Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

Nationwide, there are problems with nursing home staff failing to promptly respond to their patient's call bells. Yet again, we see this issue. Here, the nursing home staff's failure to respond had fatal results.

An eighty-two year old woman died the night before she was to check out of the Brighton Gardens of Rancho Mirage nursing home to move in with her daughter and her family. She had only been at the nursing home for seven days.

That night, the woman had difficulty breathing and rang the call bell, but it took nursing home staff members ten minutes to show up. After she collapsed and stopped breathing, the nursing home staff did not perform CPR on her. Rather, they ignored her, throwing her back in bed.

The California Department of Health cited the nursing home for neglect and issued a $10,000 fine. The victim's family has filed a complaint, charging the nursing home with neglect.

For the full article.

Marigold Rehab & HCC has been fined $5,000 for failure to supervise a resident identified as a risk for leaving the facility. The resident left the facility without staff knowledge. Staff failed to operate the resident electronic monitoring system and failed to have written policies and procedures for monitoring the system.

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

Coventry Village has been fined $25,000 for failure to reasonably monitor and recognize a resident’s declining condition, and then use appropriate interventions. The facility also failed to notify the resident’s doctor of declining health. The resident was taken to the hospital and required immediate surgery.

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

Auburn Nursing & Rehab Center has been fined $5,000 for failure to provide adequate supervision to prevent a resident from leaving the facility without staff knowledge. Police notified staff they had found the resident in a ball field about 200 yards from the facility.

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

The Orange County Register reported that a sixty-one year old California man won a $3.3 million jury award in a medical malpractice case against his primary care physician.

The victim initially saw the doctor in June 2002 after he had been urinating blood. The doctor concluded that the man had a kidney stone and instructed him to do nothing unless his symptoms resurfaced.

Only six months down the road, the victim was diagnosed with bladder cancer. After enduring multiple surgeries and several months of physical therapy, he continues to walk with a cane and has to urinate into a bag attached to his stomach.

For the full article.

South Haven Home has been fined $5,000 for failure to implement its policy to prevent a resident, who left the facility on two prior occasions, from leaving the facility without staff knowledge.

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

Sterling Pavilion has been fined $40,000 for failure to ensure that care provided to residents with a history of falls and significant injury included measures to minimize further falls. Several residents were injured from falls, including one resident who died from a head injury.

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

A nurse from the Rosewood Care Center in Edwardsville, IL has been charged with felony criminal neglect in the death of an 86-year-old nursing home resident. Last August, the nurse was alleged to have given the 86-year-old woman a lethal dose of the painkiller oxycodone.

The nurse is suspected of having given the drug four hours too soon.

For the full article.

The American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA) will be sponsoring two upcoming events to address the pressing issue of nursing home abuse in our country.

The ATLA continuing legal education program entitled “The Ever-Changing Defendant: Holding the Nursing Home Industry Accountable" will be held October 4-5, 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee. To register.

The ATLA continuing legal education seminar entitled “Deconstructing a Landmark Resident-on-Resident Abuse Nursing Home Case Against Summit Care Corp" will be held October 6, 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee. To register.

Despite a jury award of $5 million, the family of a 33-year-old Michigan man who bled to death while being transferred from one hospital to another will get only $359,000 in noneconomic damages under a state cap law. The man was admitted to the hospital with a broken leg after a car accident. While his leg was splinted, he was transferred to a hospital 40 miles away. Before the man was transferred, a nurse had noted in his chart that he was “spurting blood” and a medical technician noted he was losing “copious amounts of blood.” Despite the warnings, that man was transferred in violation of Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 which requires emergency rooms to screen patients and prevent discharges and transfers of patients with serious medical conditions. In this man’s case, he went into cardiac arrest on the transfer and was later pronounced dead.

The man’s widow was awarded $5 million by a Michigan jury, however the 6th circuit reduced the award to $359,000 on appeal, due to Michigan’s cap on noneconomic damages. This is a prime example of why tort reform is contrary to notions of fairness and justice. In this case a very young man was allowed to bleed to death due to easily avoidable miscommunication and negligence of hospital staff.

