Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

Elder abuse has become an all too real reality in nursing homes across the country. However, there are some very practical things you can do to make sure your family is safe while in a nursing home. The best way to combat nursing home abuse is to visit often. It is a fact that clients who have regular visitation from family and friends are less likely to be abused. Also it is important to be vigilant and learn to recognize symptoms of elder abuse. Establishing relationships with staff will help lessen the possibility of elder abuse. All of these ways will help your loved one stay safe in their nursing home. To read more about the elder abuse, please click the link.

A state’s department of health is investigating a nursing home after a complaint was made about an incident stemming from employee misuse of cell phone in patient areas. Two employees have been dismissed because of the incident. Under the nursing home’s policy an employee is not allowed to have a personal cell phone in a resident area. The nursing home currently has a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services rating of two stars, out of five. Surveys in 2008 found violations in reporting changes in residents’ physical or mental health to family members and doctors; helping residents with eating, drinking, grooming and hygiene when necessary; staffing’ and making sure that nursing home area is free of potential accident-causing dangers. Cell phones should not be allowed in patient areas because they lead to nursing home neglect. This can happen everywhere, including here in Chicago, Illinois. To read more about the nursing home employee incident, please click the link.

Over the past several years, nursing homes have seen an increase in young and middle-age people with mental illness. This increase in mentally ill patients has also increased the amount of elderly violence in nursing homes. One such incident at All Faith Pavilion in Chicago's South Side involved Ivory Jackson, a 77-year-old man with Alzheimer’s who was smashed in the face with a clock radio as he lay in his bed. The man who killed Mr. Jackson was a mentally ill man thirty years his younger.

What has occurred is that younger, stronger residents with schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder are now living beside frail elderly residents and they have been taking their rage out on them. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that nearly 125,000 young and middle-aged adults are living with serious mental illnesses in U.S. nursing homes, which is a 41 percent increase from 2002. There are several forces behind the trend including the closing of state mental institutions and a shortage of hospital psychiatric beds. Due to these great increases in numbers, numerous incidents have occurred. Gaps in the employee staff training leave the nursing homes inept at handling the delusions and aggression of the mentally ill, which makes it difficult on the elderly residents.

The attorneys at Levin & Perconti have worked on a number of cases involving sexual or physical abuse of nursing home residents. W are currently involved in a similar case against East Peoria Gardens in East Peoria, IL. Our attorneys represent the family of a woman who fell at the home as a result of improper supervision and died a week later from her injuries. The case alleges that as a result of the owners’ decision to mix an elderly population with younger mentally ill resident, a situation was created where the elderly residents and the staff were in fear for their own safety. To read more about this nursing home lawsuit, follow the link.

To read more about the increase in elderly physical abuse, please click here.

Some investigators are describing a recent elder abuse case as the most outrageous that has even been seen. According to authorities three top managers at a nursing home have been arrested in the deaths of three residents who allegedly were given needless doses of psychotropic medications. The attorney general’s office contended in a criminal complaint that more than 20 residents at the nursing center were drugged for “staff convenience.” Many of them experienced side effects that included dramatic weight loss, slurred speech, tremors, loss of cognition and even psychosis. All three employees have been charged with elder abuse. Two employees that administered shots by force and without consent have also been charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The complaint states that the nursing director failed to examine patients and were either willfully or naively ignorant of his proper role. To read more about the nursing home restraint, click here.

Criminal charges are expected in the case of a nursing home resident who was found frozen to death outside. Authorities now believe that that woman may have been the victim of elderly neglect and a cover-up. The three daughters of the woman have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Illinois nursing home. Authorities believe that four women who work at the facility made the woman appear as though she had died in her sleep. The medical examiner’s report revealed that hypothermia was part of the reason for her death. It appears that the woman did signal an alarm, but a nursing home employee negligently ignored it because she was watching television. This nursing home negligence case is outrageous, and the DuPage state’s attorney’s office must investigate. To read more about the elderly negligence cover-up, click the link.

An employee at an Illinois nursing home was too absorbed by an episode of “Dog the Bounty Hunter” to respond to a security door alarm sound. The alarm was most likely triggered by the electronic bracelet worn by an 89-year-old resident who wandered outside the nursing home. The woman wrongfully died of exposure to the cold. Law enforcement believes that after the employees found the elderly woman in the subfreezing cold, they allegedly tried to cover up the tragedy by returning the deceased woman to her bed. The former Chicago woman, who suffered from dementia and other health problems, was a resident at the nursing home for nearly three years. At the moment, the nursing home is facing both criminal and civil charges after they originally told officers that the elderly woman died while asleep in her bed. Authorities became suspicious because the woman was dressed in a hospital gown and covered in blankets and lying on a gurney while hooked up to an oxygen machine. To read more about the wrongful nursing home death, please click the link.

A former worker at a nursing home has been charged with sexually molesting a patient while another patient slept in that same room. Prosecutors said that the 46-year-old worker sexually assaulted the 62-year-old woman who had recently suffered a stroke at the nursing home. The man had worked there since August, but has subsequently been fired. The elderly assault was discovered when another aide noticed the victim acting strange towards the victim. The man is currently out of custody on bond. Elderly sexual assault has become an all too common phenomenon and occurs here in Chicago, Illinois. To read more about the elderly abuse, please click on the link.

Directors of nursing homes saw a slight pay increase in the last year. The national average salary rose about 400 dollars from $60,000 in 2008 from $59,627 in 2007. Residential nurses and certified nursing assistants in nursing homes fared even better and received a 3.34% and 3.17% pay raise, respectively. There was also a smaller turnover rate among residential nursing homes. The turnover fell to 35.5% this year when it was at 42.33$ last year. Additionally the turnover rate for certified nursing assistants held stead at 42%. Hopefully legislation requiring background checks on nursing home employees will help keep competent nursing home staff. This will in turn ensure that elderly neglect and nursing home abuse cases diminish in Chicago, Illinois. This report was published by the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service. To read more about the nursing home salary and benefits report, click here.

