A home care-nurse and health care agency in Pennsylvania were found guilty of providing negligent care to a 55-year-old woman who required medical care for her Crohn’s disease. The medical malpractice lawsuit was premised upon the nurse’s failure to report a catheter-related infection to the woman’s doctor. The infection progressed throughout the woman’s body to… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: pennsylvania
Federal Court Decision Opens The Door For Expanded Medicare Coverage For Skilled Nursing Care & Home Health Care
Posted in MedicareRecent decisions by Federal Courts in Pennsylvania and Vermont may pave the way to extended Medicare benefits to individuals with chronic medical conditions. If the decisions are upheld, no longer will a Medicare recipient be required to demonstrate that their condition will improve in order for the treatment to be covered under Medicare. These decisions… Continue Reading
Convicted Sex Offender Pulls From His Old Bag Of Tricks While Assaulting Elderly Nursing Home Patient
Posted in Sexual Abuse & AssaultAnother convicted sex offender has acted out in a nursing home setting by assaulting another patient at the facility where he resides. This incident reportedly occurred at Golden Living Center in Oakmont, PA. Staff at the nursing home noticed Russell Gary Dettlinger fondling a female dementia patient at the facility in a common area used… Continue Reading
Wheelchair-Bound Nursing Home Patients Must Be Properly Supervised To Avoid Injury
Posted in Nursing Home Falls, Nursing Home InjuryAllowing a nursing home patient to sit comfortably in their wheelchair in a hall or perhaps in an outdoor area of the facility seems like a pretty innocent act– right? I mean aren’t patients in wheelchairs entitled to a little fresh air or just hang out in an common area with other patients? Despite the… Continue Reading
Forgetful Assisted Living Staff Allows Autistic Patient To Bake In Hot Van
Posted in Disabled PatientsA shameful story regarding a Pennsylvania assisted living facility / group home recently made headlines after staff left an autistic man in a hot van for five hours following a field trip sponsored by the facility. Apparently the man was chaperoned to a local amusement park with staff from the Woods Services. When the group… Continue Reading
Less Patients, Happier Staff, Healthier Patients. Research Shows Less May Acutally Be More When It Comes To Patient Loads For Nurses
Posted in Nursing Home StaffWithout proper staffing, even the most modern nursing homes are nothing more than buildings with beds. Knowledgeable and plentiful staff has always appeared to improve patient morale, but a new study determines that added staff may actually save lives. The Journal of Health Services Research compared the outcomes from 1.1 million people who had general… Continue Reading
Assisted Living Employee Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter Charges After Resident Dies From Burn Injury
Posted in Assisted Living FacilitiesAlvador Thompson, a nurses aide who poured scalding oatmeal into the mouth of a disabled patient has pleaded guilty in response to the involuntary manslaughter charges filed against her by the Montgomery County District Attorney. This incident at an assisted living facility caught national attention not only due to the fact that an aide… Continue Reading
Criminal Charges Filed Against Assisted Living Employee In Relation To Resident Suffering Burns While Eating
Posted in Dementia / Alzheimer's Patients, Nursing Home StaffAs an injury lawyer who frequently handles nursing home negligence matters, I find myself regularly thinking ‘what happened to plain old common sense’? I mean, you can train the nurses, physicians, maintenance workers and administrators til’ you’re blue in the face– yet most of the commonly encountered nursing home problems could easily be avoided with… Continue Reading
Hospital Cited For Multiple Safety Violations During Investigation Of Resident Death
Posted in Dementia / Alzheimer's PatientsThe failure of a Pennsylvania hospital to take basic steps to protect its patients may have cost a dementia patient her life. 89-year-old Rose Lee Diggs was admitted to UPMC Montefiore for multiple deficiencies during the investigation of her death. Although Diggs was transferred from a nursing home that warned the hospital of her propensity… Continue Reading