March 13, 2010

Nursing Home Beds May Be Unsafe

The New York Times recently published an expose that questions whether beds in nursing homes are safe for the patients within them. They discussed the death of one patient who found his neck entrapped between the mattress and the rail. The patient wrongfully died from asphyxiation. The family filed a nursing home lawsuit against the hospice organization, the manufacturer of the bed and the medical equipment vendor.

While bedrails are supposed to be safety devices, experts believe that they oftentimes create more problems than they solve. Rails decrease a patient’s risk of falling by 10 to 15 percent, yet they increase the risk of injury by about 20 percent. This happens when confused or demented patients who try to climb over the rails fall from a lower level and land on their knees or legs. These patients are then apt to fall further and strike their heads. However, the biggest danger is entrapment. Patients will get stuck within the rails or between the rail and the mattress. The FDA had tallied 480 deaths and 138 injuries from bedrail incidents. A person will roll into the slot next to the rail, which slides the mattress to the opposite side. The patient will drop to the gap and the mattress pressing on his/her chest will make it impossible to breathe.

The Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti recently reached a settlement in a nursing home bedrail entrapment death. The victim’s family was awarded $570,000 in the case. To read more about bedrail incidents, please click the link.

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October 9, 2009

AARP Report Concerning Background Checks on Home Care Workers

American Association of Retired Person’s Public Policy Institute just released a new report on federal and state approaches to background check screening of home care workers to protect vulnerable from harm. Currently states increasingly require criminal background checks for home care workers to protect vulnerable adults from harm. Forty-six states mandate some form of background check for Medicaid-funded workers, however there is no uniform protocol for screening and disqualifying candidates. There also needs to be robust scholarship on the relationship between criminal behavior and the risk of elder mistreatment. The paper offers an up-to-date assessment of practices including: implementing promising state-level practices to increase accuracy, speed, cost-effectiveness and fairness to job applicants. Also, states should use multiple, complementary screening tools, not just criminal background screening. Criminal background checks will greatly reduce nursing home abuse. To read more about background checks, please click the link.

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July 27, 2009

Support Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2009 (S. 512/H.R. 1237)

Last week, two of the country’s largest arbitration firms said they are no longer handling consumer arbitration cases. In the Wall Street Journal, Ed Mierzwinski of U.S. PIRG said “In the long run, I think that this is the beginning of the end of forced arbitration in all consumer contracts, from credit cards, to nursing homes to cell phones.”

While this development is encouraging, it is still important to speak out in support of the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2009. This Act would invalidate all current and future arbitration agreements that many people entering into nursing homes and assisted living facilities unknowingly sign. These agreements take away one’s right to argue their case in front of a jury. Follow the link to learn more about nursing home arbitration. To find out how to contact your U.S. Representatives and Senators to show your support for this bill, click here.

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April 28, 2009

Chicago’s Latinos Face Cultural and Financial Barriers When Accessing Quality Nursing Home Care

A Brown University Study shows that more than 74,000 nursing home residents have bed sores in five states with high Mexican-American populations. This study mirrors conditions in Chicago, Illinois long-term care facilities. The report concluded that residents in nursing homes with overwhelmingly Latino patient populations are more likely to suffer from bed sores than those in nursing homes with mostly while patients. Experts say that there is a very limited methodology available to understand the course of life for Latinos in the U.S. and the stress that causes high mortality rates in an older Latino population. Chicago’s Latinos tend to be quite young, thus senior care is not the foremost health concern in the community. The large number of illegal Latino immigrants creates problems when many facilities are paid by Medicare. Governor Pat Quinn stated that he will commit $1.7 billion to help repay the state’s $2 billion in overdue Medicaid bills to health care providers. To read more about the nursing home study and it’s relation to Chicago, please click the link.

April 21, 2009

Break the Silence on Elder Abuse

“Break the Silence” has become a phrase used to raise awareness to raise awareness for the reporting of elder abuse. People should report to the local authorities if they are suspicious of any elder abuse. Many times callers can remain anonymous as investigations are conducted. Oftentimes when a person becomes older and increasingly frail and isolated they oftentimes become a victim of elder abuse. There are several types of elder abuse. The types range from physical and sexual to emotional abuse. Additionally, financial exploitation has become quite common in places like Chicago, Illinois. If you believe you or a family member is a victim of elder abuse, contact a nursing home abuse lawyer. To read more about types of elder abuse, please click the link.

