Nursing
Home Abuse News
Teens Charged with Nursing Home Abuse
Criminal charges were filed Dec. 2 in Freeborn County, Minnesota against two teenage girls who worked at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Albert Lea, a small town about 90 miles south of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Read More...
Facts That Can Help You Make the Right Choice
When independent living is no longer an option for elderly loved ones, many families will need to find a live-in facility that will be devoted to taking care of their aging family member. The various options available usually fall into one of two categories: either assisted living facilities or nursing homes. Read More...
Nursing Home Violations Found to be Common
A recent report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has found that nearly all nursing homes in the U.S. have received citations for health and safety violations in 2007. Read More...
Nursing Home Worker Accused
A previous nursing home worker in Ohio has been accused of more than 14 felony charges stemming from his time at the facility. Read More...
Nursing Home Resident Beaten to Death in IL
An elderly man who was living in a nursing home on the South Side of Chicago was recently beaten to death and his former residence is now being evaluated. Read More...
The family of a woman who died at East Peoria Gardens nursing home earlier this year is suing the facility for placing residents in a “dangerous environment.” Read More...
Two Florida nurses have been jailed on multiple charges of abuse and neglect after failing to administer to nursing home residents their required medication. If convicted, the women could face heavy fines and prison sentences. Read More...
Iowa's largest privately owned nursing home, with about 190 residents, has been fined for failing to promptly report allegations that physical and verbal nursing home abuse had occurred with one of its employees. Read More...
A whistleblower lawsuit was filed in February 2000 against owners and operators of a South Side Chicago nursing home. The former nursing home workers called the facility “a house of filth, terror and death.” Alleging between October 1998 and June 30, 2000 the nursing home residents were “routinely abused, neglected, mistreated, sexually assaulted, medicated as a form of punishment, unsupervised and otherwise untreated for their mental health, physical disability and substance abuse problems,” the case included very serious reports of inhumane conditions. Read More...
Iowa state officials have said that hundreds of people have been authorized to work in Iowa nursing homes despite accusations of abuse or criminal acts. Due to state confidentiality laws, even the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, which regulates nursing homes, cannot get access to information about the nursing home workers. Advocates for the elderly believe Iowa's confidentiality laws regarding the protection of elderly only allow the continuation of nursing home abuse to continue.
Considered one of the most “hidden” societal crimes, elderly abuse is sometimes hard to expose and then to punish. Elderly abuse that can occur in nursing homes or under the care of family can range from financial abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect. Instances of financial exploitation amongst elderly abuse are on the rise, though most reports of abuse will be because of neglect.
Federal official believe inadequate staffing is the
biggest cause of nursing home abuse neglect in facilities.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says
that 9 out of 10 nursing homes employ too few workers
to provide adequate care, and over 40% of all homes
need to increase their nurse aide staff by at least
50%.
Congress is considering legislation that would establish
federal criminal penalties for nursing home abuse
and neglect. If convicted, it could result in prison
terms for individuals, in addition to corporate fines
of up to $3 million. The nursing home abuse and neglect
bill would also require the homes immediately report
any reasonable suspicion of a crime to law enforcement
officials.
According to a member of the National Citizens’
Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, criminal prosecution
of nursing home abuse owners appears to be increasing.
Recent nursing home abuse cases include:
Florida Nursing Home Abuse:
In September 2003, owners of the Jewish Senior Living
home in West Palm Beach were charged with eight counts
of nursing home abuse neglect. Just days before that,
owners in Riviera Beach were arrested and charged
with three counts of neglect.
Georgia Nursing Home Abuse:
In February 2003, an owner of a nursing home pleaded
guilty to 15 counts of nursing home abuse and neglect.
She was sentenced to 15 years probation and 500 hours
of community service. Contact us for more information
on Georgia nursing home abuse.
Hawaii Nursing Home Abuse:
In 2002, prosecutors got a manslaughter conviction
against a nursing home after a resident died of septic
shock because bedsore infections had continued to
go untreated.
Louisiana Nursing Home Abuse:
Owners of a nursing home agreed to pay $750,000 and
to quit the nursing home business for seven years
after federal prosecutors considered criminal charges
because an 87-year old woman was strangled by a wheelchair
seat belt.
Michigan Nursing Home Abuse:
In April 2003, a Detroit nursing home medical director
and nursing director were charged with involuntary
manslaughter in the heat-related death of a resident.
The prosecutors alleged the nursing home lacked air
condition and fans and the windows would not open.
Missouri Nursing Home Abuse:
In February 2003, a nursing home management company
president was sentenced to a year in prison for failing
to report the beating death of a nursing home resident.