A nursing home employee who was charged with elder abuse pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and will serve 30 days in jail. She was charged with elder abuse after she was accused of hitting the 74 year-old woman with a clipboard and an incontinence pad, as well as pulling her hair and slapping her. Elder abuse by nursing home employees whom the family have trusted to provide care is always devastating.

For the full article.

A jury has determined that a nursing home patient’s death was caused by elderly negligence on the part of his caretakers. The court awarded the man’s daughter $1.25 million, ending a four-year elderly abuse lawsuit. The man was admitted to the nursing home at the age of 67 and had to go to the hospital a mere nine months later. In the hospital he was treated for a bedsore that infected his left buttock to the bone. In the trial nursing home assistants testified that there weren’t enough staffers to provide adequate care. The man should have been turned over every two hours to ensure bedsores do not form, yet the nursing home only turned him over every four hours. This lack of attention caused the elderly man to develop horrible bedsores. The man then suffered from malnutrition as a result of the original infection, which sent his body into a death spiral leading to more bedsores and infections. The last few months of the man’s life were unbearable. To read the full story, click here.

The daughters of an elderly woman found dead outside of a nursing home are demanding answers from the nursing home staff. The daughters said that the elderly woman suffered from Alzheimer’s and had wandered out of the facility only two days before. The family wonders whether the nursing home staff was negligent in not preventing the elderly woman from leaving the facility again.

For the full article.

Low federal standards and inconsistent state laws have created lapses in the qualifications of nursing home social workers. Social workers are integral to nursing home resident’s quality of care, yet a national survey shows that only half of all nursing home social workers actually have a social work degree. Additionally, the study shows that 20 percent do not have a four-year degree of any kind; two-thirds do not belong to any professional organizations and 62 percent are not licensed in social work. The study concluded that for-profit nursing homes are 31 percent less likely to hire a degreed social worker. Social workers in nursing homes are important because they handle very serious emotional issues affecting residents, family members, and other staff members, and they need to be educated on how to handle these issues. Federal law mandates that all nursing homes with over 120 beds must meet federal regulations require one full-time social worker to be employed, but a bachelor degree in any service area is the only required training. Furthermore, the study shows that most social workers can only handle 60 patients in one nursing home, half of the federal mandate. To read the full story, click here.

Two nursing home workers have been arrested for crimes against elderly adults which include one nurse who is accused of pouring aftershave on a patient’s genitals. The women worked as licensed practical nurses in the nursing home. One of the employees was charged with two felony counts of eldery abuse of a vulnerable adult after being indicted by a grand jury. The man accuses the 46-year-old employee of “pouring aftershave on the genitals of a patient” and administering medication that caused pain to elderly residents. She faces a maximum of 40 years in prison and $20,000 in fines. The second employee is accused of taking the pain medication hydrocodone that meant for more than one patient. This employee faces one to five years in prison if convicted. This incident highlights the need for nursing homes to closely monitor their employees. To read the full story, click here.

On December 3 and 4, Rite Aid will host two free chats, broadcasted live online, featuring advice from geriatric experts and a Rite Aid Pharmacist. These chats, as part of Rite Aid’s “Giving Care for Parents” program, are aimed at answering caregivers’ questions and helping them find solutions to everyday problems.

On Wednesday, December 3, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. Eastern time (11:00-12:00 p.m. Central time), attorney Vincent J. Russo, Esq., will be answering questions on elder law, special needs, and estate planning, and elder care expert and geriatric care manager, Dr. Marion Somers, PhD, will be discussing a broad range of topics, from home safety to senior-friendly technology.

On Thursday, December 4, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. Eastern time (11:00-12:00 p.m. Central time), Susan Strecker Richard, editor-in-chief of Caring Today, will be offering advice on how to care for loved ones without sacrificing your own well-being and she will answer general questions on caregiving. Rite Aid pharmacist Natalie Teaff, R.Ph, will be available to answer questions on medications, therapies, and medication interactions.

To participate in the live chat, caregivers must register online at: http://giving-care.riteaid.com/giving-care/expert-events. Caregivers who are unable in the live chat will can print a transcript after the event.

The family of an 84-year-old resident of a nursing home hid a video camera in the woman’s room after they discovered dozens of bruises all over her body and didn’t get satisfactory answers from the staff. The videotape shows nursing assistants physically abusing and taunting the woman and failing to feed and clean her. The state is conducting a criminal investigation, and the facility has received the most serious citations that state nursing home inspectors can give. After the criminal investigation began in September, further investigation revealed “injuries of unknown origin” on 17 residents who were cognitively impaired. The family aimed a hidden camera at her bed without the nursing home’s knowledge because they were desperate to know the truth. The inspector general’s office issued a citation and determined that the nursing home failed to adequately investigate the injuries on the 17 patients. A review of the videotape shows that the nursing home demonstrated actual incidents of physical abuse and neglect by the staff. They showed staff pulling a resident out of bed by her wrists and neck and then roughly moving the resident from side to side. This type of elderly abuse is all to common in nursing homes and must be properly corrected. To read the full story, click here.

Two employees from a nursing home have been charged with stealing and then pawning the engagement ring of an 89-year-old woman. The 27-year-old certified nurse aides were charged with the misdemeanor crimes of petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree. Records show that the aids took two rings which belonged to the woman, a gold and diamond engagement ring and another family ring, saying that they would have them repaired so they wouldn’t fall off the woman’s finger. When the woman asked for them back later, the aid ignored her. When the elderly victim asked them back another time, the aid only returned the family ring. She couldn’t return the engagement ring because she had pawned the almost 70-year-old ring for $15. The attorney general points out that allegations like these demonstrate how nursing home patients can be financially taken advantage of by those entrusted with their care. The two have been sent back to jail, where they are being held on unrelated charges. To read the full story, click here.

