Articles Posted in nursing home abuse

Those who perpetuate nursing home abuse in Fort Pierce are going to continue to do so until they know that such actions are going to be swiftly and severely punished under the law.

Our Fort Pierce nursing home abuse lawyers know that while we do have certain criminal laws that serve this purpose, it can sometimes be difficult to prove. The standard of proof in civil cases is sometimes lower, which is why families who don’t find the justice they sought in the criminal justice system seek out a private nursing home abuse attorney. While we don’t make promises, we do point our clients to our proven record of success.

That said, we still welcome any strengthening of the criminal and civil laws with regard to those who commit nursing home abuse and neglect. These crimes are especially heinous because they are carried out against some of our most vulnerable residents, who often can’t speak out for themselves when they’ve been victimized.

The state of Vermont is now taking such steps, and we hope politicians in Fort Pierce and across Florida will take note.

House Bill 413 was signed into law by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin. Basically, what this measure does is hold nursing home administrators civilly accountable in cases of abuse or neglect in which there had been a pattern of such actions within the facility that administrators failed to address.

One example that was mentioned was a man who had been at a nursing home facility less than two weeks when he was attacked by another resident. He subsequently died as a result of injuries sustained in that attack – bruises covering his face and body in the funeral home.

According to the victim’s family, the attacker had been previously identified by staff as violent. He had in fact carried out attacks on other residents. He was deemed mentally unstable. And yet, nothing was done to remove him or to protect the other residents in the facility.

It’s this type of case in which administrators could be held liable in court.

Specifically, the language of the law reads that the bill will allow the attorney general to file civil action against a caregiver or person who abuses, exploits or neglects a vulnerable adult. Additionally, it allows civil action to be filed against a caregiver or person who “negligently allows” another person or caregiver to do the same.

Those found liable under this statue would be subject to a $5,000 fine if the alleged incident results in no bodily injury. They’ll be subject to a $10,000 fine if there is bodily injury, a $20,000 fine if there is serious bodily injury and a $50,000 fine if someone dies as a result of the abuse or neglect.

Anyone who tries to impede the civil investigation or hide information or falsify records will be subject to an additional $5,000 fine.

The person will have the right to a trial by jury.

Furthermore, all of this is considered separate to any additional criminal investigation that may take place.
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West Palm Beach nursing home patients could see a reduction in the number and quality of services if legislative efforts to reform the pay scale of nursing assistants is successful.

Our West Palm Beach nursing home neglect lawyers are concerned about both sides of the debate bubbling over in Washington.

On the one hand, President Obama has proposed a measure that would mandate a minimum wage and overtime pay for licensed home health care workers, saying that right now, they are lumped in the same category as babysitters in terms of how much they earn. The reason for this is a 1974 congressional decision, which considered the sky-high costs of home health care as reason for exempting home health care workers from receiving overtime and minimum wage. Many of these workers receive less than $10 an hour, and work without the benefit of overtime. Entry level is about $8.50 hourly. The state’s minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 hourly.

The president’s reasoning is that better pay will lead to less turnover and ultimately, a better quality of care.

The problem, though, is who will cover that cost, particularly for the overtime. With federal and state funding stretched to a breaking point, a lot of the agencies that provide in-home health care services would likely be forced to either increase their rates or lay off employees.

Many patients aren’t going to be able to afford the increase in expenses, and will receive a reduced level of care as a result.

Florida is one of 29 states that allows the individual agencies to decide what to pay their home health care workers. Many of these agencies could not absorb the wage hike costs.

It’s estimated there are some 2 million home health care workers in the country, with about 31,000 in Florida working with some 2,100 agencies. The industry is expected to grow exponentially over the next eight years, ballooning to some 3 million home health care workers across the country.

An average home health care worker may have as many as 70 clients, for whom he or she visits to provide services such as bathing, IV insertion and wound care. They also help with basic in-home tasks, such as laundry, shopping and meal preparation for individuals who are unable to complete those tasks themselves.

In many cases, these workers actually qualify for food stamps and other government assistance.

