Articles Posted in Nursing Home Neglect

About 10 private companies may be interested in purchasing Falling Spring Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a county-owned home in Franklin County. According to an article on Herald-Mail.com, the home could sell for an estimated $6.5 million to $9.3 million.

With seven other skilled nursing facilities in the county, the commissioners no longer want to compete with the private sector. But before they commit to selling the 186-bed nursing home, the public may offer their comments at the commissioners’ meetings on June 18 and June 20.

Over the past few years, the trend has been for PA counties to move away from county-owned nursing homes. The article said that according to Susquehanna Group Advisers, 31 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties do not own or operate nursing homes.

The Schuylkill Center in Pottsville has something to brag about. Last week, it received the state’s second annual “Awards for Excellence in Health Care Compliance” from Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Michael Wolf.

Earlier this month, we had blogged that the death of a Weatherly nursing home resident was ruled a homicide by the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office. The coroner’s report said that an 86-year-old resident was allegedly pushed by another resident on April 20 at the Weatherwood Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center. The push caused her to fall and strike her head. She died 6 hours later at Hazleton General Hospital.

Now the CitizensVoice.com is reporting that the 53-year-old resident who pushed his fellow resident was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter. He was committed to Carbon County Correctional Facility in lieu of $150,000 straight cash bail.

The Schuylkill Center in Pottsville has something to brag about. Last week, it received the state’s second annual “Awards for Excellence in Health Care Compliance” from Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Michael Wolf.

In addition to the Schuylkill Center, the Pennsylvania Hospital Skill Care Center in Philadelphia also won the award.

In a press release, Wolf said, “When we developed this award last year, our goal was to improve our interaction with healthcare facilities by providing something we were lacking — positive reinforcement. We are honored to be able to highlight some of our own strengths in the commonwealth as this award demonstrates the commitment and dedication of facilities to deliver safe, top-quality healthcare to some of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable citizens.”

It’s a family’s worst nightmare: the death of resident at the Weatherwood Nursing Home in Weatherly has been ruled a homicide by the Luzerne County Coroner’s Office.

In an article on WNEP.com, a report by the coroner says that the 86-year-old female resident was allegedly pushed by another resident on April 20. She fell and struck her head. An article on the StandardSpeaker.com says the resident died 6 hours later at Hazleton General Hospital.

An autopsy found the cause of death to be a subdural hematoma due to a fall from being pushed. The incident is under investigation by Weatherly police and the Carbon County District Attorney’s Office. Medical paperwork associated with the death is reported to use the term “homicide.”

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The attorneys and staff of O’Connor Law pride themselves on keeping up-to-date on their areas of practice. This week, Attorney Dave Miller is attending the New Jersey Association for Justice’s Boardwalk Seminar 2013 in Atlantic City, NJ. The two and a half day training event includes in-depth educational lectures on trial strategies and litigation techniques, including personal injury, nursing home neglect, and medical malpractice, just a few of the firm’s areas of practice. The seminar also provides attorneys the chance to visit with over 160 legal vendors and network with almost 2,000 other attorneys.

The other week we read a thought-provoking op-ed piece in The Patriot-News of Central PA (PennLive.com) that reminds us what a difficult decision it is when we can no longer care for an elderly loved one and must move them into a nursing home. Even when we’ve done our research and think that we have chosen an appropriate facility, there is still a chance that things won’t turn out alright.

The op-ed piece details the unfortunate circumstances that the writer’s grandfather experienced the last two and a half years of his life that he spent in a nursing home. In one example, a wound on the man’s knee was bandaged, but had become infected and exposed to urine.

According to the article, some of the issues facing that particular facility included the fact that the staff did not have the time or the support to give each patient the time and care they needed; also, the home was perpetually short-staffed, especially on nights and weekends.

There is good news this week for elderly residents of Schuylkill County who are in need of elder care but want to stay in their own homes: the Home Instead Senior Care office in Pottsville announced that it will be hiring 30 caregivers to its existing staff this year.

This is also welcomed news for residents of Schuylkill County who are looking for jobs, as the new positions will be part time with a flexible work schedule. In a press release, officials said this is “particularly good news for older Americans searching for second careers. Franchises anticipate mature workers will fill many of the job openings. Currently, about 30 percent of the network’s employees are 60 and older. Many part-time opportunities are available for those seeking to stay active professionally, at reduced hours.”

According to an article on the RepublicanHerald.com, this growth is a reflection of the increasing demand for home care professionals. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the need for personal care aides is expected to grow by 70 percent from 2010 to 2020, which is much faster than the average for all other occupations.

Earlier this month, The Mercury of Pottstown reported that in Pennsylvania, adult children could be sued for their parent’s nursing home bill after the PA Supreme Court declined to review the lower court decisions in the case of HCRA v. Pittas.

According to the article, the decisions were based on interpretation of the “filial support” laws here in PA. This law states that adult children are financially responsible for their indigent parents, although the word “indigent” is not defined.

In the Pittas case, Mr. Pittas’ mother went into a nursing home for rehabilitation after a car accident. She then moved to Greece, leaving almost $93,000 in unpaid nursing home bills. The court found that since Mr. Pittas’ mother did not have sufficient income to pay the nursing home bill, she was considered indigent. There was no evidence that Mr. Pittas took any of his mother’s money for himself, yet the Superior Court rejected his arguments that the courts should have considered other forms of payment, like his mother’s husband, her other two adult children, or Medicaid.

In the article, it mentions that other states have similar filial support laws, but none are used to the extent that they are here in Pennsylvania. Also, Pennsylvania’s laws authorize providers of care to bring law suits against adult children.

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This week the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that said the cost of treating Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia is $109 billion, more than the cost of treating cancer or heart disease.

An article on CNN.com reported that according to the study, the costs will more than double in the next 27 years, reaching $259 billion by 2040.

According to the article, the costs of treating heart disease are $102 billion and the costs for cancer treatment are $77 billion.

Per dementia patient, the cost of formal care comes to an average of $33,329 each year. The costs highlight how expensive the disease is for society. In the article, Robert Egge, vice president for public policy for the Alzheimer’s Association, is quoted as saying, “It’s expensive because of how long people live with the disease, and the intense care that’s required as they progress further and further into Alzheimer’s.”

Since 70% of dementia patients are eligible for Medicare, most costs fall on U.S. taxpayers, according to the study.

The study also points out that there are few successful therapies that can treat those suffering from dementia. But therapy can slow the onset of symptoms which can reduce costs. In fact, if treatment can push back the disease for an average of five years, it could eliminate about half the cost of care.

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There’s been much debate recently regarding the overmedicating of nursing home patients with dementia. But new research shows that it is safe to take most dementia residents off of antipsychotic drugs without behavioral consequences.

According to an article on McKnights.com, the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group, part of the international healthcare research organization the Cochrane Collaboration, reviewed nine trials with 606 participants, most of them nursing home residents. The trials studied what would happen when patients with dementia were taken off antipsychotic medications.

The researchers found that it is generally safe and advisable to stop giving antipsychotic medication to patients with symptoms of dementia, including agitation, aggression, depression, wandering, and delusions. But one exception may be older patients who have had more severe neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). The study found that discontinuing antipsychotic medication has few or no negative effects and may improve verbal fluency.