Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

A federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit against HCA Inc., the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain saying that the cases in the class action need to be examined individually.

In April the hospital chain was sued in a claim it defrauded patients by directing its affiliated hospitals to staff nursing units below generally accepted levels.

The judge says those cases involve medical malpractice that should be examined on an individual basis, not in a consumer class-action.

For the full article.

A lawsuit has been filed by the widow of a Good Samaritan who attempted to rescue a woman’s purse after it had been snatched. The man chased after the thief and was halfway inside his car when the car crashed, pinning the Good Samaritan between the car and the building.

The man was immediately taken to Overland Park Regional Medical Center where he underwent surgery and was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital. While the purse thief was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, the new civil lawsuit alleges the doctors negligently treated the Good Samaritan after he came to the hospital.

The suit alleges medical malpractice in that the doctors waited too long to intervene, administered inappropriate antibiotics, and then waited too long to take him back to surgery.

For the full article.

The family of 104-year-old wealthy New York socialite and philanthropist, Brooke Astor, are entwined in a bitter battle over who should be her guardian.

Astor’s grandson is accusing his father, as Astor’s guardian, of denying Astor adequate healthcare, amongst other things.

For the full article.

Ninth Street Place has been fined $5,000 for failure to take corrective action to prevent further incidents of a resident leaving the facility without staff supervision. As the result of a follow up survey, the facility has been fined $7,500 for failure to set up a structure to protect the same resident, as noted above.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

Harrisburg Care Center has been fined $52,500 for failure to investigate two alleged incidents of sexual assault. The facility also failed to report to the Illinois Department of Public Health the alleged incidents of sexual abuse when the facility became aware of the allegations.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

A doctor working at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans on the day the levis broke during Hurricane Katrina is being charged with homicide in the death of four patients believed to be victims of “mercy killings.”

Autopsies performed on the four elderly patients reveal they died from a lethal cocktail, a mix of morphine and a central-nervous-system depressant, Versed. None of the four patients were receiving these drugs as part of their course of treatment.

For the full article.

Last week, a Winston-Salem jury awarded $1million to the estate of a man who suffered pressure ulcers due to neglect at Springwood Care Center. The man’s estate sued for both wrongful death and personal injury.

While the jury found the pressure ulcers did not contribute to the man’s death, the jury found the home and nursing staff was negligent in treating the man and awarded the $1million for the man’s pain and suffering.

For the full article.

Thanks to Connecticut's civil union law, which allows gay to sue for loss of consortium, a lesbian couple has sued two doctors for medical malpractice. The suit alleges the doctors of treated one of the women for ovarian cancer when she actually had cancer of the appendix. As a result, the patient underwent years of chemotherapy while the cancer spread.

The woman is suing for damages and the woman’s partner is suing for damages on her behalf for loss of consortium. This is the first suit of its kinds since Connecticut enacted its civil union law last year.

For the full article.

Firestone has renewed its efforts to recall defective tires recalled in 2000 and 2001 as the company realized many of these tires were still on the road. The action follows reports of at least five serious recent accidents tied to recalled tires, including the May 21 death of an 11-year-old boy in California.

Many of the vehicles still have spare tires that should have been recalled during the initial recall and were not.

For the full article.

Often drug companies will find creative ways to get around FDA regulations concerning drug marketing. Man times, drug companies will pay doctors to promote their drugs, including the “off label” uses.

The FDA does not allow drug manufacturers to market their drugs for unapproved uses. Therefore, drug companies will often pay doctors like Dr. Peter Gleason, a Maryland psychiatrist, to speak at industry conferences. In the case of Dr. Gleason, he has recently been charged with promoting the drug Xyrem for purposes other than those approved by the federal government.

Xyrem is a narcolepsy drug but Dr. Gleason advocated its use in treating depression and for pain relief.

For the full article.

Two nurses involved in abuse and neglect at CareMeridian assisted-living home in Oxnard, California will face criminal involuntary manslaughter charges along with the civil suit filed by the family of a 20 year old man who died at the home.

The man was admitted in January 2004 after suffering a serious surfing injury. Lying in a coma, the man required a gastrostomy or “g-tube” be inserted into his stomach to feed him. Just as his parents began to see signs of improvement, he took a turn for the worse. The feeding tube which was supposed to be changed by a specialist was wrongly changed by a nurse and inserted into the man’s abdominal cavity instead of his stomach. Over the next 12 hours the man received food water and medications into his abdominal cavity and causing inflammation and the man’s eventual death from periontitis.

The civil suit alleges lack of training of staff.

For the full article.

Last week, the Center for Justice & Democracy released a new study showing how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce provides substantial financial and strategic assistance to local front groups to influence state elections, including funding major media buys to smear local candidates. The report, “The Secret Chamber – The Inner Workings of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Hijacking of an Election,” draws from newly-released papers and deposition testimony uncovered in connection with litigation surrounding the failed 2004 election bid of Deborah Senn for Washington State Attorney General.

The Chamber of Commerce advocates on behalf of businesses and often overlooks the rights and needs of individual citizens, particularly with respect to the civil justice system.

For the study.

Last week, a trial progressed in Florida between a 100 year-old woman and the 74 year-old woman to whom she entrusted her care concerning $500,000 the 100 year-old woman claims her care giver tried to steal.

Hard of hearing and nearly blind, the 100 year-old woman met her 74 year-old friend in church. When the 100 year-old woman fell and needed to be admitted into a nursing home, their friendship soured. The 74 year-old woman, who had power of attorney over the 100 year-old woman, insisted that she remain in a nursing home.

