Nursing Homes Abuse Blog - By Jonathan Rosenfeld

My heart goes out to the families across the globe who have lost loved ones due to a fire at an Australian nursing home.  The death toll now stands at nine, while many other patients at the nursing home remain hospitalized in intensive care from injuries related to smoke inhalation and burns.

The nursing home fire was believed to have been intentionally set by nurse at the facility.  

A task force is presently being assembled to review fire policies and staff screening procedures at nursing homes in Australia. 

While it has been years since a fire in a nursing home has claimed the lives of multiple patients in the United States, events such as this should be a wake up call for facility operators who typically have a large number of disabled patients living in close quarters-- making rapid evacuations particularly difficult.

According to CMS regulations, all nursing homes must have fire sprinkler systems in place by 2013 in order to continue to receive government funding.  Similarly, every patient room is required to have an operational smoke alarm.

I truly hope evacuation plans are reviewed and corrective measures are taken before we hear of a similar incident closer to home.

Related:

Sydney nursing home fire claims ninth victim The Australian, November 22, 2011

When Safety Is An Afterthought, Smoking Is One Of The Most Dangerous Nursing Home Activities

Stupidity Plain & Simple.  Nursing Home Patient Sustains Burns From Portable Heater

Fire In Russian Nursing Home Claims The Lives Of 23 Residents

Glenwood Healthcare & Rehab is a large 184-bed facility located just south of Chicago, with an “A” wing and a “B” wing.

According to the government’s Medicare Web site, Glenwood received an overall rating of one out of five stars. While this alone raises several red flags, recent surveys from the Illinois Health Department confirm that Glenwood can indeed be a dangerous place for residents.

What stands out most from the four surveys (completed between August and October of last year) are two appalling incidents of what can only be called extreme negligence.

The first incident, which occurred on July 7, 2010, involved a resident accidentally setting himself on fire with a banned lighter. According to a nurse’s testimony in an August 2010 survey:

“I smelled a prevalent odor of smoke, and immediately called my staff to the nursing station...As I went down the B-wing, the smell of smoke was more evident. [When I got to the resident’s room], I saw burns on his left hand and left upper thigh. The resident said he was trying to refill his lighter.”

This incident was in clear violation of state law, which requires each nursing home to provide adequate supervision of all residents, and to keep its environment as clear from hazards as possible. Needless to say, this incident also put all residents of the home in what the survey calls “immediate jeopardy.”

The second incident, which occurred just a month later, involved a resident’s severely infected pressure sore.  According to a September 2010 survey:

“The nurse removed the resident’s dressing, and observed maggots present in the wound. The nurse said that she attempted to clean the resident’s foot with normal saline solution, but that the maggots wouldn’t come off. The nurse said that there were too many maggots to count.”

These two incidents in and of themselves would be grounds for me to be highly suspicious of this facility. But along with these incidents, the surveys found that Glenwood:

• Had a “pervasive urine odor throughout the facility,” and an overflowing garbage container in the B-wing shower room
• Consistently failed to serve hot meals on time
• Harbored at least three patients with dangerous mental disorders.

If you think a loved one might be in jeopardy due or had already suffered harm due to poor to conditions at Glenwood Healthcare & Rehab, we would be honored to speak with you about your situation. As always, consultations are free and completely confidential.

Related Nursing Homes Abuse Blog Entries:

65 Ililnois Nursing Homes On Second Quarter Violation List

Pressure Sores Continue To Be A Viscious Sign Of Neglect At Medical Facilities

Cigarette Lighter Mishap Results In Severe Burns To Nursing Home Patient

What are the signs of infection for people who have bed sores?

Smoking in nursing homes can be a highly contested area, where a patient's right to smoke is pitted against the facilities responsibility to ensure that protocols are in effect to protect the patients. 

As a lawyer who has prosecuted smoking-related injuries and deaths, I see a definite correlation between patient injury and sloppy implementation of nursing home smoking policies.

