Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act, also known as the Nursing Home Arbitration Bill has been passed by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial Law and Administrative Law. The nursing home legislation, if passed by the Senate will prevent nursing homes in Illinois and all across the nation from requiring the elderly residents in nursing home to sign an arbitration agreement to gain admission. Amendments did not pass that attempted to exclude nursing home employees and nursing home physicians from the bill. To read more about this piece of nursing home legislation that may bring a change to Illinois nursing home residents click here.

Many nursing homes require residents or their families to sign arbitration clauses, whereby they sign away their right to bring suit in court for any abuse or neglect by the nursing home. A Senate committee is currently investigating the issue and heard from the family of William Kurth on Wednesday. Kurth fractured his hip and leg and received numerous pressure ulcers while living out his final months in a nursing home. His family attempted to sue for negligence, but the case was dismissed on account of his wife having signed an arbitration clause when her husband was admitted. Arbitration clauses benefit nursing homes because of their speed, cost, and, most notably, their confidentiality. The problem, however, is that most families are not thinking about suing a home when they admit their family member or loved one into the nursing home. Kurth’s wife, for example, was distressed about her husband’s recent stroke and overall condition and was, herself, taking medication when she agreed to arbitration. The Kurth family attorney called that day one of the most stressful in her life, and states that she would not have signed those papers if she knew what she was giving up: the right to a trial by jury. Kurth’s children allege that their father got infections because excrement and urine were left on his bed sores without being cleaned for multiple days in a row. While there is mounting support for banning arbitration clauses for nursing homes, the issue is still hotly contested and far from decided.

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A recent state inspection of Alden Town Manor Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Cicero, Illinois revealed one resident who broke a wrist after a preventable fall, another with a pressure sore, and, finally, three more who had experienced unhealthy drops in weight. In December of 2007, the facility had been found to be in non-compliance with the laws that govern Medicare and Medicaid services, having six months to comply or have its public aid terminated. The six-month term is coming to an end and two weeks from now public aid services will no longer be available if the facility fails to become compliant. While termination of public aid is not necessarily a death knell for nursing homes, it is very detrimental as, on average, 90 percent of money for residents is provided by Medicaid. Facilities whose aid has been terminated have to turn to private funding, and existing solely on that is practically impossible. The original inspection came after complaints about two residents who had bed sores, a result of not being moved for a long period of time. This inspection led the Illinois Department of Public Health to give the nursing home a level 3 citation, on a scale of 1 to 4, 4 denoting such severity that a death has occurred or a resident is in danger of dying because of substandard care. In the most recent inspection, the resident who broke her wrist was known by the staff to be at risk for falls at the nursing home because of her behavioral history of wandering around the nursing home hallways and trying to move without the use of her wheelchair. It is not yet known whether the families of the victims will seek to file nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits against Alden.

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Joyce Earline Bigelow, a patient at MontVue Nursing Home, died last October after taking a fall in the nursing home. Bigelow suffered complications after she fell while trying to use the restroom without assistance. The fall came after repeated instructions from Bigelow’s family to the nursing home staff that she required assistance when using the bathroom. After the fall, Bigelow suffered complications and died a few weeks later. As a result, Bigelow’s daughter sued the nursing home’s parent company for $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The parent company denies any negligence and claims that Bigelow did not fall, but instead that staff was helping her use the restroom when she became unable to support her own weight so they lowered her to the floor. The home claims that the staff then took her to a hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries. The family’s lawsuit allegations involve wrongful death and nursing home negligence.

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On May 15 a 13-year-old Illinois boy died at University of Chicago Hospital after being brought there with very severe signs of neglect including ulcers, one of which was seeping pus, a black crusted patch on his tongue, and hair, skin, and nails that were flaking and dirty. His mother and two nurses were charged with his home care, where over an extended period his condition slowly deteriorated. Despite finding him when she started her shift lying in his own feces and urine, one of the nurses, Morris Lee Brinkley, failed to make a call to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which could have saved the boy’s life. The other nurse, Loren Brown, knew that the boy’s mother was not taking him to doctor’s appointments, yet she did not call the Department of Children and Family Services either. Although both nurses claim to have notified their supervisor, she claims to have had no knowledge about the boy’s condition. The boy’s mother is far from without fault, however, as she had missed at least five medical appointments last year, had left him at a hospital once past his discharge date, and admitted to not bathing him in more than a year. The boy’s death has been ruled a homicide, and his mother and the two nurses have been charged with felony neglect and failure to report a neglected child. This boy's neglect is similar to nursing home abuse and neglect deaths where extreme neglect leads to severe injuries and even death.

