Articles Posted in Nursing Home Neglect

An article in this week’s Patriot-News of Harrisburg gives some helpful tips on choosing the right type of elder care for a loved one. As anyone who has gone through the process knows, it’s not an easy decision to make. That’s why we found the tips in this article particularly helpful in making such an important decision in the life of an aged loved one.

In the article, Ann Henry, chief operating officer for the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, is quoted as saying, “The biggest thing for a lot of people is the feeling of guilt. You want to be able to take your loved one and care for them and oftentimes you just can’t.”

The tips were put together with the help of the state Department of Health and the state Department of Public Welfare.

One of our neighbor states to the south, West Virginia, just reported a huge settlement awarded to an elderly woman’s family after it was discovered that nursing home workers indirectly caused her death through neglect.

According to the West Virginia Gazette, the jury found that workers at Heartland of Charleston failed to feed and care for the woman who stayed at the home for approximately 3 weeks while waiting to be transferred to another home.

Elderly woman’s family was awarded $91.5 million in damages, including $80 million in punitive damages and $11.5 million in compensatory damages.

The woman suffered from Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other conditions. She was checked into Heartland until space at another nursing home opened up. While at Heartland, her son found out that she was labeled a fall risk and that she was confined to a wheelchair. By the time she was transferred to another facility, she was unresponsive, she had lost 15 pounds, and she was severely dehydrated. She died a day after her transfer.

Several former Heartland workers testified that they were not able to properly care for all of the residents and that there were not enough nurses on staff to care for the woman.

During the trial, lawyers for the woman’s family claimed that the nursing home kept the number of residents high and the number of staff low to increase profit. ManorCare Inc. is a parent company named in the lawsuit.

The article also mentioned that from February 2010 to April 2011, state inspectors cited Heartland for 28 deficiencies – more than double the state’s average of 13.

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The wait is over…a redesign of the federal government’s Nursing Home Compare website has been completed.

The website, maintained and updated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is an online tool that helps families to better evaluate nursing homes.

The redesign features 21 new criteria that measure the quality of care at nursing homes across the county, including long-term and short-term care facilities. The new criteria focuses on specific issues such as pressure ulcers, infections, self-reported pain, falls, and general well-being. It also includes the percentage of residents at a facility who have received a pneumonia vaccine and who have been physically restrained.

While temperatures outside having been rising, temperatures inside one wing of Falling Spring Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Chambersburg approached 90 degrees. And it’s a problem some say has plagued the Franklin County nursing home for years.

According to PublicOpinionOnline.com, one day a wall thermometer in a patient’s room showed a temperature of 86 degrees around 8:30 PM. One visitor said she has seen staff member coming out of patient rooms soaking and sweating. She is quoted in the article as saying, “That’s a dangerous situation they are putting residents in. There are many members of that facility who do not have a voice.”

The county says it reacted quickly to cool the wing. A window air conditioner was installed in one patient’s room while aides cooled another patient using cool wash clothes.

The Area Agency on Aging in Franklin County has said that they are aware of the situation and that they are working with the county to help the affected residents.

One day, temperatures ranged from 72 to 88 degrees, with the rooms at the end of the wing being the hottest.

Franklin County Commissioner David Keller said airflow had been restricted to the air conditioning unit for the wing. But maintenance staff widened the air vent to bring cooler air into the system. Keller said, “It illustrates in general that climate control on that end of the building historically has been challenging because of the amount of direct sunlight that end of the building gets.”

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According to a new study, nursing home patients who start a new prescription for some antidepressants, or those who have increased their dosage, are at a higher risk for falls.

An article in U.S. News & World Report discusses these findings in a study conducted by the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston. Study author, Dr. Sarah D. Berry, said, “Our results identify the days following a new prescription or increased dose of a non-SSRI antidepressant as a window of time associated with a particularly high risk of falling among nursing home residents.” Researchers recommend that patients be monitored closely for at least two days after the addition or change in dosage of such an antidepressant.

The study examined 1,181 nursing home residents who had fallen. Researchers looked at the residents’ medication one week and two weeks before the fall. The study found the patients were five times more likely to fall within two days of starting an antidepressant or increasing the dose of their antidepressant.

A study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that black patients are more likely to develop pressure ulcers in nursing homes where there are predominantly more black patients than white patients. An article on Reuters.com quotes the study author, Yue Li, as saying, “In general, nursing homes are lacking appropriate resources” and that in homes with more black patients, “the problems are particularly pronounced.”

Pressure ulcers, also known as bed sores, happen when the same patch of skin is exposed to too much pressure, and generally happens to patients who are bedridden or confined to a wheelchair. The key to preventing bedsores is making sure the patient is moved or repositioned at regular intervals. Researchers noted that having enough nurses to monitor patients is particularly important to preventing bedsores.

