Investigation uncovers nursing home abuse in...

A Toronto newspaper investigation into nursing home inspections uncovered numerous incidents of poor nursing home care in Waterloo Region and cited four facilities in cases of abuse.
The Toronto Star discovered hundreds of cases of neglect and abuse of seniors while examining more than 1,500 inspection reports for long-term care homes across Ontario since the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care introduced a new inspection system about a year ago.
Inspections are done in response to complaints of poor care or the home’s reporting of an incident such as an alleged assault. The story was carried in Thursday’s Waterloo Region Record.
The newspaper report sparked action at Queen’s Park, with Health Minister Deb Matthews convening an emergency meeting Friday to find out why long-term care facilities are still not following rules on the reporting of abuse and neglect. At the meeting will be the Ontario Long Term Care Association representing two-thirds of Ontario’s 627 homes and several groups representing family and resident councils in homes.
The focus of the Thursday story was a 71-year-old woman with dementia, who is allged to have been sexually assaulted in her room by a facility staff member, who is now facing charges. Premier Dalton McGuinty responded to story saying there is “clearly more work to do” on the issue of protecting seniors. “I heard about this horrific incident and my heart goes out to the woman involved, her family and friends,” McGuinty said.
Locally, the investigation revealed 46 inspection reports of worrisome incidents in long-term care facilities in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. Six nursing homes were cited regarding reports of abuse, either by staff on resident or resident on resident.
TheRecord - Provincial investigation uncovers reported abuse in...

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man charged in neglect-related death

Authorites on Wednesday charged an Independence man with criminal involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 1 death of his disabled mother, who died from complications of neglect. Prosecutors allege that James E. Owens failed to provide adequate “nourishment, hygiene and medical care” to his 74-year-old mother. An autopsy determined that Carol F. Brown died from complications of “infected decubitus ulcers and sepsis” due to neglect. Owens, 52, told detectives that he did not feed his mother or summon medical help after he thought she had suffered a stroke because she had said she wanted to die at home, according to a police affidavit filed in Jackson County Circuit Court. At the hospital, a maggot was removed from an open wound on one of Brown’s legs, according to court documents.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/21/3331992/independence-man-charged-in-mothers.html#storylink=cpy
Independence man charged in mother’s neglect-related death - KansasCity.com

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New Mat may prevent Pressure Sores

People permanently confined to bed can develop bed sores. New smart cushioning is intended to eliminate the discomforts of lying and sitting. An integrated sensor system equalizes pressure selectively.

Anyone confined to a wheelchair or a bed has to deal with numerous complications. Frequently, they suffer from bedsores or decubitus ulcers as physicians call them. Bony prominences, such as the sacrum, coccyx and ischium, are especially endangered spots. Unrelieved pressure can lead to tissue necrosis. Damage can extend into the periosteum and, at the worst, into bones themselves. The ulcers are entryways for germs, which can trigger sepsis.

While hitherto available passive aids such as air, gel or vacuum cushions relieve pressure, they do not relieve the affected area optimally. Some patients are also unable to actively control the distribution of pressure and alleviate their own suffering. They are dependent on others for help. Personal care assistants or family caregivers must constantly keep an eye out for the formation of pressure ulcers.

A newly developed sensor mat will take over this job in the future and thus prevent tissue damage: researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF in Magdeburg are endowing textile cushions with the capability to “feel” by outfitting them with smart sensor systems.
 http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/12/Life-Science-Test-Measurement-Sensor-Mat-helps-prevent-bed-sores/

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Nurse Aide CNA - guilty in Cleveland nursing home abuse

A Cleveland nursing assistant CNA has pleaded guilty in the nursing home abuse of an Alzheimer's patient whose son recorded the mistreatment on a video camera hidden in an air purifier in the woman's room.
Maria Karban, 26, of Cleveland pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal assault on an elder Thursday in Cuyahoga County and faces up to six months in jail. Her attorney declined comment until the sentencing next month.
Karban and another nursing aide are accused of abusing Esther Piskor, 78, between April 8 and May 15 at a at MetroHealth Medical Center facility.
Virgen Caraballo, 45, of Cleveland pleaded guilty last month to seven felony counts of patient abuse or neglect and also is to be sentenced in January.
MetroHealth has fired the women and two other employees.
Woman pleads guilty in Cleveland nursing home abuse