Kurt Johnson, a 49-year-old certified nursing assistant of Golden Living Center in Wisconsin Dells, has been charged with three counts of second degree sexual assault. According to the criminal complaint, Johnson’s co-workers witnessed the sexual elder abuse. In particular, they saw him fondle female residents’ breasts on three separate occasions while working in the facility’s Dementia/Alzheimer’s unit in September and December 2007.
For the full story, click here.

A city and a home health care agency wrote a check for $600,000 to a woman with multiple sclerosis after she nearly died in their care. The settlement is for a negligence lawsuit alleging the woman was neglected in her wheelchair and was left for so long that she developed life-threatening bedsores. The woman is in a city-run program that pays contracted caregivers to take care of her at home. The plan has workers shift her weight every 15 minutes to prevent pressure ulcers or bedsores. In 2005, while the city was paying more than $3,000 a month for an agency to care for the victim, the caregiver at the time says she wasn’t moving the victim much at all. The worker wrote in a declaration that the victim complained of pain, but no one had trained her on anything to do with pressure sores. The suit alleged that the care providers basically left the woman to rot in her wheelchair. The victim was rushed to the hospital where doctors operated twice on the sores they had cut through to the bone. They were also infected with MRSA, potentially life-threatening bacteria. The victim hopes that the settlement money will buy her a better chair and pay for physical therapy. To read the full story, click here.

A nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit against River Valley Supportive Living Residence in Kankakee, Illinois and its former employee was settled for $500,000, the facility’s insurance policy limit, by Steven M. Levin, of the Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti, and James Spiros of Spiros & Wall. The suit was filed on the behalf of a 93 year-old woman who was a resident at the nursing home. The complaint alleged that she was sexually and physically assaulted by a 22 year-old former employee of River Valley, who now faces criminal charges of aggravated sexual assault. The complaint also alleged that River Valley’s administration ignored numerous complaints of sexual and physical assault by the victim in addition to ignoring reports from other residents that the victim claimed to have been raped. Further allegations included that the nursing home ignored obvious signs such as the inordinate amount of time that the employee spent in the victim’s room and the unusual amount of attention that he provided her, especially during bathing times. Instead of investigating the claim, the staff dismissed the charges as possible early signs of dementia, subjecting the victim to further abuse. During the victim’s final two months at River Valley, she suffered multiple personal injuries, including unexplainable bruises to her face, around her eye, on her elbow, inner arm, back, and wrist.

The settlement was reached back in June, 2007, but its details were not allowed to be made public until the recent unsealing of its terms by a judge. The Circuit Court of the 21st Judicial Circuit, Kankakee County, sealed the settlement, preventing both sides from disclosing the terms prior to the former employee’s criminal trial. The public announcement comes as state attorneys prepare to take the criminal case to trial.

A former nursing home worker was charged with patient abuse for allegedly slapping an 85-year-old hospice patient only 10 days before she died at her nursing home. The 23-year-old employee allegedly slapped the Alzheimer’s patient. He had only worked there for approximately two months before he was fired two days after the allegedly physical abuse. The woman died ten days after the physical abuse. The complaint states that another worker at the nursing home heard the employee yell at the woman telling her to be quiet before seeing him slap her with an open hand. The complaint states that the woman appeared to be stunned by the slap. The state department stated that the employee admitted striking the woman out of frustration but said he only tapped her face. Physical abuse in nursing homes happens all too often and cannot be tolerated. To read the full story, click here.

Four more workers at a nursing home, two of them caught on hidden camera, were charged yesterday with mistreating patients and falsifying records. The Attorney General’s records show that one resident of the nursing home had not showered for a month, an 84-year old female resident was rushed to the hospital because a nurse had failed to order routine blood tests; and an 84-year-old man was not turned to prevent sores. The employees were charged with multiple counts of endangering the welfare of disabled persons and falsifying records. All four pleaded not guilty to mistreating patients. One nurse did not clean a patient’s gastronomy tube or treat his ears for chaffing from oxygen tubes. Another employee was responsible for showering a resident twice a week, but instead gave him bed baths for a month. The final employee failed to include a doctor’s order for daily blood tests to monitor the dosage of the blood-thinning medication. The patient suffered internal bleeding. These are examples of the many nursing homes who employ workers that mistreat patients. To read the full story, click here.

A state investigation of a nursing home found that residents were subjected to immediate jeopardy because of verbal and mental abuse by its former administrator. The state Health Department investigated after four complaints were filed about the specific administrator. Among the allegations are that the woman refused residents access to their belongings, punished those who complained to authorities and threatened to remove one resident and place her on a curb. The administrator says she believes the department has its own agenda and disputed the report’s claims. However, she did resign in August. The administrator awaits a hearing before the state board of examiners for nursing home administrators in regards to her license. To read the full story, click here.

Cammy Nye, a certified nursing assistant, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 700 hours of community service, and three years of probation after an Oregon jury found her guilty of contributing to the death of nursing home patient Linda Ober.

Suzanne Ruddell, the nursing supervisor, was also found guilty but her sentencing has been delayed after her lawyer requested a pre-sentencing investigation.

Ober, a patient at Gateway Care and Rehab Center in Portland, was dropped to the floor while being transferred from a wheelchair to her bed, breaking both of her legs. She was then allowed to suffer for 5 days, despite screaming in pain, before finally being taken to the hospital, where she died following complications from surgery.

The jury found Nye guilty of misdemeanor reckless endangerment for precariously placing Ober in a sling, causing her to drop to the floor during the transfer. Rudell was found guilty of two counts of felony criminal mistreatment for refusing to have Ober taken to the hospital. A third defendant, Verna Colleen Heide, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal mistreatment before the trial and testified against Ruddell and Nye. Heide was sentenced last month to three years of probation and 160 hours of community service.

A lawsuit has been filed against the nursing home by Ober’s daughter demanding $3.5 million for her wrongful death.

For the full story, click here.