April 6, 2009

Elderly Woman’s Death was not one with Dignity

An expert on geriatric medicine testified that an 84-year-old Illinois woman did not die a dignified death under the care of her two daughters, both of whom are on trial in Kane County for criminal neglect. The two women are charged in connection with the wrongful death of their mother, who was found in squalid conditions in the Geneva, Illinois house that the three shared. The elderly woman, who had serious bedsores and weighed about 70 pounds, died a few days later in a hospital. The doctor, an expert on bedsores, testified that the woman’s two daughters failed to provide adequate care. The testimony focused on the serious pressure ulcers that were discovered once the elderly woman was brought to the hospital. The most serious ulcer was one that caused her vertebrae to be visible and resulted in damage to bone. This indicates the bedsore would have taken months to form and that the victim spent long periods in bed without being repositioned. To read more about the elderly neglect trial, please click the link.

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January 12, 2009

Nursing Home and Hospital Injuries and Errors May not be Covered by Medicare and Medicaid

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may increase the number of events they refuse to reimburse nursing homes and negligent hospitals for carrying out. Currently nursing home residents who develop pressure ulcers and urinary tract infections are not able to have Medicare and Medicaid cover their treatment costs. This is an effort to require adequate nursing home care and to prevent nursing home abuse on elder patients. Currently, CMS is discussing the addition of hospital errors and surgical errors to the list of events that are not redeemable via insurance. If this passes nursing home residents may be impacted since many undergo pressure sore debridement in hospitals relating to the poor elder care they receive in nursing homes. To read more about the possible changes to be implemented by CMS, click here.

December 22, 2008

Levin & Perconti files negligence lawsuit against Illinois nursing home for failing to prevent and treat pressure sores

Steven M. Levin and Margaret P. Battersby of Levin & Perconti filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against an Illinois nursing home last week. The nursing home lawsuit was filed in Cook County and brought on behalf of a 77 year-old woman. The Illinois nursing home lawsuit alleges that the nursing home failed to monitor and treat pressure sores that ultimately contributed to the 77 year-old’s death.

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November 11, 2008

Falls Merit Complex Care in Elderly

Once considered an inevitable part of aging, falls are now recognized as complex often preventable events in the elderly. Additionally, falls have multiple causes and consequences which call for a wide range of both psychological and physiological interventions that many patients never receive. Even falls that cause only minor injury “need to be taken as seriously as diabetes” says a professor of geriatrics and adult development. He states that falls can be a warning sign that something serious is wrong. Another expert states that falls are comparative to strokes in their harmfulness and added that people do not always report them or seek help for fear that their families will put them in nursing homes. Each year, 1.8 million Americans over the age of 65 are injured in falls. Some can rebound but for others the fall sets off on a downward spiral of physical and emotional problems which include pneumonia, depression, social isolation, infection and muscle loss. In 2005, 4333.000 people over 65 were admitted to hospitals after falling, and 15,800 died as a direct result of the fall. These statistics are alarming, and nursing homes should be well equipped to evaluate any patient who has experienced a fall. To read the full story, click here.

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November 7, 2008

US Agency Finds the Monitoring and Sanctioning of Deficient Nursing Homes Lacking

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a press release today indicating that it had created a new administration-transition website with a list of 13 “urgent issues” requiring the attention of President-Elect Barrack Obama and the 111th Congress. In addition to these urgent issues, the website also details what it considers to be “major challenges” affecting 28 different federal agencies. According to this list, the oversight of patient care in nursing homes is one of the major challenges facing the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS). In particular, the site calls out the CMS’s management relating to the enforcement of federal nursing home requirements stating that its efforts are “hampered by its fragmented and incomplete enforcement data system and a policy that allows some homes with the worst compliance histories to escape immediate sanctions.” To remedy these problems, the GAO recommends that the CMS “address quality-of-life concerns” for nursing home patients, that it improve its monitoring of nursing homes which have records of serious care problems, and that it reinforce its enforcement of sanctions against such facilities.

Click here to view the GAO’s recommendations regarding patient care and safety.

July 17, 2008

Nursing Home Arbitration Act is One Step Closer to Becoming a Law

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.

June 20, 2008

A Family Puts a Face on the Nursing Home Arbitration Clause Issue

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.

Read more here.

June 16, 2008

Illinois Nursing Home May Lose Public Aid After State Inspection Finds Neglect

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.

Read more here.

June 6, 2008

Nursing Home Denies Wrongdoing in Response to Lawsuit over Death of Resident

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.

Read more here.

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June 2, 2008

Boy Dies from Neglect by Mother and Nurses

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.

Read more here.

May 30, 2008

Nursing Home Nurses Accused of Neglect in Deaths

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.

Read more here.

Nurses Declare Lack of Staff at Nursing Homes and Hospitals

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.

Read more here.

May 19, 2008

GAO Report Finds Faults with Current Nursing Home Compliance System, Recommends Changes

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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April 25, 2008

Illinois Nursing Homes at Risk with Threats in Medicaid Reductions

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.

Read more here.

December 9, 2007

Medication Errors

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.

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