Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit & News Blog

Nursing Home Lawsuits - Nursing Home Injury - Nursing Home Negligence

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 10:37:36 -0400

Nursing Home Lawsuits Vs. Arbitration

More and more people are giving up their right to file nursing home lawsuits
if their loved ones, placed in the care of nursing homes, are abused – physically, mentally, financially or even sexually. While some of these people are simply not aware that they are
giving up their right to sue in case of nursing home negligence or nursing home injury or abuse, most are just forced to sign anyways, because of their desperate need to find a place for their loved ones to stay!

“Mandatory Arbitration” In Nursing Home Contracts

Nursing homes have been including a “binding arbitration” clause in their contracts. The justification for doing this is that arbitration is cheaper for the defendants and plaintiffs,
than regular nursing home lawsuits, which allows them to concentrate on the care of the residents rather than worry about litigations. What this does for the patients, however, is
that they can no longer claim adequate justice, in case the nursing home fails to keep its side of the bargain – even in cases of the death of the residents!

Recent times have seen a hike in the number of claims against nursing homes, while the average cost of settlement for the nursing homes has decreased. Critics strongly advocate that nursing
home lawsuits should only be handled by courts and not by third-party arbiters.

Senators Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) have introduced legislation, prohibiting nursing homes from asking their patients to sign an arbitration agreement in their service
contract. The American Arbitration Association and The American Health Lawyers Association are both of the view that abuse cases at care centers should only be settled through nursing home
lawsuits.

The Serious Nature of Nursing Home Abuse

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:52:10 -0400

About 30 years ago the classic Jack Klugman television series QUINCY featured an episode about nursing home abuse shocked many viewers. The reason for this is that most people could not believe that such abuses happen in the world. While it is true that most nursing homes run an excellent service there are those nursing homes and nursing home employees who can be abusive and negligent. If you have a relative who has been placed in a nursing home where they have suffered abuse it is critical to take legal action against them. After all, if the nursing home has been negligible then it should pay a price for its actions.

Nursing Home Abuse: Wrongful Death Lawsuits

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:49:56 -0400

Two nursing home abuse cases ending in death happened in California. (see: http://www.pr-usa.net /index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=59675&Itemid=9). Two lawsuits were filed on January 16, 2008 against a local nursing home and an assisted living facility for record tampering and neglect.

An 82-year-old woman was found with serious and unexplained injuries and terrible bruises covering the left side of her face. The facility kept the woman for two days following her fall despite her deteriorating condition and only transferred her to the hospital after the family persisted.

The 66 year old woman was a resident of the assisted living facility. She suffered six fractured ribs akin to being in a car accident but there was no car. She was pushed. Three days after the incident she was taken by paramedics to the hospital. She was weak, dehydrated, and struggled to breathe and died as a result of her injuries.

What these nursing home abuse and wrongful death lawsuits have in common is the allegation that multiple versions of the resident charts exist. The victim's families were given one set of records and their lawyer was given another. When entries are made into record days or weeks after the fact, you have to wonder what's going on.

In 2006, a doctor was admitted to the above mentioned nursing home for a short stay to treated an infected toe ulcer. Within five days he was dead. This lawsuit alleges that the director of nursing as well as others, added entries to his chart after his death. This lawsuit is scheduled for trial in September 2008.

Black and White: Segregated Nursing Homes

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:55:39 -0400

USA Today reported on segregation. Now we are seeing it at Nursing Homes. Is a subtle form of bigotry at play, or is this outright racism.

So you yhink all nursing homes are like? Think again. Nursing home care with primarily white patients is bad but there seems to be greater prejudice in primarily black nursing homes. A new report in the September/October issue of Health Affairs reveal s a system of separate and unequal nursing-home care for black Americans, one that could expose frail seniors to substandard care.

Sixty percent of blacks in nursing homes ended up in just 10 percent of the nursing home facilities, mostly places with substandard care.

Segregation thrives in the nursing home industry.

Are all nursing homes bad? The future of nursing home abuse

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:52:25 -0400

The New York Times Recently Wrote about putting an elderly parent or grandparent into a nursing home. It is an emotional, gut-wrenching experience. Deep down inside you feel guilty but yet there are no alternatives. What happens when the nursing home that you originally chose which was as nice as they come gets bought by Wall Street investors who are more interested in profit than the people they serve?

Unfortunately this is a common scenario in today's economy. Rising healthcare costs cause smaller individual nursing homes to sell to remote investors who own hundreds of units or their subsidiary's subsidiaries own hundreds of units. The food chain of who owns what is complex for a reason so not one source or entity gets blamed for lack of care.