The 74 year-old then transferred part of the $500,000 into her own accounts and the accounts of her children.

For the full article.

Quality Tools, a division of the Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality has developed a tool that helps nursing facilities to manage those most at risk for falls. Specifically, the tool focuses on improving nursing facilities’ fall care processes and outcomes through educational and quality improvement tools.

For more information about the tool.

The website below provides cost reports for nursing homes in Illinois detailing the operating costs of each home including salary information.

http://www.hfs.illinois.gov/costreports/

TennBarU, the TBA Elder Law Section and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) present Elder Law Basics and Beyond.

August 18 – 20th in downtown Nashville.

To register.

A wrongful death lawsuit was filed this week against the Danville Centre for Health and Rehabilitation alleging the home failed to provide enough trained staff to properly care for an elderly woman.

For the full article.

A new study from the Institute of Medicine released Thursday found that medication errors harm 1.5 million people, kill several thousand people and cost $3.5 billion per year in the United States.

Common errors are giving many times over the recommended dose, giving the wrong medication, and under medicating patients. Systemic changes are needed in the system to curtail the ill effects of medication errors. One of the proposed changes includes an electronic prescription service, however this system is used in only 6% of the nation’s hospitals.

The report also urged the Food and Drug Administration to improve and standardize the drug information leaflets given consumer because information on drug labels is often confusing and an important cause of medication errors.

For the full article.

A Franklin County, Ohio jury today awarded $17.8 million in a medical malpractice case brought by the family of a 5 year old girl. This is the largest historical money award in the county awarded by a jury.

The $17.8 million will cover the future medical costs, education and pain and suffering of a 5-year-old whose brain was damaged before elective surgery at Children's Hospital nearly five years ago.

As a result the child cannot speak, has cerebral palsy and will use a wheelchair for life, one of her attorneys said. Doctors were preparing to remove a benign cyst from the neck of the then-4-month-old infant when something went wrong with the anesthesia on Sept. 25, 2001.

The jury found the anesthesiologist responsible for the girl’s injuries and determined he had failed to let the girl recover properly from a first attempt to administer anesthesia and didn't respond quickly to warning signs that something was wrong.

For the full article.

What started as a minor $25,000 claim for neck and back injuries sustained in an auto accident has escalated into a potential $800 million class action lawsuit against Allstate insurance company.

The lawsuit alleges that Allstate’s claim practices are designed to bully car accident victims -- particularly the poor, the elderly and the disabled -- into accepting unfair compensation for their pain and suffering.

Allstate’s claim handling procedures were designed in the early 1990s by McKinsey & Co., a consulting company with close ties to Enron. The lawsuit alleges that Allstate forces claimants to accept low-ball offers or face years of stressful, costly litigation for routine claims and accidents.

For the full article.

On Monday, Steve Levin moderated a discussion and delivered a speech at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA, now the American Association for Justice) Conference in Seattle, Washington. Steve’s speech “Closing Arguments – Tying it All Together” covered closing arguments in nursing home litigation, a topic he is well versed on having spent nearly 30 years advocating and litigating on behalf of individuals and families who have been victims of nursing home abuse and neglect.

A copy of the program guide for the event can be found here.

Tom Baker’s book, The Medical Malpractice Myth, released last November, illustrates why claims of frivolous lawsuits are overblown and over hyped.

In the wake of this summer’s unsuccessful fifth attempt by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to cap non-economic damage awards at $250,000, medical malpractice continues to be a source of debate amongst politicians, doctors and lawyers.

This article examines why Baker’s book is a best attempt to synthesize the academic literature on medical malpractice.

For the article.

Under Oregon law, jury awards against public agencies are limited to $100,000 in general damages and $100,000 in special damages. Earlier this month, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the family of an infant who was mistreated at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) can sue for more than the $200,000 allowed against public agencies.

The reasoning is that while the damage cap applies to OHSU, a public entity, it is unconstitutional to prevent the suit from seeking the full damages against the individual employees. The family of the boy, who suffered permanent brain damage in 1998 while in intensive care at OHSU Hospital, requested more than $17 million in the lawsuit to cover past and future medical expenses, lost earning capacity and pain and suffering.

For the full article.

A South Carolina doctor is the subject of a medical malpractice lawsuit in the death of a Minnesota woman for whom the doctor illegally prescribed a hydrogen-peroxide solution to treat her multiple sclerosis.

The same doctor is being sued in a second medical malpractice case by the widow of a man who died of prostate cancer in 2004. The man sought treatment form the doctor who gave him intravenous hydrogen-peroxide treatments and falsely diagnosed him as having Lyme disease. The doctor next prescribed testosterone, which caused the man’s prostate cancer to rapidly advance and resulted in his death about six weeks later.

For the full article.

The Tripler Army Medical Center has admitted liability in a birth trauma case set for trial on August 15, 2006. The trial next month will focus on damages in the case of a newborn baby who was mistakenly given carbon dioxide instead of oxygen for more than 40 minutes after his birth.

As a result of the mistake, the boy, now 19 months, is severely brain damaged. The parents have sued for medical malpractice and future medical expenses, which are expected to be quite steep given that for as long as he lives, the child will need around-the-clock nursing care, relying on medical devices to eat and breathe.

Upon birth, the boy was healthy but the hospital decided to give his breathing a boost by putting him on oxygen. As it turns out, he didn’t receive oxygen at all. After the infant was given carbon dioxide, his health began to deteriorate. The hospital personnel realized the 40 minutes later that tubing was connected to the wrong gas tank, which caused the child’s heart to stop, necessitating resuscitation.

For the full article.