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Penny Whitlock, a former nurse and director of nursing at the Illinois nursing home, Woodstock Residence, now called Crossroads Care Center of Woodstock, requested that three charges against her related to nursing home abuse and neglect be thrown out. The charges allege that she neglected three nursing home residents by failing to blow the whistle on the mistreatment of another patient. Whitlock filed a motion asking the judge to throw out three charges for neglecting long-term care facility residents, claiming she cannot be charged for neglect of patients other than the one who she allegedly knew was being mistreated. In total, Whitlock is charged with five counts of criminal neglect of a long-term care facility resident and two counts of obstructing justice. Additionally, former Woodstock Residence nurse Marty Himebaugh was charged with, and pleaded not guilty to, four counts of criminal neglect of a long-term care facility resident, one count of obtaining morphine by fraud, and one count of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance. At the heart of the issue is whether Whitlock failed to take action after receiving complaints from other staff members alleging that Himebaugh was overmedicating nursing home patients with morphine and whether Whitlock urged Himebaugh to continue being an “Angel of Death.” The charges touch on nursing home abuse , nursing home neglect, medication errors, and physical or chemical restraints.

In a related suit, Levin and Perconti has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Woodstock Residence, Whitlock, and Himebaugh.

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A new survey has revealed that nurses working at nursing homes feel that there are fewer staff members than needed. Nearly three-quarters of nurses surveyed declared that at the nursing homes and hospitals they worked for, the staff numbers were inadequate. A lack of staff members can lead to neglect, and even abuse, as recognized by those surveyed, half of whom reported feeling that quality of care is on the decline. The problem of inadequate numbers compounds itself as more nurses leave their positions because of concerns about sub-par care resulting from the low numbers of staff. Most shockingly, little more than half of the nurses felt comfortable about the idea of one of their loved ones being treated at their respective facilities. This announcement by nurses shows that there is a rising danger of hospital injuries and nursing home injuries, especially medication errors, wrongful death, and other nursing errors as existing staff members are unable to keep up with high demands which can lead to medical mistakes.

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The GAO has released a study on the results of federal monitoring surveys of state inspections in nursing homes. The federal government often contracts with state employees to perform annual compliance surveys which are a prerequisite to Medicare and Medicaid funding. The GAO’s report unfortunately contains some very troubling reports of nursing home abuse and neglect.

The study found that a substantial proportion of state inspectors and surveys miss deficiencies in nursing homes regularly, including malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of prescription medications and nursing home abuse and neglect. Some of these deficiencies are at the most dangerous levels and could cause immediate harm to nursing home residents. However, less serious noncompliance was more frequent: approximately 70% of state surveys missed at least one instance of low-level noncompliance.

Click to view the full text of the study or the abstract.

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Proposed changes to federal funding for Medicaid could cost Illinois more than 10,000 jobs and over $400 million in lost wages. Over the next five years, Illinois could see upwards of $2.5 billion in lost funding. Critics of the federal plan warn that reductions in Medicaid funding will shift the bill to the state in an already shaky economy. For Illinois nursing homes
this reduction in Medicaid is a serious threat to resident care and could lead to increased incidents of nursing home abuse and neglect. For instance, a nursing home in Peoria illustrates the problem: more than 70% of its residents are Medicaid funded. Many nursing homes and their residents that count on Medicaid may have to make alternative arrangements if the budget cuts go through.

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Hospital, nursing home, and medication error studies have shown that medical errors have contributed to the deaths of 600,000 hospitalized patients since 2002. This 2004 study also concluded that many proposed methods of nursing home and medication error prevention will not successfully prevent injuries and deaths from medical errors.
The Food and Drug Administration has reviewed a number of its policies in order to identify how labeling and dispensing could lead to medication error. The FDA found that there are 51.5 million medication errors committed annually, with more than three million of them potentially life threatening.

Financial abuse is commonly targeted at senior citizens. Seminars are one way the elderly can be convinced that they need financial products they do not. Estate planning is one example of an avenue used to dupe elderly attendees. Whether senior centers that hold these sales presentations can be held responsible has been questioned in California. There, facilities that allow financial elder abuse to occur can fall in the sphere of responsibility. A senior center could be named co-defendant in a financial lawsuit. A class action lawsuit filed by California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform & the Institute on Aging claims that some companies acquired information about seniors' finances through seminars and sent agents to their homes to sell financial products. It is now being questioned whether facilities that housed those seminars could also be implicated. Some senior centers in California have been warned to screen presenters in order to prevent being held responsible for financial elder abuse and exploitation.