The large disparity in what the jury awarded the widow and what the law allowed the widow to recover demonstrates that there are two sides to the so-called tort reform debate. While doctors often complain of frivolous lawsuits, the fact remains that many cases are screened out of the system before a jury even has a chance to consider the facts. In fact, if a case goes to jury, only one-third of plaintiffs will prevail. On the other hand, in a case like this, the award allowed by applicable state law is grossly lower than what a jury of peers believes the man’s estate is entitled to recover.

Hawthorne Inn of Clinton has been fined $60,000 and has received a notice of license revocation for failure to comply with its plan of correction submitted after a previous survey. Nursing staff failed to monitor/document changes in the conditions of two residents and failed to notify their doctors. As a result two residents were hospitalized and one resident died.

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

Sometimes the medical equipment used for procedures in hospitals may not be bought because it is the best equipment or most efficient equipment. Sometimes the equipment is purchased because of financial schemes set up between doctors and medical devicemakers, where doctors often receive kickbacks.

A special report states that hospitals are the next in line in ongoing government investigations and lawsuits regarding relations between medical devicemakers and doctors.

Continue reading "Government investigators predicted to investigate hospitals’ participation in Medicare fraud in devicemaker schemes " »

Willow Creek Rehabilitation has been fined $50,000 for failure to have a system in place to timely identify, asses and treat pressure sores and have measures in place to prevent pressure sores from developing and promote the healing of existing pressure sores. This failure resulted in a resident not receiving timely care.

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

Springfield Terrace has been fined $5,000 for failure to have a system in place to monitor water temperatures. The hot water measured between 128 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, which could scald and harm residents.

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

In a medical malpractice trial in Oregon this week, jurors will consider who is covered by the $200,000 damage cap in the state. In the case of a 45-year old man who is suing for negligence and medical malpractice as a result of back surgery last year, the defendants are both the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and the OHSU Medical Group. The OHSU hospital is undoubtedly covered by the cap which applies to hospitals. The question will be whether the OHSU Medical Group is an agent of the hospital and thus, also covered by the caps.

This suit is the first to come to trial since the Oregon Court of Appeals overruled the cap in another case earlier this month.

For the full article.

A Louisiana article reported that Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center had allowed one of its doctors to perform unnecessary heart procedures, such as angiograms, angioplasty, and stent replacements on their patients. The lawsuit against the Medical Center for defrauding public health care providers was filed by a whistleblower who had formerly worked with the doctor. The Federal Government has settled the lawsuit for $3.8 million and the whistleblower will receive $760,000 of the award. The doctor is also individually facing several criminal charges and hundreds of medical malpractice lawsuits for the unnecessary heart procedures.

For the full article.

Earlier this summer, a story was posted about financial elder abuse.

The story of a 101 year-old woman who filed a lawsuit against her 74 year-old friend alleging violation of fiduciary duties. The 101 year-old woman had given her 74 year-old friend some control over her money and affairs, making her a joint holder on her bank accounts and a beneficiary in her will.

She later filed suit after discovering her friend had set up CDs for her own children and continued withdrawing funds long after she knew she no longer had power of attorney.

A Circuit Judge ruled that there was clear and convincing evidence that there were no gifts made. The 101 year-old woman will get all of her money back.

For the full article.

In response to the study released earlier this month from the Archives of Internal Medicine concerning doctors’ disclosure preferences, an article from the Seattle Times examines whether doctors fearful of lawsuits and those practicing in tort reform states have the same disclosure preferences. The answer: yes.

Doctors in Canada for example, fear lawsuits significantly less than those in the United States due to paying less for malpractice insurance, cases being heard by judges, not juries and caps on damages for pain and suffering. However, these doctors are just as reluctant to fess up to their mistakes as those in states in the United States labeled as so-called medical malpractice “crisis” states.

For the full article.

In the past four years, the Justice Department has launched several investigations into relationships between physicians and medical device makers. The focus has been on potential conflicts of interest doctors may have in employing devices from companies they are receiving kickbacks from.