A 79 year-old woman has been missing from an Atlanta assisted living home since December. Yesterday, the Woodstock Police found the remains of a woman in a wooded area very close to the Woodstock Estates Assisted Living Home, from which she wandered.

Although the identity of the remains has not been disclosed, the woman is the only missing person in the area. The woman suffered from severe dementia and had walked away from the home before, exiting from her bedroom window. This prompted the staff to install a window alarm on the woman’s window. On the night she wandered from the home, the alarm sounded but a nurse ignored it. The nurse was later fired and charged with reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.

For the full article.

This year’s Loyola University Institute on Aging Course is entitled “Long Term Care: Issues and Options. The course is sponsored by Loyola University Chicago, School of Law and School of Social Work and Rush University Medical Center.

The conference will be held on Monday, August 14th – Thursday August 17th, 2006 from 9-5pm at Loyola University.

Attendees at the conference will include long-term care professionals, students, lawyers and social workers who will meet to share knowledge about the long-term care community and help to serve the needs of the elderly and their families.

To RSVP or for more information, contact Amy Eisenstein at (312) 942-1815 or Amy_r_Eisenstein@rush.edu.

Last week, the House Health Subcommittee pledge to work together and find new solutions to medical malpractice reform.

Solutions brainstormed include the use of health courts, and an “early offer” reform, which would allow hospitals to make offers for economic damages and attorneys fees within 180 of a malpractice incident.

For the full article.

Rimrock Villa Convalescent Hospital was fined $65,000 and cited by the California Department of Health Services when an 83 year-old woman choked to death on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Monday.

The woman had continually been assessed by the home as at risk for choking. Special instructions were given to staff to take precuations to ensure the woman was fed while upright, and that she took small bites interspersed with liquids while eating. The sticky consistency of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich should have raised a red flag with the nurse who gave the woman the sandwich saying “you promised you would eat.” Moreover, according to the state report, the staff did not sit her upright or remind her to take small bites.

The woman was found ten minutes later, unresponsive, and she died from chocking shortly thereafter.

For the full article.

Seniors beware: securities investments are not covered by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance. While traditional savings and checking accounts are insured by the FDIC, many other types of investments are not insured.

Oftentimes, seniors or others put their life savings in a bank believing the money is safe. However, customer service reps for the bank are paid to suggest different types of investment vehicles for these funds, such as risky investment securities rather than the safe traditional savings and checking accounts clients are used to. The attractiveness of the risky investments is that the client stands to gain more on his initial investment than he would from a standard bank account.

These riskier investments are not protected by FDIC insurance. Therefore, if the investments go sour, the seniors lose savings that would have been safe in a traditional bank account.

Make sure your loved ones and seniors are educated as to the pros and cons of the different investment vehicles BEFORE they visit a bank. When a customer service representative suggests merely going ‘down the hall’ to speak to an investment representative rather than into another building or part of town, investors may be more easily swayed into hearing a pitch from an investment representative.

For the full article.

When a 52 year-old woman came into a Palm Beach County Emergency Room she was quickly diagnosed with a stroke, brain hemorrhage and blood clot. The woman desperately needed a neurosurgeon. However, after eleven hours of looking for a specialist, the nearest surgeon available was 260 miles away in Gainesville, Florida.

The surgery was performed, however the woman died 10 days later, likely the result of her deteriorating condition as she waited for a neurosurgeon. The unavailability of specialty surgeons, particularly neurosurgeons, hand surgeons and ophthalmologists, is not uncommon in the nation’s ER rooms as patients flock to emergency rooms that don’t have the capacity for all who arrive on their doorstep.

In Florida, Hospital CEOs and physicians are working to fix the problem of lack of available specialists by coordinating specialists regionally and infusing money into emergency departments.

For the full article.

In an editorial responding to Senator Rick Santorum’s outspoken views on the so-called medical malpractice crisis, Larry Smar, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania treasurer Bob Casey cited the one-third decline in medical malpractice lawsuits between 2000 and 2004. Furthermore, Smar quoted a malpractice insurance expert who declared recently, “In Pennsylvania, the malpractice crisis is over.”

Moreover, categorizing medical malpractice lawsuits as “frivolous” is simply incorrect. According to a recent Harvard study, only 3% of all malpractices claims are filed by patients who didn’t experience injuries, and these suits were for the most part dismissed or resolved without payment.

For the full article.

Last Thursday, Governor Blagojevich proposed measures that are likely to reduce medical errors that kill nearly 4,000 Illinoisans a year. This measure comes a year after the Illinois legislature enacted caps on medical malpractice cases limiting non-economic damages awarded against individual physicians to $500,000 and limiting non-economic damages awarded against hospitals to $1,000,000.

On of Blagojevich’s proposed measures is a voluntary computer prescription program which national medical experts have estimated may reduce errors by 80 percent. With more than 750 medications that sound and look alike, this measure could be particularly effective at reducing prescription mix-ups and mis-fillings.

Blagojevich also proposed more focus on medical practices by creating a new patient safety division to standardize medication practices and reduce mistakes. While these measures will likely curtail instances of medical errors, the fact remains that the medical malpractice damage caps enacted last year strip Illinoisians of their right to fair and just compensation if they are not saved by preventative measures like the Governor proposes.

For the full article.

