Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer - Nursing Home & Elder Abuse

Several Cases of Nursing Home Abuse in California

Jeff Rasansky — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:22:17 GMT

Three former managers at a Kern County nursing home have been arrested in the deaths of three residents who were given needless doses of psychotropic medications. How does this happen?

Over 20 residents at a skilled nursing center run by the Kern Valley Healthcare District were drugged for what was documented as "staff convenience". Many of them experienced side effects that included dramatic weight loss, slurred speech, tremors and even psychosis.

According to the LA Times, arraignement is scheduled this morning for the center's one-time medical director, Dr. Hoshang M. Pormir, former nursing director Gwen D. Hughes and former chief pharmacist Debbi C. Hayes.

All three of these people have been charged with elder abuse. Hughes and Hayes are accused of administering shots by force and without consent, leading them to face charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

Many people do not realize that this sort of thing DOES happen in nursing homes. It's called nursing home abuse and it is quite simply unacceptable. If you believe that someone you care about may have been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, contact a nursing home abuse attorney right away.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeff Rasansky

Nursing Home Neglect Results in Death in California

Jeff Rasansky — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:40:21 GMT

Most of us do not like the thought of placing a loved one in a nursing home. While it is true that many people work to provide the absolute best care possible for patients in these homes, it only takes a few incidents to give these places another look.

Recently, a nursing home in San Diego was cited and fined $80,000 by California officials for not supervising a 74 year old woman who caught fire last year while she was smoking at the facility. She died from her injuries. According to the California Department of Public Health, the "AA" citation against the Lemon Grove Care and Rehabilitation Center is the top penalty possible under the state law.

A spokesperson for the nursing home said that they will fight this last citation and penalty. In 2008, the home that has nearly 160 beds, received a pair of minor citations and one three years before.

A document describing the woman's death cites allegations that no staff members were monitoring the woman and two other residents one day last March while they were smoking in the nursing home designated smoking area. The woman's jacket caught on fire and she died less than two weeks later of injuries she sustained at a local hospital.

After the woman's death, Lemon Grove Care and Rehabilitation Center reworked its policy to require a staff member to be present while their residents smoke. However, it is our opinion that one death from nursing home neglect is far too many.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeff Rasansky

North Texas Nursing Home Abuse: A Huge Problem

Jeff Rasansky — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:20:09 GMT

Around 1/4 licensed nursing homes in Dallas County have been cited for violations of state and federal standards that put residents in harms way. In Denton County, around 1/6 of the nursing home facilities had similar problems documented in their last annual inspection, according to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Service's Web site. In Tarrent County, around 1/7 did. In Collin County, around 1 in 13 Nursing homes had considerable problems.

Amazingly (or disappointingly) most North Texas nursing homes were cited for some form of violation. These numbers are consistant with national numbers that found around 90 percent of nursing homes in Texas and 91 percent nationwide have been cited for deficiencies.

The report found that 17 percent of nursing homes nationwide had more serious types of problems. These deficiencies don't surprise those advocates of nursing residents, who say that facilities by and large are under funded and rely on poorly trained/under paid employees.

Around 90,000 people lived in 1,175 nursing homes in Texas in August, according to the state figures. Experts believe that these numbers will rise as the baby boomer population ages. The question is: how can we be assured that our loved ones will be okay, when these numbers clearly indicate that the odds are high that they will be put in harms way?

These facilities AREN'T cheap. In fact, many of them can cost upwards of $350 a month! Something must be done, and soon. Legislation MUST be changed so that these facilities are punished much more severely for their violations. Our loved one's lives are at stake here!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeff Rasansky

Why Are Nursing Home Conditions so Poor?

Jeff Rasansky — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:22:32 GMT

Nursing homes are responsible for some of the worst living conditions and abuse in the country. We have reported on several stories where residents have been put through some terrible conditions at these facilities. Take, for example, the story of 54-year-old resident Karen Preston who left the home where she was being cared for, stumbled into the woods and fell repeatedly and then finally sat down next to a tree. She was found two days later by police, frozen to death. The cause of death was ruled to be hypothermia. How on Earth could this happen??

Residents of nursing homes can be subjected to neglect and horrible living situations. Inspection reports of nursing homes in New York’s Hudson valley show that residents are at a significant risk for injury, illness and even death due to carelessness by operators and staff. Inspections at 22 adult homes in the area revealed 846 violations that were found to directly affect the safety of its residents. Documents show that some residents were left to sit in soiled clothes and were subjected to physical and verbal abuse.

Why do these facilities take such poor care of their residents? We aren’t saying that they all are guilty of this, but certainly many are. To answer that question you have to look deeper than just poor staffing and management. You have to look at government regulations and appropriation of funds. Just where exactly does the money go?

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeff Rasansky

Nursing Home Evictions: How Can They Do That??