A nurse who was convicted of child abuse and battery against her 17-year-old son and was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill patients at a nursing home was subsequently employed by a nursing home. The nursing home was never aware of these past convictions and allegations because they never fingerprinted the employee. If she had been fingerprinted she would have become part of the state’s database, and regulators could have learned within days of her arrest. This specific problem highlights the importance of checking criminal backgrounds on all employees. Although the woman had held a scalding iron against her 17-year-old son’s arm she marked that she had not been convicted of a crime on her application. In fact, the woman monitored the halls of the nursing home while she was on probation for the child abuse conviction. It was only after a complaint was filed against the woman for not dispensing medications to her patients at the nursing home did investigators learn of her criminal history. She was then fired for withholding medications from patients with serious conditions such as congestive heart failure, diabetes and emphysema. To read the full story, click here.

Levin & Perconti filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County against WRHC & RC, INC., licensee of Woodstock Residence, and two employees on behalf of the daughter of a woman who died in 2006 at the age of 78. The complaint alleges that the employees administered lethal doses of morphine to the woman beyond her physicians’ orders, thereby causing her premature death. The complaint goes on to allege that several staff members of the nursing home were aware of the actions and failed to report them. Both employees were arrested on charges of overdosing the woman and other residents with lethal doses of morphine. The “Angel of Death” case further highlights the negligence found in nursing homes all over Cook County.

Nursing home patients feel helpless when it comes to dealing with the nursing home’s hierarchy. For example, a 97-year-old nun living in a nursing home found herself in great discomfort with a wheelchair and had to ask how much a new one would cost. The nun was going to use her birthday money she had saved up to buy a new wheelchair. Another patient had numerous bruises from falling because employees do not help her in and out of her wheelchair. Legislators have noticed a decline in the level of nursing home care, and a lack of information on how to voice concerns to administrators. The elderly patients are often too intimidated to ask questions. With the fastest growing portion of the population being people in their 90’s, nursing home care must improve. Additionally, there must be ways for patients to effectively voice their concerns without feeling intimidated. To read the full story, click here.

Galesburg Terrace, an Illinois nursing home, has employees who want the Illinois Department of Public Health to take over control of the nursing home. The nursing home is currently owned by Gern Healthcare, a Chicago-based company. The Service Employees International Union, SEIU, is going public with an effort to get four Illinois facilities controlled by Gern Healthcare placed in receivership. SEIU says studies of patient care and employee turnover over the past two years have yielded 77 violations of patient care and fire safety. More than 88 percent of the violations were for cases where potential or actual harm existed for the residents living there. Some of these allegations listed included failure to keep residents cleaned and groomed, failure to call 911 in a timely manner and failure to adequately staff and monitor a confused resident, resulting in that resident’s death. SEIU also says that when nursing home exchanges hands, employee turnover is great and long-term patients need long-term employees. To read the full story, click here.

In a Delaware nursing home, one employee is accused of putting a patient’s life in danger and abusing the elderly. The employee was allegedly caring for an 85 year old man when the older gentlemen started to scream. The employee abused the man by placing a pillow over the patient’s head to quiet him. A co-worker reported the abuse to the nursing home director. The employee is facing several charges which include reckless endangerment and offense touching. At this point no lawsuits have been filed due to the elderly abuse or nursing home negligence. To read the full story, click here.

A nursing home employee was arrested yesterday on charges of cashing over $7,600.00 in royalty checks that belonged to a nursing home resident. Bobbie Jo Wilhelm admitted to financially abusing the nursing home resident by forging her signature on the checks and using the money herself. The victim and her family may choose to file a nursing home abuse lawsuit against Wilhelm. To read more, click here.

NCCNHR is seeking nominations for individuals who have made a significant difference in long term and nursing care for its 2008 Leadership Awards for outstanding service to nursing home and long term care residents. Nominations are due to NCCNHR by July 18. Awards will be presented at the NCCNHR annual meeting and conference in Indianapolis, IN on October 15 through 17.

For more information and nomination forms, visit NCCNHR: www.nccnhr.org

Following gross negligence by a nursing home staff, a resident admitted for short-term rehabilitation at the facility had her leg amputated. The resident was admitted following surgery on a fractured ankle. The nursing home failed to take the resident to a follow-up appointment on time, and when they finally did take her, surgeons discovered that her wound was not healing correctly. A physician then ordered that the wound be monitored for infection and treated daily. The resident was also to receive an antibiotic.

The nursing home failed to follow these relatively simple orders. As a result, less than one week after the follow-up appointment, the resident was hospitalized and her leg subsequently amputated. The facility was cited for failure to meet professional standards of care and was fined. However, this incident is indicative of a broader issue with the low level of care provided by many nursing homes throughout the country demonstrating a need to secure residents’ rights.

For further information, click here:

Nursing home staff members are the front lines of long term care in the national nursing home system. However, nursing home staff members are often underpaid for their jobs and some nursing home staff members are not sufficiently trained to be safe and effective caregivers. A recent article shows a flip side to the nursing home industry’s low wages: underpaid nursing home staff often cause nursing home abuse and neglect. However, some nursing staff are abused and neglected in nursing homes. A recent survey exposed that nearly half of all nursing staff had experienced bullying on the job and 2/3 had been intimidated on the job. This other side raises serious concerns for nursing home resident care and should expose the dangers that nursing home owners and management create when they do not pay their staff members adequately.

Read the article here.

A recent article on the growing numbers of US seniors highlights a major problem with the US nursing home and senior care industry: nursing home staff members are woefully underpaid despite providing essential life assistance for nursing home residents. Doctors who specialize in geriatric medicine are paid less than their general practice counterparts and far less than other specialties in medicine. The failure of the US nursing home industry to pay staff well is often one of the major underlying causes of nursing home abuse and neglect because homes are not able to attract and retain nursing staff without offering competitive salaries. Additionally, nursing homes may face increased claims of nursing home abuse and neglect, as well as medical malpractice, if geriatric medicine continues to lose talented professionals to other specialties.