Healthcare attorneys say it’s only a matter of time before Hospitals become the subject of the same scrutiny. Regardless of the hospital’s knowledge of conflicts of interest between its staff and device sales companies, the hospitals are still on the hook.

For the full article.

On Wednesday August 18, 2006, Steve Levin, of Levin & Perconti spoke to an audience at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Institute on Aging. Levin presented on the Nature, Extent and Impact of Abuse and Neglect by Staff at Residential Facilities and How to Advocate on Behalf of a Resident.

The event was sponsored by the Elder Law Initiative of the Institute for Health Law at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

A lawsuit was filed today against Manorcare of Oak Lawn, IL. Manorcare is no stranger to allegations of nursing home abuse and neglect. In a verdict earlier this month, the home was ordered to pay $2.9 million to the family of a woman who died when the staff at Manorcare Homewood neglected to care for her trach tube.

In this case, the complaint alleges neglect and that the nursing home staff found maggots in a resident’s wound on June 21 while changing the dressing where a toe had been amputated.

For the full story.

Six years ago, a now 88 year-old woman lost her 79 year-old husband to a fatal trip and fall in a Walworth County, Wisconsin nursing home. Despite efforts from her friends to persuade her to file a lawsuit, she declined to file a suit.

Six years later, after her legal options and remedies under the law have expired, she has been served a lawsuit from the county claiming she owes $5000 for the last month her husband spent in the home.

For the full article.

During the 1990’s, due to rising medical costs, the median income of primary care physicians remained relatively flat. In response, many physicians organized their offices into corporate practices to save money by assigning more nurses and physician’s assistants to more technical tasks

Often, these practices are flawed because not all patients are able to see a doctor during their visits. Some physicians have their physicians assistants or nurse practitioners see the less serious patients which may result in a misdiagnosis. On a more extreme end, due to more volume in patient visits, doctors, particularly specialists may not have a chance to follow up with patients or patients’ primary care physicians.

For example, someone who was diagnosed with cancer may not receive the kind of immediate follow up and care given by smaller practices if sent to a corporate physician practice. This lag in time could be crucial to someone with cancer diagnosed at an early stage so that the cancer doesn’t metastasize or spread while the patient is waiting for a course of treatment.

For the full article.

Urge Your Members of Congress to Support Passage This Year!

The Senate Finance Committee last week unanimously approved the Elder Justice Act, paving the way for it to be voted on by the full Senate in September and to be taken up in the House of Representatives before the end of the year. The legislation has undergone substantial revisions since it was first introduced in 2002, but it is still one of the strongest nursing home-related bills in years.

Former Sen. John Breaux (D-LA), who was the original sponsor of the bill, was in the Finance Committee audience August 3 when the committee met to mark it up. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) are the current sponsors.

Provisions particularly significant to nursing home residents and advocates are described below.

Continue reading "Senate Finance Committee Unanimously Approves Elder Justice Act" »

A report to be issued today by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services calls for tighter rules in nursing home evacuations like those from last year’s hurricanes.

Of the nursing homes surveyed, some had no guidelines on deciding whether to evacuate, no instructions about how much food and water to bring, no method for assigning staff members to make the trip, no procedures for transporting medications, no suggestions on alternate evacuation routes if highways were clogged, no arrangements with a host facility and no plans for how and when to return. The report also found that the nursing homes could not get the help they needed from local officials because there were no formal partnerships.

For the full article.

After less than a day of deliberations, a New Orleans federal jury awarded a 62-year-old retired FBI agent $50 million in compensatory damages, and an additional $1 million in punitive damages. The man suffered a mild heart attack after taking Vioxx for almost three years.

For the full article.

Another New York Times article in a series of articles examining financial incentives for doctors in prescribing drugs and treatments and evaluating patients examines cardiologist recommendations of treatment for patients.

Typically, options for patients with blocked coronary arteries are drugs, bypass surgery and vessel-clearing procedures like angioplasty. Among these choices, angioplasty is the most profitable for the doctors. While no accusations have been made or charges filed, several areas have a rate of angioplasties that are off the charts. For example, a northern Ohio town Elyria, just outside of Cleveland, has angioplasties at a rate nearly four times the national average.