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Nursing Home Resident killed in California

Authorities say an 81-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder for allegedly beating to death his 94-year-old nursing home roommate at an Orange County nursing home. According to police, William McDougall allegedly took a bar used to hang clothes from a closet, and used it to repeatedly strike his roommate, Manh Ban Nguyen, about the head.

Detectives are still investigating a possible motive for the nursing home assault, which occurred at Palm Terrace Healthcare Center, a 99-bed residential facility in Laguna Hills. Nguyen, who was found beaten around the head, was pronounced dead at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center.
The report does not say whether either man suffered from alzheimers or had a past record of mental illness or felony.
http://www.newser.com/story/102052/94-year-old-beaten-to-death-in-nursing-home.html

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Nursing Home Abuse caught on Tape

Three wnrkers at a nursing home in Pennsylvania have been arrested after being caught on tape hitting and mocking an elderly woman who suffers from dementia. Relatives of the 78-year-old woman installed a hidden camera after officials at the home rejected their suspicions that she was being abused, ABC News reported. The woman had told her daughter she was being punched and slapped by staff, asking: "Why do they keep picking on me?"

The video shows the employees "engaging in acts which I can only describe as humiliating, taunting and abusive of the victim in this case, including forcing the victim to stand topless for several minutes while the defendant and the other employees mocked her," the district attorney said. "The way the defendants allegedly abused this victim is inexcusable. Patients suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s are among our most vulnerable citizens." The three employees have been charged with offenses including aggravated assault.
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Insurance Industry Manufactures Crises and Harms America

Great article today from Center for Justice and Democracy on the planned phony insurance 'crisis' planned by insurance companies to manufacture falsehoods to the American public in order to deny Americans access to the Courts and to advance tort reform.

The first definitive expose of 35 years of manufactured insurance crises. So far there have been three. They document how this industry is now creating a fourth.

Imagine an industry that sold a product which every person and business in America needed. This product was so important that the industry could literally threaten the economy of a state by pulling its product out. The seller of this product was accountable to no federal agency and regulated only by very weak state agencies. It was also exempt from anti-trust laws so the entire industry, including so-called “competitors,” could use the same collusive pricing agencies to help determine the product’s price – price fixing that would land others in jail. Other laws permitted it to keep its financial data secret, enabling it to routinely mislead lawmakers, regulators and members of the media about its financial condition. This secrecy allowed it to create phony “crises” to help promote its own legislative agenda, padding its bottom line at the expense of everyday Americans.

The industry’s economic cycles lead to what are known as “hard” and “soft” insurance markets; there have been three full cycles in the past 35 years, with soft markets characterized by stable or low rates (good for policyholders but disliked by the insurance industry) and hard markets, characterized by sudden and astronomical rate hikes for policyholders. These hard markets lead to sometimes devastating “liability insurance crises.”
While the existence of this self-made cycle is clear to insurance industry insiders, insurers often
publicly deny the cycle’s existence while their lobbyists try to take advantage of skyrocketing
rates to push for so-called “tort reform.”
A bill has recently been introduced to eliminate the anti trust exemption irrationaly enjoyed by insurers over the years at the expense of policy holders: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/63997-democrats-want-to-revoke-insurances-antitrust-exemption-in-healthcare-bill

See
http://hamill-law.com/Repeat_Offenders.pdf

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/insurance-companies-premiums-rate-hikes_n_1149685.html

http://centerjd.org/content/study-repeat-offenders-how-insurance-industry-manufactures-crises-and-harms-america
Study: Repeat Offenders: How the Insurance Industry Manufactures Crises and Harms America centerjd.org

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