See the full article for more information here.

Investigators have asked the state to examine whether the professional licenses should be suspended or revoked for two former nurses at an Illinois nursing home charged with Illinois nursing home neglect after a string of suspicious deaths. The family of a 78 year-old resident, represented by Levin & Perconti’s Steve Levin, announced plans to file an Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit.

For the full article.

Former nursing home administrator has filed a lawsuit saying she was fired because she complained that the executive director’s 91 year-old father was sexually assaulting a demented nursing home residence. Her lawyer states that this is a classic whistleblower case where the administrator was fired for sticking up for a patient suffering nursing home sexual abuse.

According to the lawsuit, both the nursing home’s medical director and a licensed psychologist recommended that the 91 year-old be supervised 24 hours a day to monitor his behavior, but the executive director rejected the idea.

For the full article.

A civil claim was filed against a nursing home charging that one of its nurses negligently contributed to the death of a resident. The resident died about two days after he was given the wrong medication by a nurse at the facility. The nurse acknowledged her error, once she realized that she had given the wrong medication to the wrong patient. However, the facility would not comment on whether the nurse continues to be employed or whether any other legal actions alleging harm to its residents.

Full article:

Financial exploitation and abuse is the most common form of elder abuse reported and investigated in Illinois. Recently, the caregiver of an 83-year-old man was found forging checks in the man's name. Workers at the Sugar Grove, Illinois bank noticed the irregularities in the checks and notified police. The caregiver is being charged with forgery and financial exploitation of an elderly/disabled person. The elderly aren't always lucky enough to have outsiders discover the source of exploitation. Here are a few ways to protect yourself or a loved one when hiring a caregiver:

-Check the backgrounds and references of future employees
-Allow another person (friend, family, lawyer) to have access to bank accounts to monitor spending
-Tell the bank that a caregiver will be handling some financial transactions and to monitor them
-If employing a caregiver or other worker in the home, secure personal information
-Never give bank account or credit card information over the phone
-Shred or get rid of papers with personal and bank information

Click here for the full article

After reports of nursing home abuse and neglect, the nursing home East Peoria Gardens Health Care Center has been heavily fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health and its director's administrator's license has been suspended by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The director left her job when the IDPH investigations began after the deaths of two patients caused by the nursing home's negligence, the admittance of patients with criminal pasts, and complaints of an atmosphere that caused fear among staff and residents. Attorney Steven M. Levin of Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti filed a lawsuit against the home on behalf of the family of a resident who fell at the home last spring, sustaining a serious head injury ultimately leading to death. Another resident choked and died as a result of the nursing home's negligence. These cases of nursing home abuse and neglect resulted in a $100,000 fine by the IDPH and other severe penalties. Its investigation found 23 nursing home code violations

Click here for the full article

A caregiver in Sugar Grove, Illinois has recently been charged with financial exploitation of an elderly person and is currently in the Kane County Jail. He was found stealing from his elderly client, an 83-year-old man, after cashing 12 checks at a bank in Sugar Grove. Financial abuse is the most commonly reported form of elder abuse and neglect.

Click here for the full article

There are many different forms of elder abuse and neglect and it is important to watch for signs of abuse in order to protect loved ones. Anyone over age 60 can be a victim of elder abuse. Elder abuse and neglect comes in many forms:

-Physical abuse
-Emotional abuse includes verbal assaults, threats, intimidation and harassment
-Confinement is restricting an elderly person without their consent. Many believe that restraining seniors with Alzheimer's or other illnesses should be restrained in order to prevent wandering off. This is illegal and there are better alternatives
-Passive neglect is when a loved one, caregiver, nursing home or assisted living facility is unable to provide a senior with the care they need. This can include failing to provide medication at appropriate times, causing malnutrition or dehydration by forgetting meals, allowing falls due to lack of supervision, allowing bed sores to develop as a result of neglect, failing to monitor the hygiene of the elderly person and more.
-Financial exploitation is the misuse of a senior's money, accounts, insurance, etc. It is the most commonly reported form of elder abuse. Many different types of people can exploit elders financially including family members, caregivers and employees of nursing homes or assisted living facilities.
-Sexual abuse is any type of sexual act or conduct performed against the elderly person's will.

If you are aware of elder abuse or suspect that a senior is being abused, call the Illinois elder abuse hotline at (866) 800-1409. It is available 24 hours a day.

A new law passed recently makes nursing home and hospital patients with a risk of falling safer. The law acknowledges problems with the handling and care of patients. Many lawsuits each year are brought on behalf of patients who are injured because the higher level of care they required when being transported or lifted was not met. Patients that are at risk are those at facilities that, either because of neglectful practices, staffing issues or lack of appropriate equipment, are unable to provide the care needed. The new law requires health care facilities to purchase equipment designed to aid in the lifting and handling of patients, such as mechanical lifts, as well as solving many issues relating to nursing home and hospital staff. The New Jersey law makes it mandatory for health care workers to be properly trained and also require that there are enough staff members on hand to be able to meet the needs of patients requiring lifting or transportation. Also important is the protection workers are given from being penalized by employers for refusing to handle a patient because of a concern for the patient's or their own safety and wellbeing. Many times, patients require multiple staff members in a patient handling procedure and when there are not enough workers available to help, the resulting safety risks are unacceptable. Hopefully other states, including Illinois, will follow suit.

Heritage Manor Nursing Home in Colfax, Illinois lost a legal battle in a lawsuit where a former employee was awarded $17,000 after reporting sexual assault of an older resident. The whistleblower claims that she was fired after she reported suspicions that sexual abuse of an elderly resident of Heritage Manor was being ignored. The former employee, and widowed mother of nine, was awarded $10,000 in pain and suffering. Heritage Manor, a company based in Bloomington, has been sued in other nursing home abuse and neglect cases.