Only a portion of these agencies accept Medicaid reimbursement, which is what many less well-to-do patients rely on to cover their health expenses. That reimbursement is always at a flat-rate per patient. Now, further complicating the issue, is that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is asking Congress to reduce those reimbursement rates. It argues that the profit margin in the industry is high enough to do so. The home health agencies disagree.
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Cases of nursing home abuse in Greenacres and across Florida have grabbed headlines and raised real concern about the condition of long-term care facilities in the state.

Our Greenacres nursing home abuse attorneys know that not every facility is bad. However, not all nursing homes are created equal. It is critical that when you are choosing a nursing home for your loved one, you carefully weigh all of your options and to be on the lookout for red flags and warning signs.

In a series last year titled “Neglected to Death,” The Miami Herald detailed a long list of nursing home abuses throughout Florida that should put anyone shopping for a nursing home on high alert. Some of the facts they uncovered include:

–Almost once every single month, a resident dies from abuse or neglect. In some cases, caretakers forged certain documents to conceal evidence, but prosecution in these cases is exceedingly rare;

–Nursing homes are regularly caught using restraints illegally. These include the use of powerful tranquilizers, ropes and locked closets.

–While state regulators could have shuttered about 70 nursing homes over a two-year period for a long list of serious violations of abuse and neglect, they ended up closing just seven.

–While there have been more than 550 new nursing homes established across the state over the last five years, the number of inspections dropped by more than 30 percent.

–In one case, a home in Miami-Dade was the site where a 71-year-old man with schizophrenia died of burns after being left in a bath with scalding water. Since his death, the home has been cited by state authorities for more than 100 violations – and yet, it remains open.

The point is, with such egregious violations that continue on such a large scale, you simply can not trust that the state is looking out for your loved ones.

Still, nursing home care is sometimes the only option many families are left with. That means you have to do your homework.

CNNMoney recently reported on some of the things you can do to ensure your relatives are safe.

The first is reviewing the official statistics. Medicare releases nursing home ratings, and these can be a place to start. They are rated by a star system, but there is usually more to it. Take the time to look through health inspections and staffing reports. Some citations are more serious than others. For example, failing to create a care plan might raise eyebrows, but medication errors are likely a deal breaker. Also, take a look at the nurse-to-patient ratio, as well as how much time nurses get with each resident. These are going to be important indicators as to the kind of care your loved one will receive at the facility.

You will also want to consider contacting the state’s ombudsman or licensing agency. Ask them directly about any consumer complaints.

Make sure too that wherever you place your loved one, nursing home has the ability to meet their specific needs. For example, if your parent or relative has schizophrenia or Alzheimer’s Disease, make sure the facility is equipped to adequately deal with that issue.

Drop in and visit – randomly and without warning. You’ll want to start with an official tour, where you can ask questions like will your loved one be able to decide when to take a shower or when they go to sleep. You will also want to ask whether the nursing staff works with the same patients every day, or whether schedules and routines change frequently. The idea here is that when staffers know their patients well, their care is going to significantly improve.

Keep an eye out to see if patients are greeted by staff in the hallways, whether patients eat in a dining hall or their rooms. Stop in on a weekend, when there is likely to be less staff, and take note of whether the quality of care diminishes greatly.
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Legislative reforms that would have meant relief for victims of nursing home abuse and neglect in Davie and elsewhere in Florida have died in the Senate.

Our Davie nursing home abuse attorneys are disappointed that these efforts failed to get off the ground in a state where they are so desperately needed.

Some background: A revealing three-part series by The Miami Herald last year found that the state is the scene of an inordinate number of abuse and neglect incidents at nursing homes. In fact, since 2002, there have been some 70 cases of death directly resulting from abuse and neglect at Florida nursing homes. These incidents included:

–A 71-year-old woman with mental illness at a Washington County facility wondered from her bed to a nearby pond and drowned after the nursing home director, accused of a litany of other abuses, fell asleep;

–A 74-year-old woman in Kendall was found for more than six hours, with the restraints so tight it ripped her skin and ultimately killed her;

–A 71-year-old man in Hialeah with mental illness died from burns after he was left in a bathtub with scalding hot water;

–A 75-year-old man in Clearwater was killed by an alligator after wondering from his assisted-living facility for the fourth time.