For the full article.

Evidence of the ill effects of tort reform on poorer citizens in Mississippi is shown by the way these citizens have been treated since Hurricane Katrina. The caps on punitive and non-economic damages in Mississippi do not allow all citizens equal access to justice.

For example, women who stay at home raising children, or those in less skilled professions do not have an equal opportunity to recover economic damages as someone working full time or working in a more skilled and higher paid profession. For those citizens, non-economic damages and punitive damages are the only redress against wrongdoing.

For the full article.

The National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine recently released a new report concluding at least 1.5 million Americans get sick, injured or killed each year because of avoidable errors in prescribing, dispensing and taking medications. The study also shows the extra medical costs of treating drug-related injuries occurring only in hospitals are at least $3.5 billion a year.

This is the flip side of the tort reform debate.

For the full article.

An article from Reader’s Digest suggests 7 tips for patients to critically examine their diagnosis, treatment and doctor’s advice. The most important of the tips: TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS! These tips were written by a surgeon who required hand surgery—a frightening surgery for someone who makes a living using his hands. Despite choosing one of the best hand surgeons in the world, she became a victim of bad medical advice, resulting in a recovery 18 months longer than originally expected. Here are her other tips:

2) Choose wisely. The doctor you pick is only the first member of a team of specialists involved in your care. She'll likely assemble the rest of the team, so finding the right doctor is doubly important. So, too, is the hospital you choose. There are no guarantees, but usually, the better the hospital, the better the team.

3) Read the label. Many lab mix-ups start in your doctor's office. When giving a blood or other specimen, ask the nurse, politely, to show you the identification sticker to make sure it's accurate.

4) Do it again. If a lab result is unexpected or alarming, your doctor may have you retested. If he doesn't, ask him about a do-over.

5) Carry a medical passport. A summary of your vital health information is a must. It should list diseases, medications and doses, food and drug allergies, and phone numbers of your physician and nearest relative. Take it with you to every doctor you see -- even the radiologist.

6) Be a pack rat. Keep copies of all lab reports, x-rays, MRIs and CT scans, plus names and addresses of your MDs.

7) Get a second opinion. It's crucial to your health. If a diagnosis requires surgery, chemotherapy or medications with side effects, find another specialist (call the hospital's referral service for help), and send him all your pathology and radiology lab work for review, both the images and reports. When you get the second opinion, make sure you understand it. If not, talk to the doctor until you do.

For the full article.

An August Reader’s Digest article examines mistakes made in the diagnosis of diseases and medical conditions in the lab.

An example of the horrifying impact a mistaken diagnosis can have is a 61-year-old Chicago woman who was diagnosed with intestinal cancer after a routine colonoscopy. The diagnosis was particularly frightening because the woman had fought intestinal cancer—and won—10 years earlier.

After a two foot portion of the woman’s small and large intestines were removed, the woman began experiencing pain and digestive troubles. Her immediate thought was that they hadn’t removed all of the cancer. When she visited her doctor during a six-week checkup, she received troubling news. She didn’t have cancer at all. She had been misdiagnosed when her tissue sample had been contaminated with another person’s cancerous cells. She had endured unnecessary surgery.

This story illustrates the different forms medical errors and medical malpractice can take. Misdiagnosis in labs is a serious problem, particularly when the diagnosis leads to potentially life threatening surgery.

For the full article.

Residents' Rights Week is designated by the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform and celebrated the first full week in October each year to honor residents living in all long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, subacute units, assisted living, board and care, and retirement communities. It is a time for celebration and recognition offering an opportunity for every facility to focus on and celebrate awareness of dignity, respect and the value of each individual resident. Residents' Rights Week is also a time to reflect on the importance of the Nursing Home Reform Law of 1987 which promises quality of life and care and residents' rights for each resident. During this week, NCCNHR encourages everyone to honor the family members, staff, advocates, and residents themselves who promote and ensure that dignity, privacy and other basic human rights are maintained as an integral part of the lives of residents living in long-term care settings.

