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A consumer advocacy group is suing the state Health & Human Services Agency, alleging a systemic practice known as “patient dumping” – or illegally refusing to re-admit nursing home patients on the state subsidized healthcare program known as Medi-Cal after a hospital stay.

The lawsuit, Anderson et al v. Dooley et al, asserts as many as half of the nursing homes are illegally refusing to readmit patients after they are discharged for temporary care out of the facility. The goal of these facilities, allege plaintiffs, is to shed these patients in favor of either private pay patients or those who receive Medicare. For care of the latter, these facilities would pocket more money.

Federal law would require that a nursing home refusing readmission following temporary care allow for an appeal hearing. Further, states re required to enforce the decisions made at that hearing. These legal obligations were reportedly explained to the state health department explicitly back in 2012.  Continue reading →

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The family of a Northeast Ohio woman who died while suffering infected pressure wounds – also known as “bedsores” – has prevailed in its $1 million lawsuit against the nursing home in which she resided at the time of her death. Plaintiffs had alleged the 71-year-old’s death was the result of negligent, reckless and/or intentional acts and omissions.

Specifically, decedent at the center of Lang v. Beachwood Pointe Care Center suffered serious, painful and ultimately fatal injuries when she developed severe pressure wounds that were not properly treated. As her condition continued to worsen, neither her doctor nor her family were notified of her rapid deterioration.

In fact, the family later learned that decisions about her health care were made by non-medical staffers. The failure of the nursing home to provide adequate staffing levels was a core cause of decedent’s injuries and subsequent death, the lawsuit alleged. Continue reading →

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Trial of a $4 million nursing home negligence lawsuit has commenced, with representatives for the alleged victim asserting the people who were supposed to care for her were negligent in their duty, resulting in severe injury.

According to court documents in Carmon-Rogers v. Sentara Life Care Corp., the patient, a widow, had resided in the nursing home since 2008, after suffering a stroke. She was a full-assist patient, meaning she depended on the nursing staff to meet all of her basic daily needs. As she was unable to get out of bed, she was not able to reposition herself regularly, as necessary to prevent pressure sores.

In March 2014, plaintiff alleges a licensed practical nurse was changing patient’s bed linens when patient was rolled onto her right side at the edge of the bed. The bed linens were then pulled out from underneath her, and the patient rolled out of bed, falling onto the floor. As a result, patient suffered fractures to her right shoulder, left leg, right foot, right ankle and right lower leg. The leg fractures were potentially life-threatening because the tibia became detached from her foot.

But it got worse. Continue reading →

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Medicaid fraud is a widespread problem within the health care industry in Florida and nationwide. The issue is especially pervasive when it comes to elderly, and nursing home patients in particular.

The reason is because these individuals often lack the ability to discern or report what is happening to them. This can involve patients undergoing procedures that are unnecessary or not in their best health interest, as well as their accounts being billed for services or medications that were never rendered. In any case, it is patients who suffer this harm.

Recently in Sunrise, a 48-year-old dentist became the subject of a search warrant in a Medicaid fraud case in which it was alleged he fraudulently billed Medicaid for dentures in patients who either never received them or didn’t need them. During the search of his computers, federal agents allegedly found evidence of child pornography as well. Continue reading →

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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 self-reported cases. When you consider that many victims suffer from dementia or isolation that makes them prime targets to start, these individuals may not have the ability to report what’s happening to them.

Still, even this estimate underscores how widespread the problem is, and the fact that families must be on alert for potential problems.

Interestingly, although elder abuse has been in existed in some form since the dawn of humanity, it wasn’t described by Western researchers until the early 1970s. In most cases, attempts to define the problem or respond to it have largely been limited because most studies focused on a small number of anecdotes. Even those that attempted to broaden the understanding were mostly flawed epidemiologically. That has started to change in the last decade, and that’s how we have come to this greater understanding about how serious this problem actually is. Continue reading →

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Elder financial abuse is one of the least-studied aspects of nursing home mistreatment. But it is a major problem that could result in depletion of a lifetime of financial assets and valuable inheritances.