Each of these incidents were entirely preventable, and in their wake, residents rightly called for state reform.

Now, however, the state has let them down. The reforms would have protected nursing home residents in the following ways:

–Allowed an appeals process that would have protected residents from being evicted from the home if they complained to authorities about living conditions;

–Mandated that facilities with a a certain number of dangerous violations be closed;

–Require caregivers to be credentialed;

–To require a fine of up to $10,000 any violation that results in a patient’s death.

The state’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which inspects and licenses nursing home facilities, has gone on record as saying the state has plenty of laws already in place.

But then why are so many individuals continuing to be harmed by nursing home abuse and neglect in Florida?

Advocates fear that waiting any longer to pass these reforms is going to result in a return to business as usual for these facilities. There was such outrage following the Herald article. But as often happens with headlines, they fade. So does the interest. People forget.

And all of this couldn’t come at a worse time: cuts in Medicaid reimbursements are ongoing – and severe. What that means is that facilities are cutting back on activities, maintenance and staff. That means a diminishing level of care and oversight within these homes. That translates to a higher rate of abuses and less people to do anything about it.

The bills may be dead this year, but you can still contact your representatives and let them know how important these issues are to you. Go to www.myfloridahouse.gov, find your representative and let them know that nursing home reform is a critical issue in the state of Florida that must be addressed.
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Allegations of nursing home abuse in Florida are being lodged against the state, by parents who say disabled children are being illegally warehoused in facilities when less restrictive options are available.

Our Fort Lauderdale nursing home abuse attorneys understand that the case involves some 250 children who are already in nursing home care, while another 5,000 are at risk of entering the system. The latter group has filed a separate lawsuit.

It all stems from the state’s systematic denial of home nursing care to families who wish to care for their children in the comfort of their homes, rather than have them housed in an institution.

The suit was filed in a Fort Lauderdale federal court. The families say the state is violating not only the Americans with Disabilities Act, but also a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that mandates states offer services that would keep individuals in the least-restrictive care setting. This would include group homes or foster care.

Although pressed by various media sources, authorities with the Agency for Health Care Administration, which runs the Medicaid program in the state, refused to offer comment on the issue.

In one case, a teenage girl has been living in the children’s wing of a Plantation nursing home for the last five years. She had suffered severe brain damage when she was shaken as a baby. She can’t talk or walk and requires a breathing tube on most days. She had been taken to the nursing home for a short illness, but the state won’t allow her to return to her foster family. The family wants to provide her in-home care, and she’s been in stable condition for years. But the state won’t give them anything more than 8 hours of in-home care per day – not enough to cover her around-the-clock medical needs.

Some say it makes financial sense. It costs about $500 a day – or about $180,000 annually – to have a child cared for in a state nursing home. That’s much less than $250,000 annually, which is the cost of providing home health care.

But advocates say that those figures don’t factor in the many resources that these families often employ to get some of those services elsewhere. In the long run, having kids living with in-home health care saves the state money.

So why would the state want to keep them in nursing homes? As Miami Herald Columnist Fred Grimm pointed out: money. Aging baby boomers are more frequently seeking alternatives to institutionalized, nursing home care. That has meant a decrease in the number of patients. Nursing homes are frantic to fill those beds and keep their state funding. These has them turning to children – regardless of whether they actually need to be there.

The bottom line here is that if at all possible, children should not be cared for in centers designed for the geriatric population. These centers were never meant for or designed for children. They are meant for people over the age of 65.

These children should have a chance to thrive at home with their families or in the state’s expansive network of medical foster homes.
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A shortage of nurses throughout the state has led to concerns of nursing home abuse in Wellington and elsewhere.

Our Wellington nursing home abuse attorneys are troubled by the market outlook that was recently released through the Florida Center for Nursing. Essentially, the prediction is that the state is going to be short about 15,000 nurses over the next year and a startling 56,000 in 2025.