For more information.

Consumer Reports releases an annual list of nursing homes to consider and nursing homes to avoid based on annual surveys and facilities with serious problems.

To see the list for Illinois.

The National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) has announced its 31st National Conference and Annual Meeting, “Care Matters” will take place October 22 – 24, 2006 in Arlington, Virginia.

To register.

Medical malpractice investigation into the healthcare inmates receive at correctional facilities

As part of a Free Press investigation into the medical care provided by the Michigan Department of Corrections and Correctional Medical Services Inc. of Missouri, a discovery was made that in hundreds of cases, diseases have been misdiagnosed, undiagnosed or treatment is delayed or denied.

In one instance, an inmate’s cancer went undiagnosed for twenty months. Many of the inmates’ families are the only outside people who know about the illnesses the inmates suffer, and they can't even get a return phone call from prison medical staff.

For the full article.

Yesterday’s report of the $2.9 million Cook County jury verdict the law firm of Levin & Perconti obtained for the family of a victim of gross nursing home neglect has sparked interest locally and regionally. Today, two papers, The Daily Southtown and the Chicago Tribune both ran stories on the tragedy.

The media’s interest in the story illustrates the importance of making members of the community aware of these gross instances of abuse and neglect in the state’s nursing homes. Unfortunately, this story is just one of many sad stories that are reported each year in nursing homes in Illinois and around the country.

If you or your family member has been a victim of abuse or neglect at a nursing home, you have several courses of action:

1) Report the incident to your local Public Health Department. For citizens of Illinois, contact the Illinois Department of Public Health at 800-252-4343. For more information.

2) Contact your local ombudsmen to report the incident and receive advice on preventative measures that can be taken to ensure a similar incident does not recur.

3) Contact an attorney to determine if you or your loved one can be fairly compensated to the harm caused by the abuse and neglect of the nursing home.

To view the Daily Southtown Article.

To view the Chicago Tribune Article.

This week Illinois Citizens for Better Care (ICBC) launched their summer Family Matters newsletter. Family Matters is a newsletter and project dedicated to the development of family councils in Illinois nursing homes.

Family councils are developed so that families can organize and become involved with their loved ones’ long term elder care and advocate on behalf of their family members.

To read the newsletter.
To find out more about family councils.

On Friday, a Cook County jury returned a $2.9 million verdict for the family of a 57-year old woman who died at a nursing home due to the staff’s negligence. The law firm of Levin & Perconti represented Sheila Albores, the daughter and administrator of the estate of victim Ana Carrasco.

Carrasco was admitted to the HCR Manor Care Homewood facility for a short two week rehabilitation stay after having received a tracheostomy tube in surgery two weeks earlier. The staff at the home failed to clean and suction Carrasco’s trach tube to keep it free of mucous and failed to administer medicines crucial to maintaining a patent airway for Carrasco. After five days at the home of suffering from increasingly severe respiratory distress, Carrasco suffocated on her own mucous and was pronounced brain dead.

Friday ended Sheila Albores’ four and a half year battle to obtain justice for her mother and warn other families of the dangerous conditions at the nation’s nursing homes. In 2003, Albores testified on at the Senate Hearings on Aging on Capitol Hill. Sheila told her mother’s story and challenged the committee with these words, “I conclude today’s testimony with this statement; “My mother, Ana Carrasco, was fifty-seven years old, able to voice her complaints and concerns, and had the support of a loving family at her side while in a nursing home, and yet still faced a tragic end. If this could happen to my mother, I ask who will be the voice for patients who either cannot speak for themselves nor have no one to speak for them? What does fate hold for them? I am here today so that no one suffers from neglect while under the care of a nursing home. ”

For the press release.
For the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin Article.

Susan L. Novosad of Levin & Perconti filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit today against ManorCare of Homewood, Illinois on behalf of a resident who was dropped during physical therapy. The woman suffered a fractured femur and had open reduction internal fixation.

