A nursing home in Massachusetts is facing thousands of dollars in federal fines after a state investigation revealed the facility employees violated state law in treating an 83-year-old woman who died after falling from a mechanical lift. Nursing home deaths resulting from falls are far too common. The U.S. Centers for…
A 55-year-old woman has been arrested for abuse of an 89-year-old dementia patient at a nursing home in Minnesota, after the alleged victim’s daughter installed a hidden camera in patient’s room. Investigators say snippets of video from last month showed the staffer hitting the victim in the head and on…
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…
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…
A review article published recently in The New England Journal of Medicine reveals a deeply troubling statistic: 1 in every 10 older adults is a victim of some form of violence or abuse. Worse, researchers point out, this figure is all but certainly a vast underestimate considering it’s based on…
The patient was not yet 70. He’d had a stroke and was recovering at a Massachusetts for-profit nursing home. A week after he arrived, staffers dropped him while transferring him from a bed to a chair. Staffers called 911, but canceled the call when he seemed to stabilize. That night,…
Most families in search of a trustworthy nursing home in which to place loved ones are acutely aware of the possible dangers of abuse or mistreatment by staff. What they may be less attuned to is the danger posed by other residents. They should know it is the duty of…
A registered nurse and former director of a nursing home care center in New York has pleaded guilty to intentionally acting to cover up sexual abuse and neglect of patients at the center. News reports indicate defendant pleaded guilty to two felony counts of tampering with evidence. The local state…
California’s largest nursing home has grown rapidly in recent years. Now, it’s descent seems equally meteoric. According to media reports with the Sacramento Bee, the entrepreneur who launched the facility is facing not only civil lawsuits, but criminal charges in connection with the treatment of elderly and disabled patients in…