I recently was forwarded an article regarding smoking violations from a client who's mother suffered severe burns to her legs when her clothing caught fire as she smoked unsupervised.  Obviously, my client is sensitive to the fact that lax smoking protocols are putting other patients at risk for serious harm.

I'd be surprised if a patient hasn't already been affected by the dangerous conditions that were allowed to exist at Blossom South Nursing Home in New York.  After an inspection conducted by Medicare authorities, serious safety violations were discovered at the facility including:

• Patients allowed to smoke in their rooms
• Patients permitted to smoke around oxygen devices
• Other flammable devices such as aerosol cans were kept within the range of the area where smoking was permitted

As a result of the findings that obviously put the safety of both the patients immediately within the area at risk--- and all the other patients at the facility-- the facility was fined $3,250 by the Department of Health & Human Services.

Related Nursing Homes Abuse Blog Entries

Unsupervised Nursing Home Resident Dies From Burns

Resident Who Smoked & Used Oxygen Suspected Of Causing Fire At Assisted Living Facility

Nursing Home Patient Sustains Serious Burns After Smoking In His Bed

Smoking-Related Fires Are A Real Threat To Nursing Home Patients. Is It Time To Put Out The Fire?

Nursing Home Injury Laws: New York

A recent article in The Seattle Times presented a sad, but realistic, glimpse into the abusive and neglectful conditions found in many adult homes in Washington. 

As people look for additional living options instead of traditional nursing homes, adult group homes (characterized as facilities that care for six or few people) theoretically provide an attractive alternative offering more flexibility and a less-expensive alternative to nursing homes.

However, as the Times investigation points out, the adult home facilities are riddled with situations involving apparent abuse and neglect-- that are frequently brushed aside.  Times reporters determined that more than 357 adult family homes concealed cases of abuse or neglect of a patient over the past five years in Washington.

Unlike nursing homes and hospitals that are tightly regulated by federal and state regulations, adult homes have traditionally received little-- if any regulation by legislative entities. 

Forged medical records, employees lying to state inspectors and owners threatening patients with eviction if they cooperate with authorities, were just a some of the tactics commonly used by adult home operators to conceal abusive events. 

The obvious desire to cover-up cases of obviously negligent conduct was highlighted in the case of Suzanne Moore, a 68-year-old adult home patient who sustained catastrophic burns to her face and ears after she was apparently smoking while connected to an oxygen pump.  Despite the fact that Ms. Moore was partially blind and physically incapable of lighting a cigarette on her own, all staff at the facility denied any role in the incident when questioned by police investigators.

If not for Mr. Moore's retrieval of his wife's melted wheelchair, damaged oxygen pump and burned clothing, investigators would have been completely at loss for prosecuting that matter criminally.

As a lawyer who has civilly prosecuted cases involving group home abuse and other types of patient mistreatment, I can hardly say that such intentional attempts to cover up problems is unique.  However, I believe that when law enforcement officials get involved early on in the primary stages following an incident the chances of discovering what really happened are far greater.

Yet, as this Seattle Times article demonstrates, we certainly need additional regulation of non-traditional living arrangements, such as group homes, in order protect vulnerable people living in facilities never conceived of in the past.

Related Nursing Homes Abuse Blog Entries:

Are Group Homes A Viable Alternative To Nursing Homes?

Is This An Attempt To 'Control' A Patient? Or Is This Simply Another Attempt To Cover Up Abuse In A Group Home?

Unsupervised Nursing Home Resident Dies From Burns

Smoking-Related Fires Are A Real Threat To Nursing Home Patients. Is It Time To Put Out The Fire?

A TRIAL OF ANNUAL IN-HOME COMPREHENSIVE GERIATRIC ASSESSMENTS FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE LIVING IN THE COMMUNITY (pdf) The New England Journal of Medicine, November 2, 1995

 Mr. Ellis's photo appears on wdsu.com

Officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding the severe burns sustained by a 77-year-old nursing home patient in New Orleans.  The man sustained burns to 80% of his body when his bed caught fire following the Super Bowel.  The man identified as Hubert Ellis, was a non-smoker, yet fire investigators found two cigarette lighters in his bed that they believe started the fire.