A New York Times article explores the increasing difficulty of inserting complex medical devices and the training doctors are receiving to insert the devices—is the training enough?

For the full article.

In the past few years, pharmaceutical companies have been under growing scrutiny as to the types of perks they can offer physicians during the course of sales pitches. More recently, extravagant dinners and golf outings have been banned. The new wave of buttering these doctors up is the “free lunch” according to a New York Times article.

The old adage there’s “no such thing as a free lunch,” holds true in these cases as the pharmaceutical sales reps provide lunches for the entire office as long as they can simultaneously pitch particular drugs while lunching with the docs. Buying lunch for the office fits within the pharmaceutical companies’ guidelines of approving “modest meals in the course of business” but may curry more favor and influence than one would think.

For example, when the University of Michigan Health System banned industry lunches last year, officials calculated that they had been worth $2.5 million in sales revenue for drug companies annually.

For the full article.

Prairie State Legal Services has arranged for CHARLES P. SABATINO, the director of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging and LORI A. STIEGEL associate staff director of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging to present a day long training on assessing elderly clients with diminished capacity and issues of undue influence. Sabatino is the primary author of Assessment of Older Adults with Diminished Capacity: A Handbook for Lawyers. Ms. Stiegal specializes in issues related to undue influence and elder abuse.
The training is scheduled for Friday September 15th from approximately 9:45 to 4:00. The times will be finalized in the coming weeks. The training will be held at the Advanced Center for Training in St. Charles. If you are interested in additional information about this training and would like us to send you the registration information please reply to gwalsh@pslegal.org with your contact information. In the meantime hold this date in your calendar.

According to two articles in the current issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, most physicians generally support disclosing medical errors to their patients.

Other interesting statistics are as follows:
• Surgeons were more likely to disclose medical errors than other physicians (81 percent vs. 54 percent).
• Doctors were more likely to disclose errors that were more noticeable to the patients than those errors patients may not notice (81 percent vs. 50 percent).
• Doctors would disclose more information about more apparent medical errors than less apparent medical errors (51 percent would use the word error, vs. 32 percent).

For the full article.

Over the last six years, the state has dealt with 67 preventable deaths amongst the elderly population living in assisted living facilities and nursing homes. The causes of these deaths range from medication errors to stabbing deaths and encompass the whole host of typical nursing home accidents including freezing, burning, and elopement incidents.

What is troubling about the number of deaths in North Carolina, which is likely not much higher than other states in the nation, is that a change in state law last year resulted in reduced public access to investigations and information about penalties in these cases.

Under the law, county and state investigators propose fines for violations that include negligence, medication errors and improperly maintained buildings. But these fines are lowered or dismissed in about 38 percent of the cases. The average fine paid in these cases was about $2,615.

On the other hand, changes to state law in 2005 increased some fines to as much as $20,000 and added inspectors for the adult-care industry; each facility will be inspected annually beginning next year. However, legislation during the same session cut the monthly meetings of the Penalty Review Committee to twice a year. Therefore, further compounding the problems is the lack of an active advocacy community in the state.

For the full article.

The guardian of a resident at Elgin-Bowes Nursing Home in Elgin, IL has filed a lawsuit against the home and former employees alleging negligence and breach of duty.

The employee, who is currently serving 2 years in a Kane County correctional facility for financial exploitation of the elderly, is named in the suit along with the home and various financial institutions. Allegedly, the employee was “assisting” the nursing home resident with her finances, he wrote numerous checks to himself and forged her name. He is accused of stealing $214,548 over a two-year period from the woman.

The nursing home did not have any safeguards to prevent fraud or financial exploitation, did not tell the woman’s family she was receiving help with her finances, and allowed the employee to help the woman with her finances even though he was charged with theft at his previous job.

For the full article.

In many medical malpractice cases in South Carolina, judges are sealing results to prevent the public from reviewing the cases. This means for example, a doctor who made a medical error that lead to a $9.9 million payout may be operating and working on patients, unbeknownst to any of them.