In a recent study, the New York Times examined data to compare nursing homes purchased by private investment groups against the national average. The nursing home industry has suffered in the past, but revenues have begun to climb as large investors are taking over. Prominent private equity firms, such as the Carlyle Group and Warburg Pincus, have been invading the industry by acquiring nursing homes and reducing costs to increase profits. The study has revealed that, based on different regulatory benchmarks, patients at nursing homes acquired by these firms are worse off than they were under their previous owners.

The private investors increase profits by cutting costs, leading to reductions in staff. 60% of the new investor-owned facilities have cut the number of clinical registered nurses from 2000 to 2006. Understaffing is one of the largest contributors to the epidemic of nursing home abuse and neglect. Other indicators of quality-of-care have shown decline since the firms have been cutting costs. Some examples of these deficiencies include moldy food, placing residents under restraints for long periods of time, or administration of incorrect medications; these, among others, have risen at every large nursing home chain after it was acquired by one of these large firms. Other common problems that have arisen in homes since acquisition include depression and loss of mobility in patients, and their loss of ability to dress and bathe themselves. Consequently, the typical investment-owned chain has become 41% more profitable than the average facility.

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Ventas, a health care real estate investment trust, has seen their second quarter profit rise five fold. The trust recently purchased Sunrise Senior Living for almost $2 billion. Ventas owns hundreds of senior-housing communities and skilled-nursing facilities. Clearly, the nursing home business has been thriving as of late. However, facilities such as Sunrise Senior Living homes have had a history of abuse and neglect. Nursing home owners often blame lack of funds for understaffing and the absence of proper training. Examples such as the rise in Ventas's revenue by almost $100 million shows that there might be more to the story.

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The family of a woman who died after residing in a Manor Care facility recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the national nursing home management corporation. The woman was only 53 years old when she became a patient at the Manor Care facility in Springfield, Missouri and was first admitted to the ManorCare facility for rehabilitation with a decubitus ulcer on her right buttock. However, during the course of her stay at ManorCare, this decubitus ulcer grew larger, worsened, and ultimately became infected. Sadly, this story is a common one for ManorCare facilities across the nation, and this case, like the ones that came before it, also alleges that ManorCare provided inadequate and negligent care.

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A 60-year-old nursing home resident was recently charged with indecent assault and battery charges after he was found sexually assaulting disabled woman living at the facility. This is the second instance of sexual assault in recent years at Golden Living Center in Norwood, Massachusetts, formally known as Emerald Court. In the precious incident of nursing home abuse and neglect, a male resident and registered sex offender was caught sexually assaulting another male resident.

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A hedge fund has called for the sale of Sunrise Senior Living Inc., a large United States owner of assisted living facilities and nursing homes, including many in Illinois and the Chicago area. The company employs about 39,000 people and operates 444 facilities in the US, Canada, Germany, and Britain. The fund cites problems with management and accounting as reasons for the sale, finding new management or merging or restructuring the Virginia-based company. The US Securities and Exchange Commission opened a formal probe into its accounting and insider stock sales. The Illinois Department of Public Health has also investigated numerous cases of nursing home abuse and neglect in Illinois Sunrise facilities. The law firm of Levin & Perconti has represented a number of these victims.

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States all over the country are grappling with the issue of who is mentally fit to vote. Nursing home residents, especially those with Alzheimer’s, are coming into question, as well as people living with other disabilities. The mentally disabled and their advocates are fighting to secure voting rights while psychiatrists and those that work with the elderly are concerned about the risks of voting by people with conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia. Many people with dementia vote or want to vote but it is important to ensure that they are not pressured to vote certain ways. A New Jersey nursing home employee won a county election but was forced to step down after it was revealed that she took advantage of mentally incapacitated residents. Similar accusations have been reported in Alabama, South Carolina and other states. This summer, lawyers led by the American Bar Association and a group of psychiatrists will publish recommendations for national standards suggesting that people should only be banned from voting if they cannot indicate a “specific desire to participate in the voting process.”

New Jersey’s constitution currently forbids an “idiot or insane person” from voting and an amendment may appear on the November ballot. Advocates want the words removed, but fear they will be replaced with vague and restrictive language. A current Missouri lawsuit seeks to overturn the current state voting ban for people under full guardianship because of mental illness. A current debate in Rhode Island concerns the voting rights of the criminally insane. Only two states allows jailed felons to vote but advocates argue that the criminally insane are evaluated based on dangerousness and not voting capacity, and that voting can be part of rehabilitation moving them “closer to society.” State laws are inconsistent, but the emerging model is based on the 2001 ruling in Maine which allows people to vote if they understand the voting process and can make the choice. Assessing such qualifications is still controversial.

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