When a big chain of investors and their subsidiaries own a nursing home, profits rise. Unfortunately, they rise for the wrong reasons as important medical personnel are fired. Fewer personnel equal s greater profits and bad to worse care. (This sounds like health insurance.)

As more and more patients are dying, regulators repeatedly warn that staff levels are below mandatory minimums and started visiting more frequently only to find dirty kitchens and malfunctioning equipment and patients who are waiting longer for routine care. This is the ultimate nursing home abuse.

Rebecca Riddick, Daily Business Review, Law.com 3/20/07 Reports on End-Of-Life Care and Instructions

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:26:26 -0400

Fla. Nursing Home Faulted for Ignoring End-of-Life Wishes: "A West Palm Beach, Fla., nursing home was held liable by a Palm Beach Circuit Court jury on Friday for failing to ensure that a resident's end-of-life wishes as outlined in a living will were fulfilled by her caregivers. A nine-member jury awarded the estate of Madeline Neumann $150,000 for damages incurred when the 92-year-old was transported to a hospital and forcefully intubated against the will's directives. Neumann died in 1995, six days after she arrived at the hospital."

Crime Stopper Programs for Nursing Homes

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:31:44 -0400

It's sad but true: Crimes such as thefts, abuse, and neglect are problems that nursing home residents experience on a daily basis. Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation is Memphis-based non-profit organization providing seniors a crime stoppers program to nursing homes throughout the nation.

The organization got its start in 1995 in Memphis when federal regulators from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) cited then-National Bank of Commerce (NBC) for not meeting its federally mandated Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requirements.

Each year, every bank in America has to make loans and investments in the community (surrounding the bank's branches) to low-to moderate-income people. When it was determined that NBC wasn't living up to its CRA requirements, bank officials were told to find something in which to invest. That responsibility fell on the shoulders of the bank's senior vice president whose two grandmothers died in nursing homes.

One of his grandmothers died after an alleged abuse incident. Another died in a nursing home shortly after having her family Bible stolen with $5 dollars inside it. During that 10-year-period, nursing home problems and issues became well known.

To date, more than 4,000 nursing home facilities around the country are taking part in the senior crime stoppers program. (Memphis Nursing Homes)

Chicago Nursing Home Suspected of Neglect

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:30:18 -0400

Detectives are investigating whether a 71-year-old resident of an Oak Lawn nursing home died as a result of neglect. The male nursing home resident had a history of health problems but there is reason to believe that neglect may have played a role in his death. An autopsy proved to be inconclusive.

A spokesman for the medical examiner's office said a ruling on the death was pending the police investigation.

The nursing home in question, Regal Health and Rehabilitation Center, was fined $10,000 in 2004 for failing to report an allegation of sexual assault against a 95-year-old female patient by nurse's aide Henry McCuller.

The nursing home fired McCuller for threatening his accuser, but managers at the time said they believed he was not guilty of the attack. He pleaded guilty in 2005 and was sentenced to nine years in prison. (Nursing Home News - Full Story)

Woman Tries to Suffocate Husband in Nursing Home

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:34:52 -0400

A woman who attempted to suffocate her terminally ill husband in his nursing home bed was sentenced to one to five years in prison. The woman said she fell into a depression and alcoholism when her husband of 30 years was diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder.

Police said she placed a pillow over her husband's face in July in his room at the Sarah A. Todd Memorial Home in Carlisle, N.Y., and sat on it in an attempt to suffocate him. Nursing home staff members stopped her and he survived.

Tearful judge dismisses nursing home abuse charge

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 10:15:35 -0400

The abuse charge against a licensed practical nurse from Elmore, Alabama was dismissed after prosecutors failed to meet the burden of proof. The burden of proof required in a criminal case is much greater than in a civil case. The victim's family reached a settlement earlier with the operators of the nursing home, but the amount was not disclosed.

The October 2003 incident at Resurrection Catholic Nursing Home was not the first time the defendant has been accused of sexually assaulting elderly women. A similar Elmore County charge involving another nursing home was dismissed in 2001 because the victim, suffering from dementia, could not identify her attacker.
The Autauga County jury was not told about the earlier charge because they could not consider prior acts in the case.

During five hours of testimony, several former co-workers testified that the defendant often stayed beyond his 8-hour shift and was seen walking through the halls on several occasions. The defendant worked at Resurrection only 30 days before the alleged incident occurred, and he was terminated, along with several other employees on duty that night.

Police believe the woman was attacked sometime in the early morning hours of Oct. 9, 2003. The woman suffered a black eye, finger-shaped bruising on her right arm, and bruises on her inner thighs. An examination also indicated she had been raped and suffered internal injuries. (Alabama Nursing Home Abuse)