More than a month ago two nurse assistants at Bandera Road's Princeton Place nursing home started noticing problems. Sandra Lujan, a four-year veteran of the facility, claimed she saw elderly patients with abnormal and excessive bruising, including bruises in the shapes of fingers and torn skin on faces. Sonia Roman, a nurse assistant at Princeton Place for two years, also saw similar bruising. She also questioned whether there was enough staff to care for all 134 patients, saying many were routinely left unattended. She even confronted one nurse...
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Never swab a decubitus ulcer unless that ulcer is clearly infected.Dr. Allen says it’s important to know that it doesn’t make sense to culture a pressure ulcer that doesn’t have any signs of infection, such as pus or redness—although he sees it happen routinely.“Just because a patient has a bedsore doesn’t mean it’s infected,” Dr. Allen says. “Usually, they’re not infected. But they’re going to have a dozen different germs growing in them.”Culturing and treatment without signs of infection, he says, often leads to “inappropriate antibiotic use...
Friday, April 27, 2012
A 42-year-old man has been charged with aggravated malicious wounding after police say he attacked an elderly resident at a nursing home Thursday evening. Debbie George with the City of Suffolk said William K. Ruffin, a resident at Oakwood Assisted Living Facility on East Washington Street, attacked a 92-year-old woman sometime before 6:30 p.m. She sustained severe facial injuries and was transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital by Nightingale. Friday morning, George said the victim was in critical condition at the hospital. Police...
Thursday, April 26, 2012
I waas quoted in this weeks Lawyers Weekly article on Arbitrations in the nursing home context. In an article by Eric T. Berkman, an attorney and freelance writer for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Publishdd Wed, April 25, 2012A mandatory arbitration agreement that a man signed on his mother’s behalf when she was admitted to a nursing home did not bar his wrongful death suit against the facility, a Superior Court judge has ruled. Judge Troy's ruling essentially voided an arbitration agreement that had been signed by a health care...
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Southwest Florida can be a retiree’s paradise — but that also makes it an ideal place to prey on the elderly.At a public forum Tuesday, the Lee Elder Abuse Prevention Partnership shared stories of elder abuse and discussed ways to prevent it.“Our own parents and grandparents are being taken advantage of,” said co-chairwoman Dotty St. Amand. Part of the problem is Florida does not require private home caregivers to be licensed, according to John Morano, CEO of JT Private Duty Home Care. The state oversees companies such as Morano’s, which require...
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The Fifth District Appellate Court has upheld a Madison County plaintiff's verdict in a case that was tried twice against Rosewood Care Center nursing home of Edwardsville.Jurors awarded $149,115.13 to Paul Graves, administrator of his father's estate in April 2009. Paul Graves contended that Rosewood was negligent in caring for his father, Alfred Graves, during a January 2003 stay at the facility. On the first day of his stay, Alfred Graves fell and broke his hip. Paul Graves claimed that the nursing home violated its own procedures and did not...
Friday, April 20, 2012
A woman has filed suit against Memorial Hermann Baptist Beaumont Hospital, alleging she sustained a hip fracture while staying in the intensive care unit.Sheila Antoine claims an ambulance transported her to Baptist Hospital on Feb. 10, 2010, after she began complaining of severe shortness of breath, cough and fever. Medical personnel decided to take an X-ray of Antoine's chest. While the hospital staff was positioning Antoine on the table, she began to feel discomfort in her legs, according to the complaint filed March 15 in Jefferson County District...
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Pressure sores are easier to prevent than to treat. Pay attention to senshtive areas of the skin. Reposition to remove pressure. Keep skin clean and moisturized. Note that too much moisture however, can contribute to bed sores. Skin areas can be kept dry with body powder. Good nutrition and adequate hydration are key to skin integritySenior Living: How to watch for and avoid pressure sores » Redding Record Searchli...
Sunday, April 15, 2012
A case of elder abuse is surfacing in southwest Iowa. An Atlantic woman is accused of taking a picture of a nude nursing home resident earlier this month. Thirty-five-year-old Amanda Sedina, who works at the Salem Lutheran Nursing Home in Elk Horn, faces a serious misdemeanor charge of invasion of privacy-nudity.Shelby County Chief Deputy Sheriff Rod McMurphy says Sedina allegedly took an inappropriate picture of the bathing 78-year-old female resident. McMurphy says another employee of the nursing home received a text message from Sedina with...
