Pennsylvania Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

We face some difficult medical decisions when an elderly family member’s health begins to fail. Many families will rely on the recommendations of physicians when it comes to medical interventions for an elderly patient who is nearing death. But a recent blog entry published on The New Old Age blog on the NY Times is shedding new light on the issue of feeding tubes used on dementia patients. According to the article, a study that involved interviews with 486 people across the US found that “of patients who received feeding tubes, 13.7 percent of family members reported that doctors had inserted the tubes without seeking permission at all.” In addition, the article said, “some 12.6% of patient family respondents said they felt under pressure by the patient’s doctor to allow a tube to be implanted.” Read the full article here:

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/feeding-tube-decisions-often-made-in-haste/?partner=rss&emc=rss

This week, skilled nursing care facilities around the country are celebrating National Nursing Home Week (NNHW). National Nursing Home Week is an annual observance sponsored nationally by the American Health Care Association (AHCA), based in Washington, DC. According the the AHCA’s website, NNHW “spotlights nursing home residents and staff and encourages all to celebrate those that make a positive difference in their lives every day.”

Another goal of National Nursing Home Week is to show how a nursing home can be a supportive and caring environment and that these facilities can and should provide enrichment for residents and families to continue growing, learning, and teaching. NNHW also honors those who work in our nation’s nursing homes, including employees and volunteers.

At O’Connor Law, we ask you to join us in celebrating National Nursing Home Week. We believe it’s important show our appreciation to all those who provide care to our loved ones who are in skilled nursing facilities. It’s not always and easy job, and at times it requires a tremendous amount of patience and compassion. We thank all those who provide professional care to our families members who need that additional help in their golden years.

About 2 weeks ago, we wrote about an incident that occurred at Quadrangle Sunrise Senior Living Center in Haverford, PA, where three workers were arrested for alledgedly abusing a dementia patient. This weekend, Philly.com reported that the state of Pennsylvania has revoked the nursing care facility’s license.

According to a report from the Department of Public Welfare, they found “gross incompetence, negligence, and misconduct on the part of officials” with the facility and its parent company, Sunrise Senior Living of McLean, VA.

According to the article, the allegations against three of the Quadrangle workers include taunting and physically abusing a 78-year-old dementia patient and blocking her door when she tried to escape. The patient’s family told Quadrangle administrators that they thought their family member was being abused. When their concerns went unanswered, they installed a hidden camera in her room, catching the abuse on tape, and turned the tape over to the Haverford police.

Our local paper, the Republican Herald, published an article on Saturday about the need for Pennsylvania state law to become tougher on the problem of elder abuse.

According to the article, representatives from the Schuylkill Elder Abuse Prevention Alliance (SEAPA) pleaded with local legislators on Friday to improve state laws to give prosecutors more tools to deal with elder abuse, particularly financial abuse.

The article quoted county Detective Dorothy Malec as saying, “We need…and I’m begging you…we need to have some of the things in the crime code changed to be more specific regarding power of attorney abuse. A power of attorney is not a license to steal.”

SEAPA suggested an upgrade to the definition of “Financial Exploitation” in the Pennsylvania Crimes Code to read, “A person who recklessly, knowingly or intentionally deprives an older adult of the proceeds of the older adult’s benefits under the Social Security Act or other retirement program meant for the older adult’s health care commits a felony of the second degree.”

Schuylkill County Commissioners Chairwoman Mantura M. Gallagher is quoted in the article as saying, “We’d love to see the Legislature somehow give prosecutors the tools to process these cases at a quicker rate. There are so many stumbling blocks. If the state would have something in place that would be able to assist us with the hiring of forensice accountants so we could move faster on a case, that would be great.”

In the works is House Bill 92, that would allow are agencies on aging to have the authority to investigate cases in which elder abuse and power of attorney were involved.

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A new study shows that litigation, or the threat of litigation, does not lead to improvements in care at nursing homes. In fact, researchers have reported that high-quality nursing homes face lawsuits often as much as those considered to be low-quality nursing homes.

The study was published March 31 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers find the results disappointing, since one objective of litigation, other than compensating victims of medical malpractice, is to encourage higher quality care.

One of the study’s co-authors, David Stevenson, is quoted in U.S. News and World Reports as saying, “The results are sobering. One of the fundamental things that the risk of a malpractice claim is supposed to spur is deterring poor quality care. What we found was that the return on being a high-quality facility relative to a low-quality facility isn’t great.”

Researchers reviewed data from lawsuits brought against five large U.S. nursing home chains between 1998 and 2006, looking at the reasons for the suits. During that period, 4,716 claims were filed against 1,465 nursing homes. On average, each nursing home was sued once every two years.

The data revealed that 61 percent of the claims resulted in a payment. The payments averaged almost $200,000.

The most common injuries were fall-related injuries at 27 percent, followed by pressure ulcers or bedsore at 16 percent. Other claims included dehydration, malnutrition and excessive weight loss, physical or verbal abuse, and medication errors.

Nursing home with the best records had a 40 percent risk of being sued, compared to the worst 10 percent of nursing homes, that had a 47 percent chance of being sued.

Those facilities that had the most nurse’s aide hours per resident-day were 45 percent as likely to be sued as facilities with the lowest staffing levels, which averaged 41 percent annually.

The most significant difference in the likelihood of lawsuits was the measure of pressure ulcers or bedsores. Nursing homes with the lowest pressure ulcer rates had a 6 percent chance of being sued in a given year because of bedsore-related complaints compared to 11 percent for the worst-performing nursing homes.

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On April 23, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will debut some improvements to its site that allows consumers to compare nursing homes.

The Nursing Home Compare site can be accessed by going to Medicare.gov, then typing “nursing home compare” in the search box. The Nursing Home Compare site provides basic information for comparing health care facilities so that consumers can make more informed choices.

Healthcare Finance News reported the changes that will be unveiled in April will include:

A Louisiana nursing home has found a new way to get residents up and active: the Wii video game.

The Associated Press reported that residents of Maison de Ville in Houma, Louisiana, may take naps and eat at specified times like at other nursing homes, but things change dramatically when the activities director turns on the Wii. The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo that allows user to participate in games using a wireless controller. Although residents may not be as anxious to exercise, they enjoy the games provided by the Wii.

Activities director, Angela Streams, said, “We have trouble getting them to buy into exercise, but in a lot of ways that’s exactly what this is. What they think of as being a game actually is burning calories and keeping their motor skills up.”

Four companies have expressed interest in buying Gracedale, the county nursing home that is being sold by the county.

According to LehighValleyLive.com, the four managed-care companies are from across the country and have offered between $32 million and $37 million for the 725-bed facility in Upper Nazareth Township. County officials feel these offers will allow them to get the home’s true value when sold, as the bids are close to the estimated value included in a previous study of the home.

But council’s other concern is for the residents. In the article, Councilman Ron Angle is quoted as saying, “Now we need to decide who will provide the best level of care to the patients.”