The study followed cases of pressure ulcers in more than 12,000 nursing homes from 2003 to 2008. During that time, the rate of pressure ulcers decreased in patients, but black residents remained more likely to get sores than white residents.

One reason given by the researchers to explain their findings includes that nursing homes with more black patients may not be as well funded or they may not have enough staff. Also, there could be differences in the amount of time a nurse spends with patients and how well those nurses know the procedures for preventing sores.

Nancy Bergstrom, of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, is quoted in the article as saying, “Time of staff and training of staff and staff stability in nursing facilities are very pivotal to improving care.”

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It was only a matter of time before wireless mobile devices, the same technology that allows us to talk via cell phone and connect to the internet without a cable, found a way to help the elderly in our communities.

McKnights.com recently published an article about how researchers are using wireless mobile technology to track daily activities of living, providing important physical and emotional health data.

An independent study was published in the July/August issue of Annals of Family Medicine. In the study, eight elderly continuing care community residents over the age of 85 wore wireless mobile sensors around the waist for 10 days. The sensors monitored and recorded each resident’s daily activities and behaviors. Researchers say the data that was collected could potentially help healthcare providers predict early symptoms of dementia, heart problems, or depression. They added that this method of collecting data was easier to obtain than surveys and other self-reporting forms.

We often keep up on the articles published on McKnight’s Long-Term Care News & Assisted Living (mcknights.com) because they post many informative articles on the nursing home industry.

In fact, an article was just published last week explaining that in West Virginia, nursing homes cannot use arbitration agreements as a way to fight lawsuits related to residents care. The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that “disputes should be decided by juries of lay citizens rather than paid, professional fact finders who may be more interested in their fees than the disputes at hand.”

Nursing homes’ binding arbitrations agreements are used to lower the cost of lawsuits. But several West Virginia families found that arbitration clauses caused their lawsuits to be dismissed.

The AltoonaMirror.com reported some good news for Cambria Care Center in Ebensburg: they are no longer at risk for losing their Medicare agreement, according to a letter from the state Department of Health.

In March, a fatal assault involving two dementia patients prompted an inspection that uncovered deficiencies at the home, which is operated by Grane Healthcare.

Mark Fox, spokesman for Grane Healthcare, said, “We had to show them we had addressed the last few things that were outstanding, and we did that earlier this week.” Those issues included changes to medical record procedures and staff reports.

Disturbing details have emerged about the White Owl Manor personal care home in Mahanoy City that caused state officials to close the facility on Friday.

According to the RepublicanHerald.com, the home failed to report the deaths of three residents in June. “We issued an emergency relocation order this morning. We feel the health and safety of the residents are in danger,” said state Department of Public Welfare spokeswoman Anne Bale.

The article added that Schuylkill County Coroner Joseph E. Lipsett said there were no pending investigations on any of the deaths at White Owl Manor and that they were cleared as not suspicious.

Relocation of the facilities 32 residents began immediately on Friday and the Department of Welfare gave no advance warning before shutting down White Owl Manor. Michael Race, the director of communications for the Department of Welfare, said, “The department, in conjunction with local human services agencies, works with residents and their family members to identify new homes of the residents’ choosing that can safely meet residents’ needs. The team helps residents pack belongings, contacts new homes to arrange transportation and takes steps to minimize any anxiety residents may experiences as a result of the action. The department also pays for the residents’ care at the new homes until permanent financial arrangements can be made.”

According to the article, the only way that White Owl owner James F. McGill, Jr. could reopen the home is if a court rules in his favor on the appeal he filed after the department revoked his license to operate the home. However, someone else could apply for a license to operate White Owl and the department would rule on the application within 60 days.

Along with the unreported deaths, there have been other violations at White Owl personal care home. On April 30, a staff member abused a resident by dragging the resident out of bed, kicking, hitting, and cursing the resident, but the home did not report the incident to the department. On May 1, the same staff member pushed, curse, and yelled at another resident. The facility allowed a 20-year-old employee to work independently on numerous occasions. There were eight days when no employees were present at the home who were certified in first aid and CPR. Medical evaluations of residents were incomplete and in some cases there was no indication that some residents had been given an annual medical evaluation. As a result of these violations, the owner McGill was fined.

In the article, Race is quoted as saying, “The department will not levy additional penalties against McGill, but has referred the case to local law enforcement for possible criminal investigation.”

In addition to the violations, the owner of White Owl personal care home was accused earlier this year of access device fraud and identity theft when he authorized an ATM care in the name of an elderly man and spent nearly $5,000. According to the article, McGill obtained the card of a former White Owl resident and used it during August 2010. McGill pleaded not guilty to the charges during a preliminary hearing. Three charges were held for court and the requirement was issued that McGill not visit White Owl Manor. Although he was not permitted to enter the building, he made all the decisions, according to staff. He is free on bail while awaiting county court action on the charges.

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