Click here for the full article

Twenty years ago, Congress passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) and it is now time to review its successes and failures in order to improve the quality of nursing home care. OBRA regulates inadequate nursing homes by either shutting them down or allowing well-performing nursing home care providers to take over substandard facilities. However, the system in place requires that those who take over failing homes must be responsible for the liabilities that the previous management had incurred, including fines, penalties and deadlines to correct certain problems, including issues regarding nursing home abuse and neglect. Because the new management must take on these liabilities there are less resources to dedicate to improvement of the quality of care. The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) has strongly urged congress to pass legislation regarding "the counterproductive nurse aide training lock-out, the need for joint training of nursing home and surveyor staff, allowing states to demonstrate alternative quality assurance systems, facilitating new ownership for chronic problem homes, and using civil money funds to improve nursing home quality."

Click here for the full article

A lot of our blog posts concentrate on abuse of nursing home residents, but we also realize that nursing home employees must be treated well in order to continue to provide adequate treatment to residents. Nursing home employees should receive equal treatment. A former employee of a Northwest Indiana nursing home facility claims that she was discriminated against and eventually fired because she was pregnant. According to the complaint, she informed her supervisor that she was pregnant in January. A month later, she provided her employer with a letter from her doctor requesting that she avoid heavy lifting and strenuous activities. She was denied accommodation for her medical restrictions.

For the full article.

Despite Carlyle Group's completion of the Manor Care buyout, the union that represents nursing home employees in Florida is suing, hoping to block the takeover. Manor Care, a chain of nursing homes, was recently bought by a private equity firm, Carlyle Group, for $6.3 billion. The transfer was completed the day after rulings that held up the buyout were dissolved in West Virginia and Michigan. The union, SEIU Healthcare Florida, has been fighting the takeover. There are 29 Manor Care facilities in Florida housing 3700 residents.

The lawsuit was brought about on the grounds that the Carlyle Groups license application was incomplete. Another plaintiff listed in the lawsuit is the son of a Manor Care resident. He recently stated, "I want to make sure Carlyle's takeover won't harm my mother's care." All of the parties are reviewing the lawsuit in this controversial acquisition.

Nine years have passed with a nursing home employee union trying to get a contract at the Ruby Weston Manor in East New York. Now, the nursing home union has had it: if there is not contract by November 27, they have authorized a strike. A member of the union, stated that “We take care of the [nursing home] residents. [The nursing home] should take better care of us.” Last December, then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed suit against the CEO of Ruby Weston Manor, seeking her removal as CEO of the two taxpayer-supported nursing homes for the poor. The nursing home abuse lawsuit filed by the Attorney General charged that the CEO had enriched herself and relatives with millions of dollars in self-approved salaries and benefits. Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that the CEO circumvented state not-for-profit laws and had nursing home neglect at the two facilities.

Again, we see CEOs of nursing homes getting rich while the employees and residents suffer. If a nursing home cannot afford caring employees, nursing home residents will undoubtedly endure nursing home abuse and neglect.

For the full article.

When private equity groups purchase large nursing home chains, they don’t do it because they want to get in the business of caring for the elderly. They do it so that they can cut costs, increase profits, and then resell them at a higher price. The Carlyle Group’s $6.3 billion acquisition of HCR ManorCare is an example of this type of flipping opportunity, but because this involves the well-being of senior citizens and those who cannot otherwise care for themselves, the drastic measures that investment groups like Carlyle Group take to cut staff has drawn the attention of the government.

Continue reading "Congress to investigate staff cuts in recently acquired nursing homes" »

Witnesses in a wrongful death lawsuit against an Illinois nursing home contradicted one another recently in trial. The victim, who had been restricted to bed rest, had fallen on the floor of her room and was discovered by a laundry lady.
Jurors heard one nursing home nurse state that she did not see or hear a call light from the victim’s room. A certified nurse assistant also testified that she refused to “log roll” the resident who was lying face down because she did not know whether the victim had broken her neck or back. The nursing assistant testified that the nurse rolled the victim by herself and should not have done so. On cross-examination, the nursing assistant also stated that she had heard a call light’s buzzing sound but did nothing about it because she had been told to stay at the nurse’s station. The nurse insisted that she heard no call light and if she would have, she would have run to the resident’s room. She also testified that she definitely had a certified nurse assistant help her log roll the resident. The jury’s determination of which nursing home employee they believe will be essential to the ultimate outcome of the Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit.

For the full article.

Among the many forms of nursing home abuse and neglect, there is one common offense that is being habitually overlooked. Unfortunately, it has become a regular practice in nursing homes or long-term care facilities to sedate patients with medication instead of using them for their intended purposes. Staff often gives patients medication to make their job easier. If they are understaffed, which is by no means uncommon, or if patients are displaying a degree of behavioral issues, medication can be used to lighten the workload. Unnecessary use of psychoactive drugs can cause serious side effects. Psychiatrists may not even be prescribing many of these medications. Instead, regular doctors can write prescriptions "as needed" and leave the distribution up to the nursing home staff. Nursing homes have been fighting medical malpractice lawsuits due to the abuse of the drugs, but the percentages of patients being administered antidepressants and antipsychotics is astounding. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) calculated that 27% of patients in nursing home nationwide are being administered antipsychotics, and a shocking 52% are being administered antidepressants. In Illinois, 33.2% of patients are given antipsychotics, over 5% above the national average. 47% are given antidepressants. These figures are well above what should be a proportional amount of patients receiving medication. If you have a loved one in a nursing home, it is vital to carefully monitor the medication they may be receiving.

Due to an installation error, the air conditioning unit at a West Virginia nursing home allegedly allowed seven of the facility's employees to become infected with tuberculosis.The nursing home employees are suing the facility for liability by claiming that working at the home allowed them to be exposed to the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease. The disease traveled from the quarantined tuberculosis wing through the air conditioning system.