Glenshire Nursing & Rehab Centre has been fined $25,000 for neglecting a resident. The staff failed to monitor the resident’s whereabouts which resulted in him leaving the facility un-detected. The resident was later found after falling from the fourth floor window. The resident was hospitalized with serious injuries including a broken leg and ribs.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

Carlyle Healthcare Center has been fined $5,000 for failure to provide adequate supervision to prevent a resident from leaving the facility without staff knowledge. The resident was found across the front parking lot looking for his children whom he thought were outside.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

Wilson Care has been fined $20,000 for failure to assure staff follows facility procedures for monitoring residents. Staff did not follow facility policy to try and locate a resident who was found dead six hours later.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

An editorial in the Pocono Record, a Pennsylvania newspaper, calls attention to the comments of Senator Rick Santorum Rep-PA, who held a news conference on June 1, 2006, speaking out against the “medical malpractice crisis.”

What Senator Santorum didn’t reveal was the $350,000 he and his wife were awarded in a medical malpractice lawsuit against their chiropractor.

For the letter.

New Jersey Supreme Court will hear case on what information must be disclosed by an obstetrician when advising a patient to terminate a pregnancy

The New Jersey Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a decision by the New Jersey Superior Court that a jury could decide "[w]hat medical information is material and must be disclosed by an obstetrician when advising a patient to terminate a pregnancy and what medical information is material when the patient asks if the 'baby' is already there."

The case in question involved a doctor who a woman claims incorrectly told her she was not aborting a human life. The question centers around the discrepancy in meanings of “human life” and “baby” between the doctor and the patient.

A wrongful death action was dismissed but an appellate court ruled that the woman could sue for damages involving medical malpractice.

For the full article.

A Georgia appeals court has overturned another portion of last year's changes to the state law governing medical malpractice lawsuits.

In a 6-1 decision issued Thursday, the Georgia Court of Appeals struck down changes that required medical malpractice plaintiffs to give up the privacy of their medical records when they file their claims.

It's the latest ruling by Georgia judges reversing parts of the law, designed to encourage speedy out-of-court settlements, penalize parties who file frivolous lawsuits and cap pain-and-suffering awards in medical malpractice cases at $350,000.

In February, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down a section of the law that allowed defendants to have cases heard in their home counties. Judges have also overturned a rule requiring one side to pay the other's legal fees.

Source: Augusta Chronicle – Tuesday, July 18, 2006.

On Wednesday, a Kane County jury in the 16th circuit awarded $21 million to a woman left paralyzed by an error in a routine procedure in 2003.

The woman, a then 37-year old mother of three, had undergone a routine procedure at Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin, and was recovering nicely when a nurse incorrectly disconnected a catheter and allowed air into her blood vessel.

The woman next suffered an embolism which caused a stroke. The stroke caused the woman to suffer severe paralysis and the loss of her ability to speak. The jury awarded $8.5 million in past and future medical care, $500,000 for pain and suffering and $12.5 million for loss of a normal life in this medical malpractice case.

For the full article.

After undergoing stomach surgery in August 2004, it was discovered a sponge was left in a man’s stomach causing him extreme pain and agony. The man died of pancreatic cancer a year later, unable to undergo chemotherapy due to his weakened condition – the result of the sponge.

To avoid a potential conflict of interest, a retired Fairfax County judge will hear the $1.75 million medical malpractice lawsuit against Sentara Obici Hospital filed by the estate of the man, a former judge.

The judge served in the 5th judicial district and the current bench recused themselves from the case to avoid a conflict of interest.

For the full article.

On Monday, 5 men escaped from the Tinley Park Mental Health Center by lowering themselves out a 2nd floor window with a bed sheet. While the facility claims the men did not escape, as the facility has a voluntary admittance policy, the method of exit would suggest otherwise.

The men are mentally or physically disabled but none are considered dangerous to themselves or others.

For the full article.

A lawsuit was settled yesterday between Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and a 35 year old man who suffered a severe spinal cord injury when doctors at the hospital failed to evaluate and treat the man after his bicycle collided with a car.

The man came into the hospital with immobility of his legs and weakness in his hands but the doctors did not ask for a neurology or neurosurgery consultation. As a result, 9 days later the man was diagnosed with a cervical spinal cord compression and underwent neck surgery to ease the compression.

However, despite the surgeon’s best attempts, the man now lives in a nursing facility and can walk only a short distance with the aid of a walker.

For the full article.

In 2003, the Illinois legislature called for teams of experts to be formed to review cases of sexual abuse and deaths caused at nursing homes. The widespread abuse and neglect in Illinois and the nation’s nursing homes have finally caught the attention of Governor Blagojevich as he signed a bill into law last week mandating formation of these teams.

The delay in the formation of the teams was due to lack of funding; the teams are expected to cost $450,000. There will likely be 2 teams, one in Cook County and another regional team. The teams will be comprised of a Department of Public Health representative, local law enforcement, experts in mental illness and developmental disabilities, nursing home and nursing home residents' advocates, representatives from the state's attorney's and attorney general's offices, and others.

While the teams will not have regulatory power or power to impose fines, the teams will investigate incidents of sexual abuse and death and report back to regulatory agencies. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) already has a system in place to investigate homes annually and on a complaint basis, but often these measures are not enough and incidents of sexual abuse go unnoticed and unpunished.

Wendy Meltzer, director of Illinois Citizens for Better Care, a nursing home residents' advocacy group, believes that the formation of these task forces will allow investigators to look at the problem of sexual abuse in nursing homes more systematically. Instead of imposing a fine and walking away, the teams can assess the underlying causes and sources of the problems and what can be done to prevent the problems before they result in abuse or death.

For the full article.

In 2003, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, said that to meet budget constraints, a program called the Medicaid Home and Community Based Aged/Disabled Waiver Program (ADWP) would have its budget frozen at $60 million.

