Fort Lauderdale nursing home abuse attorney Tag Archives

Published on: June 20, 2017

Standard of Care in Nursing Home Cases in Orlando

Many people come to Florida later in life to retire. However, many of these retirees will eventually need to transition into a nursing home or other 24-hour care center, and we have many of these of these facilities here.

The problem is some of the facility owners see things a bit differently than us when it comes to their patients. Families see a facility that is designed to allow their loved one to live in peace and with a sense of well-deserved dignity, while also providing them access to much needed around-the-clock professional medical care. Continue reading →

Published on: March 25, 2016

Lawmakers: Stop Nursing Home Abuse on Social Media

By Dean Freeman

Federal lawmakers are demanding action from government regulators to curb nursing home abuse and privacy violations of residents caused by degrading and dehumanizing images and videos posted of them on social media by caregivers.

Citing a December expose published by non-profit journalism outlet ProPublica, which reported 35 cases since 2012 in which workers at nursing homes or assisted living facilities covertly shared videos or photos of residents – many with dementia – on social media. At least two cases have occurred since the story was published.

Nearly half of those cases involved a platform called Snapchat, in which the photos or videos appear for only a set amount of short time before they are deleted. But of course, those images and videos can be copied or captured in screen grabs. Nothing on the internet is ever guaranteed to be truly impermanent. Continue reading →

Published on: November 27, 2014

Report: Low-Rated Nursing Homes Receive Billions in Taxpayer-Backed Loans

By Dean Freeman

Low-rated nursing homes are being rewarded with billions in federal funding to secure better interest rates on mortgages, despite having been cited for egregious instances of abuse and neglect of patients.

An investigation, launched by the Center for Public Integrity, indicated that since 2009, hundreds of nursing homes across the country raked in an estimated $2 billion in low-cost mortgages, guaranteed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development – even after being stamped with the lowest possible rating for quality of services.

In total, the center discovered some 240 nursing homes given just one star in the federal rating system received the loans backed by HUD. Some of these homes received chronically low ratings – in one case, for seven consecutive reporting cycles. In fact, not only did these centers receive HUD-backed mortgages and refinance offers, they also received federal guarantees for construction and improvement loans. From 2009 to 2012, the number of these “bad apples” getting the best interest rates on federally-backed loans increased year-over-year.

Continue reading →