In August 2003, another home manager was charged with
involuntary manslaughter in a mentally disabled nursing
home resident’s death.
New York Nursing Home Abuse:
At the start of October 2003, a New York nursing home
chain agreed to pay the state $3 million to settle
claims that the homes failed to provide adequate care
to nursing home patients. By agreeing to settle the
claims of nursing home abuse, the owners were able
to avoid criminal charges that had come from a grand
jury investigation after reports of testimony of nursing
home employees.
In June 2003, the Hallmark Nursing Centre chain pleaded
guilty to criminal charges, including inadequate care,
falsification of patient files, and deliberately employing
too few caregivers to meet resident needs leading
the New York nursing home owners to agree to refrain
from operating any New York nursing homes.
For more nursing home abuse information, contact
us to speak with a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer.
The nursing home reform bill that passed took many
by surprising because of the Senate resistance to
nursing home reform in the past few years. The vote
was a dominating 33-0 vote in favor of the nursing
home bill that if passing in the House of Representatives
will include increasing fines if nursing home violations
exist, eliminating the current loopholes allowing
nursing home operators to escape fines of serious
violations, making nursing home abuse or nursing home
neglect concealment a felony, implementing more rigorous
background checks for nursing home owners and employees,
and allowing nursing homes that have an established
record for superior care to undergo fewer inspections.
There were over 400 people in attendance at the Alabama
State House. The turnout was to rally against bills
that would restrict Alabama nursing home abuse lawsuits.
Senate committees held a public hearing on nursing
home abuse legislation, including a $250,000 cap on
damages against nursing homes. Alabama state director
of AARP thinks that the nursing home bills will jeopardize
the safety and security of nursing home residents.
The testimony was mostly from advocacy group members,
nurses, and people that have had loved ones under
the care of nursing home abuse.
For more nursing home abuse information, contact
us to speak with a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer.
The issue of nursing home abuse has been one of the
largest legal challenges of this time. Over the past
three years especially, any nursing home abuse legislation
that has seemed to get through the House has gotten
held up in the Senate. Senate President Pro Tem Peter
Kinder is hoping that despite the nursing home abuse
bill that has been revised 28 times so far and become
weakened that it will finally go through.
" A Tennessee
nursing home that was categorized in immediate jeopardy
and received a 70-page list of health violations had
to pay the state nearly $3500 a day from January 31-February
21. The state has found that the nursing home is still
breaking health codes at a lesser degree, so the home
must pay at least $50 a day to the state. The state
will have another investigation in the next few months
to see if the nursing home has complied.
For more nursing home abuse information, contact
us to speak with a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer.
" The House approved
a controversial bill in Arkansas that would limit
jury awards against nursing homes. The bill was asked
to not be sent immediately to the Senate in order
to allow any consideration of further amendments.
If passed, the bill would limit punitive damages to
$1 million and has a provision that would require
lawyers to prove that a specific act was committed
against their client. Some House members against the
bill felt that it “strikes a blow at the absolute
weakest among us” and that it is “fundamentally
wrong and unfair.”
" A federal report was issued
last March and found that the agency that is responsible
for inspecting South Carolina nursing homes has failed
to respond on time to a third of the most serious
complaints. This information is required by federal
law to be made within two days in the most serious
cases of nursing home abuse. Insiders claim there
are not enough people to enforce the state’s
nursing home laws and regulations.
For more nursing home abuse information, contact us to speak with a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer.
Reports of serious, physical, sexual
and verbal elderly abuse are "numerous"
among the nation's nursing homes, according to a congressional
report released today. The study, prepared by the
minority (Democratic and Independent) staff of the
Special Investigations Division of the House Government
Reform Committee, finds that 30 percent of nursing
homes in the United States — 5,283 facilities
— were cited for almost 9,000 instances of elderly
abuse over a recent two-year period, from January
1999 to January 2001. Common elderly abuse problems
included untreated bedsores, inadequate medical care,
malnutrition, dehydration, preventable accidents,
and inadequate sanitation and hygiene, the report
said. Read
the entire story…
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Alice Oshatz is
an 85 year old woman who can no longer handle living
on her own but does not want to burden her children.