As a result, ADWP recently changed its requirements to be more stringent as to who qualifies for these benefits, leaving many previously covered under the plan without benefits.

The lawsuit alleges discrimination and a violation of equal protection against qualified applicants of aid, a violation of due process, and seeks an order enjoining the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) from terminating these ADWP benefits to the mentally and physically disabled.

For the full article.

Swann Special Care Center has been fined $25,000 for failure to: (1) follow doctor’s orders regarding a resident, (2) thoroughly accessing/monitoring the resident’s changing health condition including vital signs, (3) develop a nursing care plan, and (4) investigate why a resident was taken to the wrong hospital emergency room for evaluation and later died.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

Daystar Care Center has been fined $20,000 for failure to provide adequate supervision to a resident with a known history of smoking in the bedroom and bathroom. The lack of supervision resulted in the resident setting his shirt on fire and suffering second and third degree burns.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

Amberwood Nursing & Rehab Center has been fined $55,000 in relation to four separate incidents for failing to: (1) access/monitor a resident’s health condition and report changes to the resident’s doctor, which resulted in the resident requiring emergency hospitalization for sepsis, (2) assure the safety of a resident with mental retardation who left the facility and was found walking on a busy street, (3) supervise and monitor the whereabouts of a resident who had fallen in the shower and died, (4) supervise a resident while smoking, which put the safety of other residents at risk.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

A bill signed by Missouri’s governor Matt Blunt yesterday will allow the Missouri Insurance Department to have more information and control over medical malpractice insurance rates.The state insurance director can now veto medical malpractice rates that are excessive, inadequate or "unfairly discriminatory," but rates don’t require the director's approval before taking effect.

The efforts are aimed to keep doctors in the state by lowering the rates they pay for malpractice insurance. Last year, Missouri capped non-economic damages at $500,000 per defendant per case, limiting the amounts severely injured victims of malpractice and their families are able to recover. Governor Blunt suggests the reason rates are so high is due to excessive litigation. If this is the case, why are insurance premium rates coming under such strict scrutiny? Further, profits and executive pay at insurance companies this year are up, indicating the source of the excessive rates is the insurance companies driving up rates for doctors and not, as Governor Blunt suggests, “excessive litigation.”

Continue reading "Missouri governor wrongly attributes high malpractice rates to excessive lawsuits as he signs medical malpractice bill to keep insurance rates in check " »

Effective today, SB 141 allows state employees to be fired if they provide advance notice of an upcoming inspection of a long-term care facility. The law's goal is to preserve the "surprise" and integrity of the inspections.

Texas’ controversial futile care law is at the center of controversy in a case involving a 29 year old woman who fell into a vegetative state after her breathing tube became disconnected.

The law allows hospitals to remove life support in cases deemed medically futile. The law also requires that a hospital committee review the decision and give the family 10 days notice to find another facility to take the patient. This may mean the hospital could pull the plug before an independent investigation has been conducted as to a medical error.

In this case, the woman was found unresponsive by nurses after the breathing tube of the woman became dislodged. The woman had been on the breathing tube for a month after doctors performed an emergency cesarean section. The cesarean was performed after the woman’s visits to the emergency room for leg pains, chest pains and shortness of breath, were met with repeated answers from hospital staff that “nothing was wrong.” Eventually, the last time the woman came to the hospital complaining of symptoms, a test found blood clots in her leg and an emergency cesarean section was performed.

For the full article.

The family of a 90-year-old Indiana woman filed a lawsuit against White River Lodge nursing home for a fall the woman sustained at the facility in May of 2005.

The suit alleges negligence and failure to train staff and follow physician’s orders. The allegations charge that the woman fell after a White River Lodge employee dropped her while helping her get out of bed after her ostomy bag burst. In addition, the home did not notify the family of the fall until about six to seven days later. The woman was taken to the emergency room revealing that her femur (an upper leg bone) was broken in two places.

The woman died four months later after she suffered immense physical and mental pain.

For the full article.

In an effort to pre-empt a federal judge from ruling against them in a hearing scheduled for Friday, July 14, the White House announced on Friday that more than 8 million of the 55 million Medicaid recipients will be exempt from the proof of citizenship requirement.

For these 8 million, the exemption exists because they established their citizenship by applying for either Medicare or Supplemental Security Income. This exemption will cover many people with mental retardation who have never worked and to many nursing home residents.

For the full article.

On Friday, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court reversed a 2004 ruling that limited non-economic damages in all medical malpractice lawsuits to $350,000. Instead, the court restored a jury award of $1.2 million to the family of a woman who suffered a heart attack after being released from the hospital days earlier when she complained of chest pains.

The court held that in medical malpractice lawsuits where a victim has died, there can be two awards for non-economic damages: a survival action for what the deceased endured and could have collected if the deceased survived, and a second award for wrongful death that would go to the family of the deceased for their suffering.

For the full article.

An online directory for the United States 109th Congress exists for concerned citizens to write their congresspersons with concerns about recently or soon to be enacted legislation.

Illinois members of Congress

Other states

In November 2004, voters in Florida approved a constitutional amendment by an overwhelming 5-1 margin making medical error records in hospitals available to patients. The availability of records would allow prospective clients to assess a physician’s history of errors before signing up for treatment or surgery.

Since enactment, the amendment has been the subject of debate in the legislature and in two lawsuits. Specifically, there’s an argument as to whether the amendment applies retroactively or prospectively. One court has ruled that patients can request records now from dates before the November 2, 2004 enactment date. Another court ruled the records can only be requested for hospitalizations occurring after the November 2, 2004 date.