Friday, April 13, 2012
Boston Massachusetts nursing home abuse attorney Bernard J. Hamill says families need know that there is a correlation between staffing levels and the adequacy of elder care in nursing homes. It is common sense and it is backed by state and federal regulations. The challenge is in interpreting data provided by nursing homes to the government regarding staffing adequacy to insure nursing home residents receive the high quality of care mandated by federal and state regulations. Federal regulations state that staffing must be sufficient to...
Thursday, April 12, 2012
According to the Center for Justice in Democracy Factsheet on Arbitration, "Mandatory binding arbitration is a process by which parties “agree” (although consumers rarely know they have “agreed”) to have a third party arbitrator (single arbitrator or a panel), instead of a jury or judge, resolve a dispute. Arbitrators are not required to have any legal training and they need not follow the law. Court rules of evidence and procedure, which tend to neutralize imbalances between the parties in court, do not apply. There is limited discovery, making...
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
In a nursing home on the southern end of California's Central Valley, three elderly dementia patients died during 2007. Normally, that would not make the headlines. But these patients died after being given powerful antipsychotic drugs to control elders behavior--despite warnings the drugs increase the risk of death in elders with dementia.Mae Brinkley, 91, Joseph Shepter, 76, and Alexander Zaiko, 85, died at the Kern Valley Hospital, a 74-bed skilled nursing facility in rural Lake Isabella, about 30 miles northeast of Bakersfield. Their cases...
Monday, April 9, 2012
SYSTEMATIC failures at a Tyneside nursing home saw a pensioner in desperate need of medical attention left to die. Dementia sufferer Joyce Wordingham had become so ill it should have been obvious to staff at her nursing home that she needed to see a doctor. However, Daphne Joseph was the only nurse looking after 29 residents at St Michael’s View, in South Shields, and she had not been trained properly amid a “culture of neglect”. So, instead of calling an ambulance, Joseph simply sponged Mrs Wordingham and made a note she looked frail and ill....
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Pennsylvania's nursing homes can no longer sustain themselves with the latest cuts to Medicaid, according to a health advocate for the elderly. Families who are likely to pick up the slack also are seeing their support threatened."Two-thirds of Pennsylvania's nursing home residents are on Medicaid, and for each one of them, a nursing home loses an average of $19.23 a day," said Dr. Stuart H. Shapiro, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association. "These shortfalls are unsustainable."The proposed $102 million statewide cut in Medicaid...
Thursday, April 5, 2012
A Cy-Fair nursing home is being sued over claims its nursing home neglect caused the death of one of its residents.Susan Evangelista, individually and on behalf of the deceased Joanne Gilmore, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on March 2 in Harris County District Court against Grace Care Center of Cypress.Evangelista says on May 10, 2011, Joanne, a Grace Care Center resident, died as a result of continued and ongoing neglect. Grace Care subjected Gilmore to serious physical and mental injuries, according to the brief.Cy-Fair nursing home blamed for...
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
The family of an Alzheimer’s patient who died after a physical altercation with another patient at Oak Park Healthcare is suing the west suburban nursing home for wrongful death, according to a press release issued Thursday by the family’s lawyers.The lawsuit, filed Wednesday alleges the facility violated federal and state nursing home regulations in failing to protect patient from physical abuse and failing to provide appropriate supervision, according to the press release.Anibal Calderon, an 80-year-old resident of the Oak Park Healthcare Center,...
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The family of an elderly nursing home resident who was beaten to death by a fellow resident of Oak Park nursing home last month has filed a lawsuit claiming the nursing facility failed to protect the 80-year-old from abuse and neglect.The wrongful death lawsuit against Oak Park Healthcare Center, 625 N. Harlem Ave., was filed in Cook County on behalf of the family of Anibal Calderon.On Feb. 12, Calderon, who suffered from dementia, was assaulted by a 66-year-old resident with a violent criminal background, the suit claims. A nurse found Calderon...
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