insulin errors involved an LPN who admitted to being under the influence of narcotic medications not prescribed to her. During the recent health department investigations, investigators also determined that nurses at the facility signed out narcotic medications for...
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The Worst Nursing Homes In America
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have recently released a listing of sub-standard nursing homes. Nursing homes rely on government payments for approximately 80% of their budget, the potential loss of funding effectively forces them out of business. In order to continue to receive government funding from Medicare and Medicaid, nursing homes are subjected to random visits from federal and state inspectors. Inspectors identify any deficiencies and require the problems to be corrected. If problems are not corrected within 18-24 months, the facility will lose its funding. CMS has grouped the problematic nursing homes into a listing called 'Special...
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