The issue will now go to the Supreme Court of Florida. The issue is three-fold: when can records connected to medical errors become available to injured patients and potential patients, which records must be disclosed, and can these records be used in medical malpractice lawsuits?

For the full article.

The NJHA Collaborative to Improve Quality of Care and Patient Safety in the ICU," part of the NJHA Quality Institute, announced the results upon completion of a two year program dedicated to improving the quality of care in hospital intensive care units.

The results show that a potential for 216 deaths were averted due to the participation of 18 hospitals in implementing higher standards of care. Bloodstream infections in intensive care patients were reduced by 73%. The occurrence of ventilator-associated pneumonia fell 55%.

The program, launched in 2004, required hospital teams to undergo an intensive examination of the policies and practices in their intensive care units. The program required the hospitals to implement best care practices in their intensive care units that will be shared with hospitals nationwide. While deaths were averted due to these quality care implementations, costs were also reduced at participating hospitals as the avoidance of pneumonia and bloodstream infections saved an estimated $11 million in medical costs.

For the full article.

A Wall Street Journal article by Laura Landro, on Jun 28, 2006 entitled “The Informed Patient: Hospitals Combat Errors At the 'Hand-Off'” discusses communication difficulties at hospitals. Due to growing concern that communication problems are the largest source of medical errors, hospitals have implemented communication improvement programs to deter the problems. Specifically, problems occur during shift changes when the new staff is not apprised of a patient’s situation.

Common types of errors that result from these shift-change communication difficulties are giving a patient the wrong medication or reviving a patient who has a "do not resuscitate" order.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has begun requiring hospitals to establish procedures that address this “hand-off” communication.

Trends in lower medical malpractice lawsuits and claims began before tort reform took off, indicating there was never a “crisis” in the first place. Despite this fact, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and other states around the country are implementing tort reforms to limit the rights of victims of medical malpractice.

This editorial asks how these changes can happen without careful examination of the facts by legislatures.

For the editorial download file.

A new web tool, called “Care Finder,” has been developed by the Alzheimer’s Association to help people with Alzheimer’s Disease find the right care options for themselves or a loved one. The tool has a special feature that allows individuals to enter personalized information, special needs, abilities and preferences, and receive a customized summary report with care recommendations and specific questions to ask potential care providers. The website also provides information on a variety of issues, including planning ahead, coordinating care, and support and resources. The tool was funded in part through the Administration on Aging’s cooperative agreement with the Alzheimer’s Association National Contact Center. To access the tool, go here.

Source: Alzheimer’s Association press release, June 13, 2006

Nonprofit nursing homes and hospitals provide better quality care compared with for-profit facilities, according to a new study.

Researchers, including Bradford Gray of the nonprofit Urban Institute, analyzed some 162 studies of nonprofit versus for-profit healthcare providers. They found that ownership status makes a difference in outcomes and in the cost of healthcare provided.

While the majority of studies found that the quality of care in nursing homes was better at nonprofits, most studies showed that for-profit nursing homes had an edge on the nonprofits in the area of cost control. The study appears in the current issue of the journal Health Affairs.

Source: www.mcknightsonline

Last month, Wisconsin honored its top ombudsman, Jim Haseman from the Wisconsin Board on Aging & Long Term Care. Jim was honored for his dedication and advocacy on behalf of elderly residents of Illinois.

For the full article.

Another article on the much debated Health Courts model, a proposed alternative to reduce medical malpractice insurance costs. Among the concerns centering around the Health Courts model are the elimination of a victim’s right to trial by jury. Instead, the Health Court would arbitrarily distribute monetary amounts to victims of medical malpractice for their pain and suffering, a task left to the jury in a medical malpractice case litigated by the court system.

Furthermore, many chosen to sit on Health Courts would not be the unbiased citizens traditionally composing a jury, but rather politically appointed and medically-trained judges who share a professional background with the defendant doctors in most cases.

For the full article.

A Wall Street Journal article suggests the numbers released earlier last month by Harvard Professor Donald Berwick stating improved conditions in US hospitals may be inaccurate.

The study employed 3,000 hospitals who implemented six steps to improve treatment and conditions in hospitals, and the results showed that 122,300 lives had been saved by this practice. This article examines the difficulty in determining whether a patient dies due to a single medical error or procedure. The results may be skewed as the numbers before the study are compared to those after the study, thus the inability to determine if the results came from the effort or other factors is great.

For the full article.

Levin & Perconti is currently litigating a medical malpractice case against 2 physicians and the University of Chicago hospital for negligently performing brachytherapy on a patient with prostate cancer. The doctors placed radioactive seeds in or near the rectal wall causing a burn injury, radiation proctitis, and the loss of the patient’s colon and bladder.

The seeds should have been implanted within the prostate and many seeds were not, therefore causing the rectal burn injury.

The case is expected to go to trial later this year.

Levin and Perconti is currently litigating a case against Walgreen’s Co. for mis-filling a prescription for an anti-organ rejection medication called Prograf which led to rejection of a patient’s liver, necessitating a 2nd liver transplant and multiple hospitalizations.

The case is expected to go to trial later this year.

Ken Suggs, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America defends lawyers who are unfairly being attacked as drivers of rising healthcare costs. Even though the Senate recently rejected a bill to cap damages in Medical Malpractice cases, Suggs insists politicians are using tort reform as a way to raise money for their presidential platforms.

Instead of lawyers driving up healthcare costs, Suggs suggests, insurance companies are profiting from increased medical malpractice premiums. In addition, the parties most often neglected in the debate are those who are permanently and severely injured due to a physician’s negligence. For some of these individuals and families, no amount of money will ever be enough to compensate them for their loss.