It is unclear if the smoke detector in Mr. Ellis's room was operating properly at the time of the incident. Similarly, the nursing home's response to the incident is under investigation as well.

In either respect, why did this nursing home patient have cigarette lighters in his bed?  Many nursing homes have strict smoking policies that require lighters to be kept under the guard of nursing home staff-- to avoid incident's such as this.  

Read more about this incident involving the burns to a nursing home patient here.

Related:

Smoking-Related Fires Are A Real Threat To Nursing Home Patients. Is It Time To Put Out The Fire?

Nursing Home Patient Sustains Serious Burns After Smoking In His Bed

Maximum Fine Levied Against Nursing Home For Failing To Supervise Resident While Smoking

Unsupervised Nursing Home Resident Dies From Burns

Nursing homes have a duty to protect their residents from harm inflicted by not just the staff and other residents at the facility--but also keeping residents from harming themselves.  Rivera Healthcare Center, a California nursing home, failed to protect a resident from harming himself and consequently received a $100,000 fine-- the highest fine permissible under California law. 

The fine comes after a California Department of Health investigation related to the burn-related death of a 64-year-old resident.  An investigation into the matter revealed that on December 23rd, a male resident left the facility in his wheelchair to smoke a cigarette.  As he attempted to light the cigarette, the man ignited himself.  

The man sustained third-degree burns to his legs, thighs, groin, buttocks and left hand.  Despite, extensive medical care in a hospital burn unit, the nursing home resident died 18 days after the incident from organ failure and sepsis as a result of the extensive burns.

The report said the nursing home staff failed to monitor the mans whereabouts and failed to respond to the emergency situations.   Apparently, upon seeing the man literally in flames, the staff panicked and failed to use a fire extinguisher and fire blanket just six feet away to douse the flames. 

In addition to this fine and AA citation, Riviera Healthcare Center also had an administrative violation earlier this year in addition to the accident for which the Department issued a $20,000 fine.  Health department records confirm 19 complaints have been filed against the facility since 2005.

Read more about this case involving smoking-related burns here.

Related Nursing Homes Abuse Blog Posts

Resident Who Smoked & Used Oxygen Suspected Of Causing Fire At Assisted Living Facility

Unsupervised Nursing Home Resident Dies From Burns

A Reminder Of What Constitutes Nursing Home Neglect

A Scottsdale, AZ nursing home resident died after in the burn unit of an area hospital.  According to reports, the 89-year-old woman died after she apparently set herself on fire while smoking on a patio.  The woman was left unattended while the woman's caretaker was in the kitchen at the facility.

When paramedics arrived at the nursing home, they found that the victim was burned when her dress caught on fire.  The resident told paramedics that she was outside smoking and tried to burn off a loose thread on her dress with a lighter.  Apparently the dress caught fire and she received 3rd degree burns over 40 to 50 percent of her body.

Nursing homes have responsibilities to properly supervise their residents.  Moreover, they must have policies to aid in resident safety.  In addition to the fact that this woman was left unattended, she also was in possession of a cigarette lighter.  Lighters are one of the most common sources of injury to nursing home residents.  Nursing homes should have strict smoking policies in effect--banning the possession and use of cigarette lighters. 

The National Fire Center, reports an annual average of 2 million fires in the United States. Those fires resulted in an annual average in excess of 27,000 civilian injuries, more than 4,000 deaths. 

Nursing home residents may sustain burns while at a nursing home facility.  Common situations involving residents sustaining burns include:

• Baths- Staff failing to monitor the water temperature
• Smoking- Smoking especially around oxygen tanks can be disastrous
• Lighters- Senile patients playing with lighters
• Fires in the nursing home.  Often nursing homes do not have proper alarms or fire-sprinklers
• Electric blankets- Staff failing to monitor patients who may not be able to detect temperature

Nursing home residents who sustain burns need focused care from experts to implement a plan to deal with the physical and psychological affects.  Burns sustained by the elderly are especially difficult to treat and are commonly accompanied by infection and bedsores.