Jeff Rasansky — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:44:25 GMT

Nursing homes all over the country are evicting residents. According to the Wall Street Journal, complaints about these discharge practices have doubled over the past decade, which makes it the second biggest category of nursing home abuse complaints. How can they do this?

There are, of course, circumstances where nursing homes will evict residents, but many elderly advocates say that these nursing homes are taking advantage of them. They are getting rid of their most expensive patients. For that reason, residents with dementia who have demanding families and especially those whose bills are covered through Medicaid are most likely to be turned out of nursing homes. According to the Wall Street Journal, patients on Medicaid only bring in half the revenue of those using personal insurance or Medicare.

Federal law gives six reasons for which a nursing home resident can be discharged involuntarily: if they are well enough to go home, need care that is only available somewhere else, if they endanger the health of others or the safety of others, fail to pay their bills, or if a facility closes its doors.

Still, some nursing homes are evicting residents who may be “uncooperative” or “unmanageable” or “unduly noisy”. And that just isn’t right!

When they do evict residents, nursing homes are required to give 30 days’ notice and explain their appeal rights, as well as put together a plan to make sure the move won’t hurt the resident. However, more often than not, nursing homes start “dumping” undesirable residents to other homes or sending them to a hospital and refusing to take them back.

What I want to know is, how can they do this to the elderly???

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeff Rasansky

Disabled Women Raped and Abused by Van Driver

Jeff Rasansky — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:27:14 GMT

In this disturbing story out of Virginia, two disabled women in wheelchairs separately testified that they had been molested and raped numerous times by the driver who transported one to adult daycare and the other to work.

Alton Kenney Davis, 56, has 12 sex-related charges against him. A 19-year-old mentally disabled woman said David had raped her three different times, along with other inappropriate conduct. She finally told her supervisor at work about the incidents. The 24-year-old claimed Davis molested her four times last year when he would stop the van while driving her home from an adult daycare center - touching her inappropriately and forcing her to touch him. Out of fear, she did not say anything until questioned by police in February.

Until fired because of the charges against him, Davis was a driver for Guardian Ambulance Services through its contract with LogistiCare, which provides services to recipients of Medicaid.

The 12 felony charges against Davis were sent to the grand jury. They include three abduction by force charges with intent to defile, four aggravated sexual battery charges of an incapacitated person and five rape charges involving a helpless victim.

Not only do we have to consider the type of care facility that is best and the safest for our loved ones - this shows that we even have to be wary of any subcontractors or vendors used by those facilities. It is unimaginable that a man could be so sick as to mollest and rape disabled women.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeff Rasansky

Assisted Living Center Fined $42,000 for Numerous Abuse Citations

Jeff Rasansky — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:07:15 GMT

State inspectors have cited Iowa's Legacy Gardens assisted-living center for resident abuse, backdating of medical records, violations of privacy rights, changing physicians' orders, dozens of medication errors and having an employee at work while intoxicated. In the past year, the facility has been fined a total of $42,000 - but the public is just now finding out.

According to The Des Moines Register, up until the governor of Iowa signed a new bill into law this Tuesday, Iowa state laws prevented inspectors' findings at assisted living centers from being made public until all appeals were exhausted. Such information has been required to be made public as soon as inspections are complete in actual nursing homes, but assisted-living centers were categorized separately. The new law allows for immediate disclosure of state inspectors' findings at assisted-living centers.

Though the change will hopefully bring more cases of abuse and neglect in assisted-living centers to light, until now many families have been completely unaware of the numerous incidents regarding the standards in resident care at Legacy Gardens.

According to the article, a few of the reports now public include:

- In November 2007, the home was fined for a lack of sufficiently trained workers leading to a 6-hour treatment delay for a resident's hip fracture.

- Inadequate evaluations of an 87-year-old resident's needs in April 2007, which by June were still not complete and the resident had passed away. She had allegedly been left lying in urine and was denied physician-prescribed morphine for pain because workers said they were not trained in caring for the dying.

- When an 82-year-old resident fell down, a nearby worker failed to offer assistance or acknowledge the incident.

- An employee was reported for twisting a resident's arm while the resident yelled for help.

- An administrator reported an employee yelling at an elderly resident to shut up and then slapping the woman (the employee was charged with assault). Two other reports of hitting / slapping by the center's employees were reported in March of 2007.

- Other cited errors include medication discontinuation without a doctor's order, dosages being changed without a doctor's order, and residents being given the wrong amount of medication; and failing to correct problems from previous inspections.

Incidents of abuse and neglect often go unnoticed or unreported because people are not aware of the potential of such abuse, or because residents are afraid to speak up. Talk to your loved ones - if you suspect they are suffering abuse or neglect in their nursing home or assisted-living facilities, contact a Nursing Home Attorney immediately.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeff Rasansky