Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

Since the 1960s, where over half of patients who died in hospitals were autopsied, autopsies performed in hospitals have decreased to 12-15% of patient deaths in academic medical centers and to about 2% in private hospitals.

The benefits of performing an autopsy are numerous, and include improved care for the living, peace of mind for family members, preventative family medical history information, and less costly litigation of malpractice claims. Thus, private companies such as San Francisco based 1-800-Autopsy are expanding to cover the gap left by hospitals, who in an attempt to save costs avoid performing autopsies where possible.

Another reason for the decrease is that fewer patients are dying in hospitals and more in long term care facilities such as nursing homes, and under hospice care.

For the full article
http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/business/display_article.asp?Nav=ns&lvl2=buss&ArticleID=1518-1786_1939377

Colorado attorney Jay Reinan made a career out of defending nursing homes. He switched sides mid-career and now represents those patients abused and neglected by the very homes he used to defend.

For the full article:
http://www.westword.com/Issues/2006-05-25/news/feature_1.html

During a recent deposition investigating negligent care at ManorCare Oak Lawn East, in Illinois, a nurse testified as to the negligent nursing care patients were receiving. The case concerned pressure ulcers and the nurse testified that the dressings on these ulcers were consistently not changed.

In one example, this particular nurse did her own "in house" test where she changed a bandage on an ulcer. She then placed a $5 bill over the bandage and another layer of dressing. When she arrived the next day, after the bandage had allegedly been changed; the $5 bill was still there. This confirmed to the nurse that the bandage had been left unchanged overnight, violating the care orders for the patient.

In a new report, Congressional investigators find that inspectors often over look violations in nursing homes. The article suggests that data used by the Bush administration to argue its policies have improved conditions in the nation’s nursing homes may be inaccurate.

The investigators found that conditions such as weight loss, falls, and pressure sores were understated by the nursing homes.

For the full article:
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