Click here for the full article

Two Oklahoma nursing homes are being sued by the EEOC over allegations of sexual harassment. The complaint claims that a former employee suffered sexual harassment when a male employee made lewd comments to her and tried to kiss her at both nursing homes. When the woman complained to management, they did nothing.

When employees are being distracted by sexual harassment, they undoubtedly pay less attention to the residents. This puts residents at more risk for nursing home abuse and neglect.

For the full article.

A 73 year-old nursing home resident thanks her doctor at the nursing home who took her off of the risky experimental drug that hospital doctors had administered to her. The 73 year-old began taking Avandia, an experimental blood sugar regulating drug, in 2004. Her daughter believes that the drug led to the 73 year-old woman’s heart attack in October of 2005. After the nursing home doctor received notice that Avandia was causing health problems, he took her off. She is doing better today than she was two years ago.

For the full article.

Seven nursing home employees who tested positive for TB are suing the state-run nursing home. The nursing home lawsuit alleges that the nursing home allowed bacteria from the highly contagious disease to escape an isolation ward when it installed wall air conditioning units in 2001, allegedly exposing the workers to the potentially deadly disease.

For the full article.

In a recent conference, the Virginia Board of Nursing was asked to take action upon evidence that a nursing home CNA violated state laws regulating nurse aide practice. The nurse was employed at four nursing homes in recent years: Seven Hills, ManorCare, Ruxton, and the Lexington. She had been previously diagnosed of Impulse Control Disorder and personality disorder, but was not undergoing treatment, and had also been convicted of petty larceny. The nurse committed acts such as abusing residents, threatening to kill fellow employees, verbal abuse, talking to herself about killing people in the presence of residents and omitting previous nursing homes and her criminal record on her resume. It is shocking that there is no system in place to prevent nurses like these from circulating among nursing homes in the same area. With the prevalence of nursing home abuse and neglect, there should be stricter rules governing background checks on employees.

Approximately 7 out of every 10 employees at nursing homes throughout the United States are paraprofessionals. These paraprofessionals take the form of Certified Nurse Aides, home health aides, and personal care attendants. At least eight out of every ten hours of paid services provided to an elder in non-acute settings is administered not by a doctor, nor a nurse, but by a paraprofessional worker.

A presentation was recently given by Steven L. Dawson, President of Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, addressing poor job quality, compensation, and lack of proper training for paraprofessionals in long-term care institutions. Thousands of Americans entrust their loved ones to these paraprofessionals each year. It is vital that these paraprofessionals are trained well, and are fairly compensated so that our elderly are treated properly.

Click here for the full presentation

A nursing assistant at a Washington nursing home was sentenced to nine months in jail due to the abuse and neglect of a 73-year-old woman, resulting in her death. Two other nurses remain charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment. The emergency room doctor said that the causes of the woman's death were dehydration, starvation, and lack of medication resulting in a coma, kidney failure, and ultimately death. The nurse who was sentenced to jail time pled guilty and admitted that she was "reckless" and withheld the basic necessities of life. The owner of the home was aware that the resident had behavioral problems but assured the family that the nursing home was equipped to provide adequate care. The family of the victim reached a $400,000 settlement in a wrongful death civil lawsuit.

Click here for the full article

The Elder Law Initiative and School of Social work present the Third Annual Summer Institute on Aging. The Summer Institute on Aging is a four-day, interdisciplinary course co-sponsored by the Loyola University Chicago School of Law and School of Social Work open to social workers, nurses, physicians, counselors, geriatric care managers, and attorneys. This highly interactive course will explore the psychosocial, ethical, policy, and legal issues related to aging and mental health, taking into account racial, gender, ethnic, and income differences among the elderly. The course will feature faculty and guest speakers from a variety of disciplines. Through simulations and group work, the course provides an excellent opportunity for true interdisciplinary collaboration. Continuing education credit available.

Click here for more information or contact Marcia Spira at 312.915.7580

An article posted on a legal medicine blog raises an interesting question: would nursing homes be staffed properly if low-paid CNA jobs were available to immigrants? The answer: No. This so-called issue is yet another attempt by Nursing Home Industry lobbyists to put profits over people. Nursing Home owners routinely understaff nursing facilities to cut costs and increase profits. This understaffing is not ther result of a lack of available nursing personnel.

Further, the prevalent understaffing in the nursing home industry is the primary cause of nursing home neglect as patients do not receive quality care when there are not enough health care providers to address patient needs.

Unsurprisingly, Nursing Home Industry lobbyists are once again seeking to divert their practices of profits over people by supplying unsupported and unfounded excuses for their refusal to provide our elderly citizens with quality care and adequate nursing staff.

For the blog article

The Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act was introduced by Senators Pete Domenici and Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and it would require comprehensive criminal background checks on long term care workers who have direct access to residents. The checks would include requiring nursing homes to screen prospective employees – while providing supervised provisional employment for thirty days – by checking criminal records, abuse and neglect agencies in all states, records from agencies such as Medicaid fraud control units and professional licensing boards. Sates would be required to penalize facilities for noncompliance and fine facilities that knowingly employ a worker with a criminal background.
Please help pass this legislation! This bill (S. 1577) is intended to stop workers with criminal records from working with vulnerable people.

Click here to read the bill
Click here to read the National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform's letter of support

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that the minimum wage and overtime pay laws do not apply to home care aides. Although the opinion itself focused mainly on delegation of Congressional authority and statutory interpretation, this decision will likely exacerbate the staffing shortage problem already affecting the nursing home industry. The case, Long Island Care at Home, Ltd. v. Coke, was brought by a home care aide who sued her employer for failing to pay minimum wages and overtime wages, even when she worked 24-hour shifts.

Continue reading "Supreme Court rules against overtime and minimum wage pay for home care aides" »

A warm welcome to Alison Hirschel as president of the NCCNHR. The NCCNHR focuses on such issues as nursing home abuse and neglect, adequate staffing in nursing home, working conditions of long-term care staff, resident’s rights, family support, development and support for the long-term care ombudsman program, and more. This organization has achieved great success and continues further in its work toward much needed nursing home reform.