What this means for you and I is that we can expect a diminished quality of care. Fewer nurses is going to mean understaffed hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities. There are also likely to be fewer facilities that can afford to stay open, meaning there will be fewer options for the aging.

This couldn’t come at a worse time for baby boomers, a huge generation that is beginning to flood nursing homes and assisted care facilities. Even if the shortage could be addressed with better wages for nurses, that is a cost that is ultimately going to be passed to patients. Many people struggle to afford decent geriatric care as it is.

Part of the problem is that nurses in Florida tend to make less than they would elsewhere in the country. Here, registered nurses can expect to make about $30 an hour – which equals out to almost $100 less a week than the national average nursing salary.

Another problem, according to the National Nurses Organizing Committee, is the overburdening of nurses with low nurse-to-patient ratios. What that means is there are fewer nurses for every patient. Not only is this bad for patients, because it means the quality of care is lessened, nurses don’t like it either. High workloads quickly become a stress factor that leads to higher turn-over rates. So then the shortage becomes a vicious cycle, because nurses in Florida relocate to better-paying jobs where they’ll be responsible for fewer patients.

Ross Eisenbrey, who works with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, was quoted as saying that is a huge issue for nurses, and while they care about patients, the workload issue is a deal-breaker for many.

As our Wellington nursing home abuse attorneys are well aware, staff shortages are an opportunity not only for neglect but also outright abuse. Overworked nurses can certainly be a factor, but a lack of oversight contributes as well.

Despite these projected shortages, about 11 percent of registered nurses in the state aren’t working in the field in which they have their degree. A lot of that has to do with the ratios and pay scale discussed earlier.

California is one state that could be held up as a model for this snowballing problem. It became the first of 14 states to set up a mandated nurse-to-patient ratio. That was in 2004. Since then, more than 100,000 nurses in California went back to bedside care.
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A bill in North Florida that would have tacked on a nursing home to the Jacksonville University geriatric program has been axed by the state legislature.

Proponents had hoped it would give more options to the growing number of patients expected to seek long-term care over the next several decades. It was also hoped that it would be a learning tool for medical students hoping to enter into elderly care.

Those concerned with nursing home abuse in Port St. Lucie and elsewhere throughout the state had hoped the measure would pass. Not only would it have created more opportunities to learn under the supervision of the educational system, it would have created additional options for aging patients.

As our Port St. Lucie nursing abuse attorneys understand, it would have meant a nursing home with 150 new beds for the older population. It may have seemed like a win-win, but already-existing nursing homes were the loudest opponents.

According to Reporter Matt Dixon of The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, at issue was the belief that there is already a glut of nursing homes within the state, and particularly in northern Florida.

One nursing home executive was quoted as saying there are an estimated 9,500 nursing home beds available in District 4 alone. There, he said, there is a nursing home occupancy rate that stands at about 88 percent, meaning there are over 1,000 beds that are vacant nightly.

But lawmakers have disputed these figures. In fact, when individuals had called several nursing homes in the area, claiming to be looking for a bed for a family member, they had been told the occupancy rate was closer to 94 percent and that there would be placed on a 1-year waiting list.

At the heart of this issue is the moratorium that Florida lawmakers placed on new nursing home beds in the state. What this means is that it’s not possible for a proposed facility to simply open its doors without approval from the state legislature.

In this case, investors from Ohio had tried to have the Jacksonville City Council make the request, but he was shot down there. That’s when this proposal was quietly tacked on last minute to a larger state nursing home reform bill.

The idea of the moratorium is that the state can only afford to fund so many facilities with Medicaid dollars. FL Statute 651.011 to 651.134 governs nursing home establishment and operation.

Initially, this bill was passed 89-23 within the state house last month. But as opposition began to swell amid concerns of those within the nursing home industry, the bill was ultimately pulled, the language that would have allowed this home to be built was stripped.

Our Port St. Lucie nursing home abuse lawyers are not for or against any one facility, but we do favor options. The more choices are offered to those facing the difficult decision of where to place their aging loved ones, the better the competition is and the more likely a relative will be treated above and beyond the minimum standards.
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