A nursing home seems to be the only option, an option
she never wanted to have. She is not the only one
who feels that way. Eighty-three percent of elderly
Americans would stay in their homes until the end
if they could. Thirty percent say they'd rather die
than go into a nursing home. And their fears may be
well founded. Nursing home inspection documents show
that more than a quarter of American nursing homes
were repeatedly cited for serious elderly abuse violations
that caused death or injury to patients. In California,
a third of the homes have been cited for elderly abuse
causing serious harm or death to patients. In 1998,
less than 2 percent of California nursing homes had
no elderly abuse violations. A CBS News analysis of
the federal government's nursing home inspection database
finds more than 1,000 homes were cited last year for
hiring staff with a history of abuse. Read
the entire story…
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Almost one of every
three nursing homes in the United States has been
cited for elderly abuse or other violations, according
to a government report released Monday. The report,
prepared at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California,
found that over a two-year period from January 1,
1999 through January 1, 2001, all violations reported
in nursing homes "had at least the potential
to harm nursing home residents." Of the more
than 17,000 nursing homes nationwide, 5,283 nursing
homes had been cited for an elderly abuse violation.
Read
the entire story…
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The nation is facing a severe
crisis in how it will care for its elderly. In Massachusetts,
56 nursing homes have closed in the last two years.
California is facing a severe shortage of qualified
caregivers as is Pennsylvania and many other states.
Forty out of fifty states have task forces in place
to address this pressing issue. The problems will
only get worse because the demand for adequate nursing
home and home care will increase as baby-boomers age.
Susan Eaton is an assistant professor of public policy
and has studied the link between human resource personnel
management and the quality of patient care in nursing
homes. “The federal government, through the Health
Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which is part
of the US Department of Health and Human Services,
has commissioned several studies to examine mandating
minimum staff ratios. Many quality problems, including
safety, arise from under-staffing, either because
of too few trained staff or because of poor management
practices. If such ratios are mandated, nursing home
managers will have to rethink their human resource
policies and allocate more money to recruiting, attracting,
and retaining nursing staffs. In addition, federal
funds are needed to study best practices and to increase
enforcement to punish egregious repeat offenders as
well as to encourage states to experiment with solutions.”
Read
the entire story...
For more nursing home abuse information, contact us to speak with a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer.
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Marion Heide’s life ended at 88, with Marion
bruised and bleeding, curled into a ball in a nursing
home bed, so scared of the nurses who were supposed
to help her that she cried when they came near. Her
decline began with a scraped leg. Without the care
she needed, the scrape turned into a sore. The skin
around it turned black, and infection sank to the
bone. Finally, doctors cut off her leg. Marion died
three months later.
Jurors understood that she was near the end of her
life, sick with diabetes and a bad heart. That didn't
excuse her final 11 months. They slapped the nursing
home's owner and its operator - a corporation that
runs more than 100 nursing homes across the Southeast
- with a negligence verdict and $6.5 million in compensatory
damages. When the jurors said they wanted to consider
punitive damages, too, the defendants' lawyers settled
for an even $10 million and ended the case there.
Despite federal and state laws, hundreds of inspectors
across the country and years of newspaper and TV horror
stories, elderly abuse and neglect remain cruel realities.
One nursing home in four has severe deficiencies that
endanger people's health or their lives, according
to a recent federal study. Advocates for reform say
that figure is low, and they note that the aging of
the baby boom generation promises to exacerbate the
problem.
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In a written statement
provided to the Senate Special Committee on Aging,
Oliva says her mother Marie Espinoza, who was suffering
from a degenerative brain disease, had bruises, bedsores
and a broken pelvis within months after her 1995 arrival
at the Orangetree Convalescent Hospital. Food was
often left at the foot of her bed, out of her reach.
She began to lose weight. "She always seemed
to be starving or begging for water," says Oliva
in her official account. At Extended Care Hospital,
Espinoza suffered severe dehydration and bedsores.
Last January she entered Palm Terrace Convalescent
Center. The nursing home said she died after choking
on food, but Oliva plans to tell the committee that
this makes no sense: Espinoza was supposed to be fed
through a tube. All three nursing homes deny any wrongdoing.
Read
the entire story…
For more nursing home abuse information, contact
us to speak with a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer.
Bessie Seday recounts her experiences
in a California nursing home, Creekside Care Convalescent
Hospital. Unfortunately Bessie’s account is not
a rare thing anymore, as 1 out of 4 nursing homes
every year is cited for elderly abuse causing death
or serious injury to a resident. She realized the
nightmare that had become her home immediately. "I
couldn't get anybody's attention, starting on the
fourth day," recalls the bed-bound 84-year-old.
"You'd have your call light on for hours, but
nobody came." What made her waiting more desolate
was the near total deprivation of sunlight during
her four months at Creekside. "It was a dungeon,"
she says. "I really would have liked to see the
sunshine, but they never put us outside." Things
only got worse when the sunset, and the staff ignored
calls for help or painkillers. "The screaming
is what got to me the worst, the screaming when the
lights went out," she says. "I couldn't
fall asleep until 1 or 2 in the morning with all that
screaming going on." Read
the entire story…
For more nursing home abuse information,
contact us to speak with
a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer.
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