Click here to find out more about the NCCNHR

The number of pressure ulcers throughout the U.S. remains unacceptably high. A recent study in the April 2007 American Journal of Nursing examined the incidence and high cost of pressure ulcers and presents the results of an implemented protocol to reduce the occurrence of the widespread problem. Clinical nurse specialists institute a Pressure Ulcer Prevention Protocol Interventions (PUPPI) at the Ohio State University Medical Center. The protocol is a nursing initiative that involves assessing risk and nutritional status, providing skin care, documenting, and giving referrals as needed. Pressure ulcer protocols have shown a decrease in incidence by almost 90% in nursing homes and almost 25% in critically ill patients.

For the full article.

On April 16, the Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case in which Ms. Coke, a 73-year old immigrant from Jamaica, is the sole plaintiff. She is challenging Labor Department regulations that say in-home elder care attendants are not covered by federal minimum-wage and overtime laws. Ms. Coke, who for 20 years cared for clients in their homes, states that she loved her work, but the money was not good at all. She often worked three or four 24-hour days, hardly ever receiving time-and-a-half for overtime.

The stakes in this case are considerable because in-home care is one of the nation’s fastest growing occupations. The elderly population continues to grow and in-home care provides an alternative to nursing homes, where costs can be high and nursing home abuse and neglect occurs.

For the full article.

A former employee of Manor Care in Virginia is suing the nursing home for wrongful termination. The employee was fired on Oct. 17 of last year, the day that state health department inspectors arrived at the nursing home. The report that resulted from the inspection cites the nursing home for more than a dozen violations of nursing home abuse and neglect. Among concerns, the report cited leaving infectious wounds untreated for days and purposefully ignoring a patient’s damaged feeding tubes until the patient had to visit the emergency room with dehydration. The former employee states that she alerted state health officials of the violations, acting as a whistleblower.

For the full article.

A California nursing home president has been charged with failing to pay more than $10 million in payroll taxes. He faces 109 counts of failing to pay taxes from the wages of his employees from 1998 to 2005.

For the full article.

The National Center for Health Statistics recently released the facility data tables from the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey online. The tables include the following information about nursing homes: characteristics, staffing, management, programs, services, and employee vaccinations. With the constant fears of nursing home abuse and neglect, the tables are especially useful for families researching a home for a loved one.

To view the tables.

Adverse drug reactions alone are between the 4th and 6th leading causes of death for individuals 65 and older in the United States. Medication-related problems can be categorized into eight categories: untreated conditions; drug use without indications; improper drug selection; subtherapeutic dosage; overdosage; drug interactions; failure to receive medication; and adverse drug reactions.

The study showed that seniors are affected by medication-related problems by causing, aggravating, or contributing to common and costly geriatric problems.

For the full study report.

A Maine nurse is suing a nursing home operator, charging that she was fired for reporting nursing home abuse and neglect. The lawsuit states that the nurse called the Department of Health and Human Services to report nursing home neglect to a patient who had broken his hip. The nurse had learned from a co-worker that the man had fallen almost five hours earlier and had been put back in his bed without an assessment. The nurse alleges that she was fired in retaliation for doing the right thing and reporting nursing home abuse and neglect.

For the full article.

Last Friday, Heartland Community College and Illinois State University’s Mennonite College of Nursing co-hosted the “Consortium on Issues in Long-Term Care” that brought together nursing home instructors from six schools. Using ISU’s expanding teaching nursing home project as a model, the group focused on long-term care issues with goals of recruiting nursing students into nursing-home careers. The Consortium also included nursing home administrators who shared ideas with the faculty.

Currently, nursing homes are severely understaffed. Additionally, staffing issues are often cited as causes for nursing home neglect. The joint commitment that the Consortium shows brings hope that staffing shortages may be resolved in nursing homes. A second Consortium will be held in January at Southern Illinois University.

For the full article.

A Philadelphia Inquirer article recently reported about a certified nursing assistant working in a “Green House." The Green House is a small assisted living home with just 10 residents. Nursing aides enjoy their occupation because they get to spend quality time with the residents. The Green House looks like a new home – located on residential streets, with pitched roofs, shutters, and a garden. The hallway feels like a home – with a vase and flowers on a small table, opening up into one large living area. However, the residents are just as frail, sick, and elderly as any other nursing home with one major difference: they are very happy.

The Green House concept was first conceived by Bill Thomas, the pioneer behind the Eden Alternative. There are Green Houses in Mississippi, Nebraska, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. There are two registered Eden Alternative homes in Illinois.

For the full article.

A current research study at the University of Missouri-Columbia discovered that medication errors may often go undetected in nursing homes. Because most nursing home residents are elderly and frail, even a minor error may have grave consequences. However, they are not always reported because the ‘front line’ staff often seems to be overworked. Nursing home staff admitted frustration, especially from disorganization and few felt well informed about what responsibilities were expected of them.

For the full article.

A recent Montana article demonstrated the painful effects that nursing home residents experience following the closure of a nursing home due to its fraudulent account practices. They examined the story of a Montana nursing home that was originally a well-run family business until 1998, when the family-owners were approached by a company to buy the business.

Under the new management, the nursing home fell into debt and despair. Soon thereafter, the residents suffered nursing home neglect. The company’s CEO later confessed to filing false Medicaid claims and diverting money intended for patient care.

Continue reading "The real victim in nursing home fraud: the residents " »

A NY nursing home has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim filed by a former speech pathologist at the facility. Court records indicate that at least a dozen other women may have been involved. The employees alleged that they were subjected to propositioning and degrading comments. When the plaintiff complained to the administration, they responded by promoting her primary harasser to be her supervisor. The facility is also under investigation for nursing home abuse and neglect based on a recent Medicare and Medicaid survey that showed the facility was in “immediate jeopardy.”

For the full article.