When a case goes to trial and a jury verdict is rendered, the results can’t be sealed. However, many of these cases settle before they go to trial and the results are sealed. With the number of results being sealed these days, the practice is likely unconstitutional. In South Carolina, judges wanting to make a record secret must meet a high standard - such as determining that a witness would be harmed if something is made public.

According to the South Carolina Supreme Court’s 1991 Davis v. Jennings decision, judges must state why records should be sealed. The Supreme Court also said a judge may keep a record open if a case has a "public . . . significance."

In medical negligence suits, the public interest would be served by allowing the public to learn the amount of money doctors pay victims in court settlements because this is indicative of how valid the claim was.

For the full article.

Rosewood Care Center of Rockford has been fined $20,000 for failure to ensure that residents are free of medication errors. Two residents were given the wrong medication.

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

Ambassador Nursing Center has been fined $27,500 for failure to ensure a resident, who has a history of suicidal attempts, did not possess a massive quantity of medications. This failure led to the resident ingesting pills and overdosing on narcotics.

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

Alden Alma Nelson Manor has been fined $6,000 for failure to supervise a newly admitted resident who had a history of wandering. The resident left the facility without staff knowledge and was found in the facility parking lot.

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

This program covers the breadth of elder law. The distinguished faculty for this program includes past NAELA presidents and authors of several national treatises on elder law. Level of instruction is basic and intermediate. A unique aspect of this program is its focus on a case study, in which participants will develop a long-term care plan under the tutelage of experienced elder law attorneys.

For more information or to register click here or call 800-899-6993.

Timber Point Healthcare Center has been fined $22,500 for failure to (1) recognize repeated episodes of inappropriate sexual behavior, (2) implement its policy and procedure to investigate and report abuse, (3) develop and implement effective interventions to monitor the resident responsible.

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

Swann Special Care Center has been fined $35,000 for failure to implement its system to prevent neglect for a resident. The resident ingested items when left unattended. The facility is also cited for failing to notify the doctor about follow up care instructions for three residents who were sent to hospital emergency after being involved in a fire at the facility.

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

Randolph County Care Center has been fined $22,500 for failure to monitor and assess a resident in a timely manner and failed to notify the doctor about a significant change in the resident’s condition. Staff did not check the resident for two hours and later found the resident had died.

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

North Adams Home has been fined $15,000 for failure to have a system in place to identify which staffers were currently CPR certified and neglected to ensure the necessary staff were trained in CPR. A resident died after staff failed to provide CPR or call 911.

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

Hillview Health Care Center has been fined $10,000 for failure to investigate allegations of verbal abuse in a prompt and timely fashion, which put other residents at risk for verbal abuse.

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

Halsted Terrace Nursing Center has been fined $17,500 for failure to follow their policy and procedure for monitoring blood sugar levels. The staff also failed to report seriously abnormal blood sugar levels to the resident’s doctor, resulting in the resident being hospitalized.

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

Edwardsville Nursing & Rehabilitation Center has been fined $10,000 for failure to monitor, supervise and implement its policy for “Suicidal Precautions” for a resident who made suicidal statements. This failure resulted in the resident attempting to commit suicide.

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

Alhambra Care Center has been fined $10,000 for failure to provide adequate supervision to prevent a resident from leaving the facility without staff knowledge. The resident suffered abrasions to the face, shoulders and knees when trying to leave the facility.

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

Rosewood Care Center of Peoria has been fined $25,000 for failure to monitor and assess a resident admitted with a pressure sore. The stage one pressure sore progressed to stage four. The resident was admitted to the hospital and died.

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

Republican gubernatorial candidate Judy Baar Topinka is trying to further limit the rights of citizens who file lawsuits. Illinois already has in place caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice suits, a measure enacted last year.

Baar Topinka wants to further limit rights by limiting citizens to the geographic areas in which people can file lawsuits. Baar Topinka’s issue, as Governor Blagojevich campaign spokesman Doug Scofield said “is just another issue where Treasurer Topinka, she either complains or she's completely asleep at the switch.”

For the full article.

