Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

A recent study addressed the fact that the oldest old (age 85+) in nursing homes is declining. While the number of people living age 85+ nearly doubled in the past 10 years, the number of people 85+ living in nursing homes remained about the same.

This article attributes the decrease to: wealthier older people who can afford alternatives; state efforts to increase the availability of funding for alternatives; continued development of alternatives; increased availability of private long term care insurance; and state and federal government initiatives.

For the full report.

Bankrate recently released a step-by-step guide for people who find themselves needing to manage their parent’s finances. The eight steps include:

1. Finding all financial accounts and documents.
2. Collecting and paying bills.
3. Locating powers of attorney and/or living trust documents.
4. Opening your parents’ safe-deposit box.
5. Becoming a parent’s guardian.
6. Documenting everything you do.
7. Consider hiring a financial planning team.
8. Consider updating investments.

For the full article.

In a case of nursing home neglect, the home failed to adequately supervise a resident and prevent elopement. The home negligently allowed the resident’s monitoring bracelet to be removed. As a result, the resident left the facility and was later returned.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators. To access the website click here.

Marketing scams for Medicare Part D plans have surfaced. There have been complaints about scams such as going door-to-door at senior housing facilities to solicit enrollment, enrolling beneficiaries in a more costly plan than they want, or enrolling beneficiaries in a wrong plan. The most recent plan involves Part D sponsors telling beneficiaries they must have a home visit to enroll. Be sure to be wary of anyone trying to influence your enrollment decision.

For the full alert.

Last Wednesday, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds launched a new long-term care public campaign entitled “Own your future.” Gov. Rounds will send approximately 74,000 letters to households containing residents between the ages of 45-65 promoting awareness of long-term care needs and encouraging people to order a free Long-Term Care Planning kit.

Long-term care is growing more expensive and nursing home costs are rising, so planning ahead is essential. Other states have launched similar projects and hopefully more will continue.

For the full article.

An article recently released by MSN addresses many steps to take to ensure that you will leave your hospital no worse off then how you entered. Overwhelmed emergency rooms are greatly decreasing the safety of hospitals. The fourth leading cause of death in the United States are infections from hospitals and medication dosing errors harm over a million patients each year. Preparing in advance with information is the first step in surviving a hospital visit and keeping yourself safe from medical malpractice.

For the full article.

The facility failed to supervise a resident at risk for wandering and failed to assure the resident did not have access to outside doors at the facility, and to monitor or secure those doors. The resident was found outside of the home.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators. To access the website click here.

The facility failed to supervise a resident and assure the safety of another resident. These failures resulted in the first resident inappropriately touching the other resident.

The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators. To access the website click here.

Another case of nursing home abuse has surfaced where a nursing home worker, entrusted with residents’ lives and finances, abused her position. A Pennsylvania nurses’ assistant has been charged with theft after accusations arose that she stole money from the rooms of four victims during the course of her employment at a nursing home. One of the victims told police that the nurses’ assistant threatened to harm him if he told anyone about the money she was stealing. The worker charged with deceiving the innocent elderly residents is currently free on bail and working for a Pennsylvania family as an in-home nurse.

For the full article.

A resident suffered nursing home abuse and neglect at a Redwood City nursing home when a malfunction caused 145-degree water to pour on her lap in a seated shower. The resident suffered third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body. A nurse’s aid on duty put a diaper on the resident and did not alert a supervisor for two hours. After learning of the situation, a supervisor had the resident airlifted to a Santa Clara hospital where she spent more than 2 hours on life support. Currently, the severely burned resident’s hospital care costs $3,000 a day.

For the full article.

A state-by-state analysis of the number of family caregivers, hours of caregiving services, and their estimated market value has recently been released. Illinois ranks 6th in the nation with an estimated 1.2 million caregivers whose work has an annual market value of over $13,153. For some, caregiving provides a workable alternative to nursing homes.

To see the national statistics.

Since the 1990’s, the death rate from falling has risen sharply for elderly people. Experts have accounted the rise in statistics to be the result of people being less likely to die from chronic disease. Falling is currently the 14th leading cause of death among elders.

Nursing homes should be on high alert for residents who are likely to fall. Unfortunately, some nursing homes are not showing such concern. Nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits often center around staff failing to supervise or protect its residents when the victims have fallen. A nursing home was recently fined $40,000 for Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect in failing to protect its residents when several residents were injured from falls.

For the full article.

A former suburban Chicago nursing home nurse’s aide charged with raping a profoundly brain-damaged resident changed his plea to guilty last week. The resident, who has cerebral palsy, was living at the Alden Village Health Facility for Children and Young Adults in Bloomingdale when she became victim to the sexual assault. The former nursing home employee faces a sentence ranging from 6 to 30 years in prison.

For the full article.

Resources are available on the internet to help you decide what plan is best for you.

To access the sites:
Center for Medicare Advocacy
Kaiser Family Foundation Part D Resources
Mental Health Part D

Two former nursing home professionals face up to 10 years in prison for Medicaid fraud. One is charged with taking more than $72,000 in residential trust funds, including forging corporate payroll checks of former employees, writing trust fund checks to her daughter, and manipulating the facility’s petty cash by taking the money and replenishing it with residents’ trust fund balances. The other is charged with fraudulent possession of a controlled substance through diverting numerous physician-prescribed pain medications from patients in need.

It is a disgrace that two nursing home professionals were trusted with the lives and finances of innocent elderly people and abused it in this manner. It is sad to even consider the nursing home abuse and neglect suffered by the residents during the corrupt acts of these two former nursing home professionals.

For the full article.

$100,000 was awarded by a jury to the family of a Tennessee victim of nursing home abuse and neglect. The victim suffered from mild dementia and diabetes when he was admitted to the nursing home. Because of the nursing home abuse and neglect, the victim developed severe kidney and urinary tract infections which ultimately led to his death.

For the full article.

In a follow up to a previous post, the New York State Department of Health has begun an investigation into the nursing home abuse and neglect of an 86 year-old woman. The victim’s daughter brought a lawsuit against three Long Island nursing homes, alleging nursing home abuse and neglect. The 86 year-old’s condition had gotten so poor while under these nursing homes' watch, that she suffered from extremely severe dehydration and painfully deep bedsores.

For the full article.

The surveys revolve around medical errors and medical malpractice, quality issues, prescription drug advertisements, Medicaid provisions, doctors’ willingness to see Medicaid and Medicare patients, and other health care issues.

For the surveys.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a series related to Medicare Prescription Drug enrollment. The open enrollment period for 2007 is from November 15 to December 31. The resources available on the website include state-specific information about benefit plan options, an updated version of the online consumer guide, and an updated fact sheet providing an overview of the benefits. There were criticisms that the government-issued Medicare handbook failed to provide enough objective information for consumers.

For the Medicare Part D enrollment series.
To view a related chart on Medicare Part D enrollment.