Suggs cites the following statistics to demonstrate that the so-called medical malpractice crisis is being unfairly spun to reflect poorly on attorneys:

• Medical malpractice payouts have remained flat for more than 10 years, and over the last four years have been dropping.
• Between 2001 and 2004, the number of payouts on behalf of doctors fell about 14 percent.

For the full article.

A Cook County, Illinois jury on July 6, 2006 awarded a verdict in the amount of $1,030,767.47 to a nine-year-old girl who suffered permanent injury to the brachial plexus nerves in her right shoulder in a medical malpractice case. The trial was presided over by the Honorable Patricia Banks and the verdict rendered after 7 hours of deliberations over the course of two days. Once it was established that the baby’s right shoulder had become stuck behind the mother’s pubic bone during her delivery in April 1997, a condition called shoulder dystocia, the safest and simplest procedure was to place the mother into the McRoberts maneuver (which requires two assistants to raise the mother’s knees to her chest) and for a nurse to apply steady pressure to the area above the mother’s pubic bone (suprapubic pressure) while the obstetrician applies gentle downward pressure to the baby’s head. The jury found that during the birth of the child, the defendant obstetrician failed to use appropriate maneuvers and applied excessive force in his attempt to free the child’s right shoulder from behind her mother’s pubic bone.

Continue reading "Cook County Jury Awards $1.03 Million in Birth Trauma Medical Malpractice Case" »

Last week, the state of Georgia settled a civil rights suit with seven citizens with physical disabilities creating alternatives to nursing homes for the disabled. The settlement agreement includes a $4.3 million budget allocation for a program that will offer services to 1,000 members of the community including home delivered meals, health aids, and physical and speech therapists.

The lawsuit claimed these citizens were being forced into nursing homes due to a lengthy waiting list for home services. The suit may change the landscape of long-term care strategies in Georgia. It can often be cheaper to house these residents at home providing them essential care services. In addition, living at home provides the resident with more autonomy, a community setting and a happier and healthier lifestyle.

For the full article.

Three employees of the Glasgow nursing home in West Virginia, owned and operated by often troubled Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services, Inc., filed wrongful termination suits against the home last week.

The suit alleges the employees were fired after they reported cases of abuse or neglect to the management of the home. Many states, including Illinois, have laws that protect employees who report cases of abuse and neglect from being wrongfully terminated. In fact, in Illinois, recent legislation mandates that employees of nursing homes report instances of abuse and neglect within 4 hours of the occurrence or risk being charged with a Class A misdemeanor.

In one instance at the Glasgow home, one of the employees reported that another nurse had falsely charted a patient’s treatment. The next day the employee was called into the nursing director’s office and warned not to be a “trouble maker” and a “tattle tale.”

For the full article.

Two editorials following a series of movements on behalf of low income citizens to stop the new Medicaid requirements from negatively affecting the “poor, sick and burdened.”

View the editorial.
From the Washingon Post.

Ninth Street Place has been fined $5,000 for failure to take corrective action to prevent further incidents of a resident leaving the facility without staff supervision. As the result of a follow up survey, the facility has been fined $7,500 for failure to set up a structure to protect the same resident, as noted above.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

Helia Healthcare Of Energy-DD has been fined $10,000 for failure to develop, update, and implement a nursing plan of care to address changes in the conditions of two residents. The facility failed to offer alternatives for repositioning residents who require assistance for changing positions.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

Countryview Home has been fined $10,000 for failure to implement its own policies and procedures to prevent neglect after a resident was identified at high risk for falls. The facility also failed to analyze staffing patterns and/or the need for staff training to supervise and assist the resident.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

The Clayberg has been fined $5,000 for failure to provide adequate supervision of a resident who left the facility without staff knowledge. The facility failed to ensure the electronic monitoring device of the resident was functioning properly.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

Alden of Old Town West has been fined $11,000 for failure to ensure a resident was not subjected to psychological abuse and punishment by staff. The resident, who needs an electric wheelchair to get around, suffered scrapes and bruises after a staff person ordered the resident to crawl naked to the shower room. The staffer then showered the resident on the dirty floor.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators.

An article in the June issue of Provider magazine discusses consistent assignment of nursing staff and makes the case that such assignments improve quality and reduce staff turnover. The article links building and continued relationships with staff retention and improved care. On the other hand, constantly changing assignments are correlated to turnover and low morale.

Consistent assignments would allow nurses and staff to familiarize themselves with a patient’s progress and make it more likely they could recognize a change or irregularity in the patient’s condition. This could lead to greater and quicker recognition of the onset of illness or depression in nursing home residents.

For the full article.

The International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) sponsored "The First World Elder Abuse Awareness Day" on June 15, 2006 at UN Headquarters in New York City. Elder abuse agencies throughout the nation celebrated the day by promoting awareness to recognize elder abuse as a public health and human rights issue

The program for the event can be found here.

In March, the FDA issued guidelines to try and aid nursing homes in preventing deaths from bedrails. Nursing homes claim the benefits of bedrails are to help patients pull themselves up and prevent themselves from rolling out of bed. However, often the homes use side bedrails to restrain a wandering patient and trap them in the bed. The danger exists because frail and elderly patients get trapped in between the rail and mattress, resulting in death or serious injury.

Some of the problems that cause these injuries are bedrails that are put together incorrectly or from mismatched parts. Lack of awareness is also to blame. Nursing homes aren’t the only ones plagued by faulty bedrails. As awareness increases and nursing homes eliminate bedrails from their patient rooms, the older and unsafe rails are being used on home-care and hospice patients.

