A new report released by federal regulators indicates that the percentage of nursing homes that receive spotless deficiency records is increasing. That means, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, that nursing home residents may be receiving better care on the whole. Of course, that’s not to say…
A nurse in Alabama recently pleaded guilty to elder abuse after she reportedly failed to inform her employer that she had committed a medication error by giving a nursing home patient the wrong drug. The 53-year-old licensed practical nurse (LPN) pleaded guilty to reckless abuse of a protected person. Although it was…
For some, being given the wrong dinner is a matter of simple annoyance. For a substantial number of residents in nursing home and long-term care facilities, it could be fatal. In a recent nursing home negligence lawsuit filed in Minnesota, the family of an 88-year-old woman who died following an…
The state attorney general in Pennsylvania has the right to pursue legal action against a number of nursing homes under consumer protection provisions for low staffing levels. Nursing homes targeted by the action had argued the attorney general couldn’t do this because: Only the state Department of Health had the…
The largest nursing home rehabilitation therapy provider in the nation has agreed to a $125 million settlement after federal prosecutors accused the firm of submitting phony Medicare claims. RehabCare, a subsidiary of Kindred Healthcare Inc., Kentucky-based company, and operators of four facilities, allegedly submitted claims for Medicare service bills that were…
The 73-year-old man from Detroit was mentally impaired, struggling with dementia. He was also physically impaired, and needed a wheelchair to move around. These were the reasons why he was living in a Michigan nursing home in the first place. Then, last month, the man reportedly wheeled himself out of…
It was Christmas Day, and the just-turned-21-year-old nursing assistant, who had just received her professional license, was working yet another shift at the nursing home because the facility was short-staffed. She’d already worked Christmas Eve, but agreed to work Christmas Day too. When she got there at 7 a.m., she was…
A state government report in Minnesota revealed that drug theft by health care workers is so common there, it accounts for 20 percent of all abuse cases involving elderly patients. The state department of health conducts regular analysis on exploitation and abuse of vulnerable, elderly residents, but this is the…
At first, it seemed like it might be an isolated incident. Nursing home workers were caught posting images or videos of elderly patients that were embarrassing, humiliating and even dehumanizing. These were clear violations of patients’ dignity, privacy and also in some cases, of the law. Today, journalism non-profit ProPublica reports…
People who suffer from obesity grapple with a range of health problems, from diabetes to congestive heart failure. The number of ailments facing obese adults increase as they age. This has resulted in serious problems at nursing homes throughout the country, where Medicare often refuses to pay more for the…