An Indiana woman filed a lawsuit today against a doctor who performed a medically necessary breast reduction on the woman in 2000. The doctor represented himself as a certified cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon to the woman. Instead, he was a certified head and neck surgeon.

As a result of inexperience the surgeon caused the woman permanent nerve damage and disfigurement by incorrectly performing the surgery. The woman had to undergo subsequent additional surgeries, none of which corrected the problems of tissue loss and horrific scarring.

The woman seeks $1.25 million in damages, the full amount allowable under Indiana law, and to enlighten the public.

For the full article.

The family of a 24 year old woman who suffered severe brain damage has settled with the Ohio State University Medical Center for $7.3 million.

The woman went to the hospital as she recovered from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disorder in which the immune system attacks nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. The hospital ignored signs of respiratory distress which resulted in oxygen being cut off to her brain and subsequent brain damage.

The family sued for medical malpractice. They settled with the physician last year for $2 million and while the hospital admitted liability, their offer to settle last year of close to $2 million was rejected by the family. The woman will need ongoing 24-hour nursing care for the rest of her life as the result of the hospital’s negligence. Today, the settlement was finalized for $7.3 million which the family indicated will allow them to care for their daughter for the rest of her life.

For the full article.

The lawsuit was dropped a month after the government decided to ease the Medicaid citizenship requirement for 8 million Americans, including those most at risk. For these 8 million, the exemption exists because they established their citizenship by applying for either Medicare or Supplemental Security Income.

For the full article.

More than one-third of all hospitalizations of nursing home residents could be prevented if nursing staff recognized symptoms of increasing illness sooner and doctors were more readily available at the nursing homes, a new national study said.

Moving nursing home residents to hospitals can be very disruptive and disorienting, particularly for patients with dementia. And hospitalizing frail, elderly patients often results in unintended problems, such as bedsores, infections, and decline because of immobilization.

Often patients are hospitalized for easily preventable and treatable conditions like dehydration, urinary tract infections, chronic pulmonary disease, and congestive heart failure. Hospitalizations for these problems are easily avoidable if recognized and treated early enough.

For the full article.

Doctors' apologies for medical mistakes may not be a cure-all for litigation, but explaining unforeseen outcomes and making early settlement offers have proven effective, say lawyers who have participated in the process in the last decade. It's called "full disclosure/early offer," and it's spreading. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Veterans Health Administration and a number of hospitals and insurers across the nation have adopted variations of the policy. And several states may soon follow.

Manorcare at Palos Heights has been fined $30,000 for administering the wrong medication to a resident. As a result, the resident was hospitalized.

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

In the wake of skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance costs, the easy scapegoat in medical malpractice lawsuits is the trial lawyer. However, when medical professionals are given the opportunity to deter instances of medical errors, thus avoiding these lawsuits altogether, they place too little a burden on themselves.

For example, in Florida the state medical board issued guidelines that could lead to lower fines for doctors who commit their first error. The rules also don't call for suspensions for surgeons that make a second mistake, as some in the profession suggested.

The tort reform argument made by these doctors might be slightly more legitimate if the doctors were interested in policing themselves--which, as these guidelines illustrate, they are not.

As a result, medical errors will likely not be decreased and lawsuits will continued to be filed as the only way those wronged by medical errors can achieve justice.

For the full article.

The lives of two nurses in two different South Dakota nursing homes were permanently changed when they were the victims of brutal beatings at the hands of a 50-year-old mentally ill patient.

Both nurses suffered severe injuries when they were attacked and repeatedly beaten by the man. In the first home, the man beat a nurse in the head and as a result, she is permanently unable to walk normally. After the beating, the man was transferred to a second nursing home where he struck again. This time, beating a nurse so badly she has permanent memory loss and brain damage.

The patient should have never been admitted into the home in the first place, a decision erroneously made by the nursing home management of Beverly Enterprises who declined to comment on the incidents.

Incidents of abuse in nursing homes by patients against other patients and staff members are not uncommon. Many states do not have laws regulating the admission of former sex offenders and parolees in nursing homes.

For the full article.