Articles Tagged with Nursing home neglect

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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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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 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 attorney called the neglect shown by leadership at this center was “shocking.” She was originally handed a 40-count indictment when she was first charged. However, she ultimately only pleaded guilty to two of those charges.

The 40-year-old is alleged to have engaged in a number of actions to protect her employer – to the detriment of those vulnerable patients she had promised to protect when she took the job. Although she faces up to eight  years in prison on the two felony charges, she will only receive probation if she cooperates with prosecutors, who are working to obtain evidence in other pending cases surrounding the center. Continue reading →

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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 Southern California.

Just days after the family of one resident, now deceased, announced they were filing a lawsuit against the facility and the owner, the California attorney general announced she was filing criminal charges against the facility and two nurses in connection with a resident’s death.

The charge of involuntary manslaughter stems from the care given to a man who had burns over 90 percent of his body due to an arson fire decades before. The AG office doesn’t make mention of another case – of a mentally ill patient who committed suicide by lighting herself on fire  – though the woman’s family have since filed a formal wrongful death lawsuit. Continue reading →

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Yet another states attorney general has taken aim at a large, for-profit elder nursing care provider, alleging serious neglect that denied patients’ basic needs and also falsification of records and deception of state health officials.

This time, it’s in Pennsylvania, with the target being Golden Living, operated by Golden Gate National Senior Care, LLC and managed by a company called The Beverly Group, which operates some 300 nursing homes across the state. None of those are in Florida, but there are many locations across swaths of the South, including three in Alabama and nearly a dozen in Georgia.

In Pennsylvania, where state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane announced legal action in a 101-page filing, the company operates more than three dozen facilities. Of those, 14 are named in the lawsuit. Continue reading →

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An 85-year-old woman who died last year at a nursing home in Maryland reportedly suffered negligence and neglect by staffers who were charged with caring for her.

In a lawsuit filed by her family against a large nursing home chain (which has branches in Florida), the woman’s daughter-in-law reportedly shot video revealing the woman’s cries of pain were ignored for over an hour.

The litigation was filed in Baltimore against ManorCare Health Services, a for-profit chain with numerous locations across South Florida. Not only did nurses and other staffers neglect the decedent, the lawsuit alleges, but they falsified records in order to do so. Apparently, the records kept by nurses at the facility are in direct conflict with what the video footage depicts.

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The attorney general in Pennsylvania has filed legal action against a large, corporate nursing home provider with 36 locations in that state. Of those 36, Attorney General Kathleen Kain alleges 14 have engaged in deceptive and unlawful business practices, while making a substantial profit off the state.

The chain, which is based in California and has centers in Florida as well as in numerous other states throughout the country, is accused of failing to meet the most basic care needs of residents, despite accepting state dollars (primarily through Medicare) to do so.

In court documents, the attorney general cites dozens of confidential witnesses who allege they were misled to believe their elderly, frail, vulnerable loved ones were receiving excellent, quality care, when in fact facilities were understaffed and patients were at grave risk of harm.

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A series of nursing home falls suffered by a patient in Minnesota foreshadowed a final, fatal fall from a wheelchair for an elderly resident last year.

Now, that nursing home, located in Duluth, has been cited for neglect.

According to news reports, the state health department alleges the center failed in its duty to comprehensively assess the high risk for falls posed to this resident, and further to reassess the risks after each incident. In fact, a state investigator found this particular patient fell 10 times between July 2014 and November 2014. Three of those falls occurred within days of each other – Nov. 17, Nov. 22 and again, finally, in Nov. 24. That last fall resulted in the resident’s death.

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It’s been four years since a Miami Herald investigation revealed systemic problems leading to abuse, neglect and death of residents at some of the state’s more than 3,000 assisted living facilities, which serve approximately 86,00 elderly patients.

That investigation prompted Florida Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, to draft bill after bill to address lapses in state oversight and enforcement of laws to protect these residents. Each year, the measure failed.

Until now.

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The attorney general’s office in New Mexico has sued one of the country’s largest nursing home chains over allegations of inadequate resident care. The lawsuit asserts ultra-thin staffing levels made it a numeric impossibility for staffers to provide appropriate care to elderly and disabled patients.

Preferred Care Partners Management Group L.P., which operates in 10 states, including Florida, has staunchly denied the allegations made in the lawsuit.

Other states are carefully monitoring the developments of this case because it’s a novel approach to a pervasive and serious problem nationwide. Many nursing homes – primarily for-profit centers – give patient care a back seat to profit margins. They skimp on supplies, security tools and, most importantly, qualified staff.

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