Levin & Perconti is currently representing the family of an 82 year old Kentucky woman who asphyxiated when her body became trapped between the mattress and the bedrail. Due to insufficient training and staffing, nurses were improperly using side rails as a restraint for the woman. In fact, the nurses even went as far as elevating the head and foot of the bed, creating an inverted cave-like area and making the risk of entrapment even higher.

For the full article.

Violations: 54 Illinois nursing home regulations violators during April - June 2006

The Illinois Department of Public Health has initiated action, as indicated, against the following facilities which have been determined to be in violation of the Nursing Home Care Act, or has recommended decertification to the Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for violations in relation to patient care, pursuant to Titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act.

For details on the violations.

LIST OF VIOLATORS

Alden Alma Nelson Manor
550 South Mulford Avenue
Rockford, Illinois 61108

Amberwood Nursing & Rehab Center
2313 North Rockton Avenue
Rockford, Illinois 61103

The A.R.C of Jacksonville, LTD
1320 Tendick, P.O. Box 1115
Jacksonville, Illinois 62650

Arlington Rehab & Living Center
1666 Checker Road
Long Grove, Illinois 60047

Asta Care Center of Bloomington
1509 North Calhoun Street
Bloomington, Illinois 61701

Belhaven Nursing Home
11401 South Oakley Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60643

Belhaven Nursing Home
11401 South Oakley
Chicago, Illinois 60643

Boulevard Care Center
3405 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60616

Cahokia Nursing and Rehab Center
2 Annable Court
Cahokia, llinois 62206

Champaign Terrace
808 North 3 rd Street
St. Joseph, Illinois 61873

Clinton Manor Living Center-DD
111 East Illinois Street
New Baden, Illinois 62265

Colonial Apartments
920 West Fourth
Centralia, Illinois 62801

Colonial Apartments Center
920 West Fourth
Centralia, Illinois 62801

Colonial Plaza
618 West Goodner
Nashville, Illinois 62263

Columbus Manor Residential Care Home
5107-21 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60644

Evergreen Nursing & Rehab Center
1115 North Wenthe
Effingham, Illinois 62401

Fairview Baptist Home
250 Village Drive
Downers Grove, Illinois 60516

Friendship House of Centralia
1000 Martin Luther King Drive
Centralia, Illinois 62801

Glen Brook
Route 45 North, P.O. Box 698
Vienna, Illinois 62995

Glen Oaks Nursing and Rehab Center
270 Skokie Highway
Northbrook, Illinois 60062

Glenwood Healthcare & Rehab
19330 South Cottage Grove
Glenwood, Illinois 60425

Harrisburg Care Center
1000 West Sloan Street
Harrisburg, Illinois 62946

Heartland Health Care of Canton
2081 North Main Street
Canton, Illinois 61520

Heather Health Care Center
15600 South Honore Street
Harvey, Illinois 60426

Helia Healthcare of Energy
210 East College
Energy, Illinois 62933

Heritage Manor-Gibson City
620 East First Street
Gibson City, Illinois 60936

Heritage Manor South-Beardstown
8306 St Lukes Drive
Beardstown, Illinois 62618

Hickory Nursing Pavilion
9246 South Roberts Road
Hickory Hills, Illinois 60457

Imperial of Hazel Crest
3300 West 175 th Street
Hazel Crest, Illinois 60429

Independence Place
1705 South Park Avenue
Herrin, Illinois 62948

Independence Place
1705 South Park Avenue
Herrin, Illinois 62948

The Iroquois Resident Home
200 Fairman Avenue
Watseka, Illinois 60970

Jackson Square Nursing and Rehab Center
5130 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, Illinois 60644

Mattoon Health Care Center
2121 South Ninth
Mattoon, Illinois 61938

Meadowbrook Manor-Naperville
720 Raymond Drive
Naperville, Illinois 60563

Momence Meadows Nursing Center
500 South Walnut
Momence, Illinois 60954

Odd Fellow-Rebekah Home
201 Lafayette Avenue East
Mattoon, Illinois 61938

Orchard Court
1430 State Route 127 South
Jonesboro, Illinois 62952

Pinnacle Health Care-LaGrange
701 North LaGrange Road
LaGrange Park, Illinois 60526

Pleasant Meadows Christian Village
P.O. Box 375, 400 W. Washington
Chrisman, Illinois 61924

Prairie View Care Center-Lewistown
175 East Sycamore
Lewistown, Illinois 61542

Rainbow Beach Care Center
7325 South Exchange Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649

Rehab & Care Center-Jackson County
1441 North 14th Street
Murphysboro, Illinois 62966

Rosewood Care Center of Peoria
1500 West Northmoor Road
Peoria, Illinois 61614

Rosewood Care Center of Rockford
1660 South Mulford
Rockford, Illinois 61108

Saline Care Center
120 South Land Street
Harrisburg, Illinois 62946

Stearns Nursing & Rehab Center
3900 Stearns Avenue
Granite City, Illinois 62040

Swann Special Care Center
109 Kenwood Road
Champaign, Illinois 61821

Terrace Nursing Home
1615 Sunset Avenue
Waukegan, Illinois 60087

Torrence Place
2601 223 rd Street
Sauk Village, Illinois 60411

Village Nursing Home
9000 LaVergne Avenue
Skokie, Illinois 60077

Warren Park Nursing Pavilion
6700 North Damen Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60645

The Wealshire
150 Jamestown Lane
Lincolnshire, Illinois 60069

Westside Care Center
601 North Columbia Street
West Frankfort, Illinois 62896

Wincrest Nursing Center Corp.
6326 North Winthrop Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60660