One study published in 2010 by the American Journal of Public Health revealed 1 in 20 older adults suffered elder financial abuse by a family member. Although close relatives were often the primary perpetrator, paid caregivers were often perpetrators as well.

Older Americans have several factors that make them vulnerable to financial abuse by caregivers, including:

  • Significant assets (people over 50 control 70 percent of country’s wealth);
  • Diminished cognitive capacity or vulnerability to use of physical force to gain compliance;
  • Lack of active family support system to monitor these issues.

Continue reading →

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A number of recent cases of falls in nursing homes across the country underscore the danger peril in which it places elderly residents, and also the wide scope of the problem.

The first report follows a number of incidents at six nursing homes throughout Connecticut, where the state Department of Public Health issued fines after two residents died and several others suffered broken bones as a result of falls. The Hartford Courant reports one facility was fined after two serious falls, one fatal. In the first, a resident fell after the clip on a mechanical sling broke. He suffered a broken bone at the base of his skull and died less than a week later. In the second incident, a resident suffered a broken risk after an aide wrongly left the the resident alone.

In a third case, a resident on two anticoagulant drugs underwent emergency surgery and died after suffering multiple bruises sustained in several falls that were not immediately reported by the staff nurse. A fourth case in that state involved a resident who fell eight times within three month span, the last time striking his head on a chair and suffering a broken neck. The department alleged nursing home staffers failed to notify a physician for five full days. At that same facility, another resident suffered 22 falls and broke his hip twice in the course of six months. In yet another case, a resident fell an astonishing 34 times, suffering two head injuries and a broken hand. Another resident who fell after an aide failed to use protective legwear when moving a resident from a wheelchair to a bed suffered a laceration that required 11 stitches. Continue reading →

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A man from Delray Beach is suing a Boca Raton nursing home for negligence, alleging the staff contributed to the untimely death of his 72-year-old mother, who was staying at the facility while recuperating from pneumonia.

According to a news report from the local ABC News affiliate, plaintiff asserts his mother suffered from a condition that made it very difficult for her to eat solid foods and to swallow. While plaintiff was talking to his mother over the phone one afternoon, he heard her mumble something about “choking.” Then the line went dead.

He immediately called the nursing home staff to alert them his mother was in trouble. But no one answered the line. Fire and rescue records show there was eventually a phone call to emergency responders from the patient’s room. However, the caller hung up soon after. Dispatchers called back right away, but a front desk receptionist said she wasn’t aware there was any problem. Emergency Medical Responders decided to go anyway. When they got there, staffers weren’t taking any action, such as performance of CPR. Instead, they were “standing around” the patient’s bed. She had apparently not been breathing for approximately five minutes. Continue reading →

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A nursing home worker in Missouri has allegedly admitted to police that he fondled a 92-year-old Alzheimer’s patient roughly 100 times before he was caught in her bed by other staffers earlier this year.

According to the probable cause statement, defendant was a nurse’s aid at the home. Victim, who is in the late states of Alzheimer’s disease, is described as “retracted,” usually curled up in a near fetal position. Her alleged attacker was immediately fired.

This kind of reprehensible violation against someone so vulnerable is difficult for many people to understand, let alone confront. Unfortunately, it’s more common than we’d like to believe. Sexual assault in general is a vastly under-reported and under-prosecuted crime. When the victim is aging, dependent and suffering from a disease like dementia, the reporting rate is even lower. The National Institute of Justice reported last year that sexual abuse is one of the most understudied aspects of elder mistreatment. Researchers discovered assailants were most likely to be charged with a crime when victims exhibited indications of physical trauma. That doesn’t describe the aftermath of many cases, though it doesn’t mean they were any less traumatic. Continue reading →

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Mandatory arbitration agreements have become a common staple in the nursing home admissions process. These documents are shoved in front of patients and/or their loved ones with little explanation of the fact that a signature amounts to the loss of significant civil rights in the event the patient is neglected or abused.

That means patients and their loved ones are denied justice, and the nursing homes can evade accountability.

Now, a legal advocacy group is pushing the federal government for forceful action on this issue. The group Public Justice has filed extensive comments with the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS), calling on the agency to cut funding to any nursing home that requires arbitration agreements. The agency is said to be seriously considering such action. Continue reading →

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