Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Blog

Elder abuse attorneys at Pintas & Mullins report that special investigators recently substantiated three cases of abuse and neglect in northern Minnesota nursing homes. Only one of the facilities is disputing the findings.

The first cited facility is the Boundary Waters Care Center in Ely, where a disabled resident was neglected when an employee left her in her room with the door closed, lights off, and call light out of reach. Another Boundary Waters employee stated that she later found the resident stranded on the floor with a broken leg and wrist. The Minnesota Department of Health special investigator reported the incident in February 2013.

The neglectful employee had been previously disciplined for similar violations, and was fired after this latest incident. The disabled resident is now in better condition although the accident took a lot out of her, according to her primary caregiver.

After the incident, the Boundary Waters Care Center failed to take any corrective action, including retraining of staff on proper call-light accessibility and failing to conduct an audit of the call lights. The facility's administrator stated that it did investigate the incident, however, which led to the employee's dismissal.

About four months earlier, a considerably more malicious incident took place in Duluth, MN, two hours south of Ely. Investigators reported that abuse occurred at Chris Jensen Health and Rehabilitation Center when a nursing assistant aggressively restrained, slapped, and spit on a resident who was resisting a shower.

The report, dated late July 2012, noted that the resident was resisting the shower by kicking, spitting at, and hitting three staff members. One employee stated that the resident spit in the accused nursing assistant's face, and the woman spit back and slapped the resident in the mouth.

The nursing assistant denies this, saying that she only put a washcloth into the resident's mouth to stop her from spitting at the other employees. The other two staff members, however, verified the abusive behavior. The accused nursing assistant was suspended after the incident and eventually fired. The Minnesota Department of Health requested that Jensen Health take corrective action after the incident, updating the affected resident's care plan to include her right to refuse a shower.

The third report came from Hillcrest Terrace, which is about an hour West of Ely on the Iron Range. The report details an incident involving a resident found soaked in urine and unresponsive in his room. The report, dated March 13, 2013, also states that his room was very dirty and unkempt. Investigators found that the resident was neglected because the facility's employees, who were unlicensed, failed to notify the registered nurse on-duty that the resident was experiencing symptoms of a urinary tract infection (UTI), and that the staff failed to adequately monitor the resident's blood-sugar levels.

The report went on to note that the resident has since received a new, cleaner room, and is happy with his new location. Hillcrest Terrace recently requested reconsideration of the maltreatment.

Continue reading "Northern Minnesota Nursing Homes Charged with Abuse and Neglect " »

In a study funded by the National Institute of Justice, about one in ten seniors reported being neglected or abused in the past year. Elder abuse lawyers at Pintas & Mullins highlight another significant finding: that the financial exploitation of our nation's seniors is costing them $2.9 billion every year.

The study also detailed that abused elders are over five times more likely to be admitted to nursing homes or rehab centers, and, unfortunately, more than twice as likely to die prematurely. Kathy Greenlee, the Assistant Secretary for Aging at the Department of Health and Human Services, stated that elder abuse is only going to intensify as the baby boomers age. The number of residents 65 and older in Maryland and Virginia alone, for example, is expected to grow by 88% in the next two decades.

Elder abuse is a complicated problem, particularly because many victims are dependent on their abusers, whether they are nursing home staff, at-home caregivers, or their own family members. Seniors with cognitive disabilities, such as dementia and Alzheimer's, are significantly more likely to be abused, and yet are often unable to testify in court, or clearly remember the abuse to recount to authorities. When abuse is reported, dozens of federal, state, and local agencies can become involved, resulting in a dizzying system of shared data.

Some schemes to exploit seniors financially are incredibly intricate. One such case involved a computer-generated voice in the guise of Medicare operators, asking seniors for the names and numbers of the bank accounts where their Social Security checks were deposited each month. A woman in Florida, Dottie Drennan, received the automated call one day while relaxing at home.

The computer told her that new Medicare cards were being sent to her in the mail, and her personal information was needed to verify the shipment. The system attempted to check her name, address, and bank information before Drennan hung up. She reported the strange call, and a few weeks later both federal and state authorities issued press releases alerting seniors about this new identify theft scheme.

Florida tops the country in percentage of seniors aged 60 and over, with 4.5 million residents. That number is expected to grow to 9.7 million by 2030. Seniors are susceptible for scams for an array of reasons, such as their social isolation, loneliness, readily available savings, and more trusting attitudes.

A nonprofit education organization, the Investor Protection Trust, estimated that 7.5 million (about one in five) seniors have been victim of some kind of financial fraud. Experts agree, however, that incidents of abuse and neglect are significantly underreported. Officials have estimated that, for every one case reported, anywhere between 14 and 25 incidents are never made public.

Some of the cases are particularly malicious because they involve members of the victims own family, even their own children. One such case was recently discovered in Virginia in 2010. James and Etta Jennings lived in a red brick ranch house their entire married lives, raising children and then grandchildren. In their old age, their son was appointed to take care of them, as they suffered from dementia and complex medical problems. When investigators finally entered the house, the conditions were abysmal, with maggots in the bed and both the husband and wife left to rot without running water or even a fan.

Their son had cashed thousands of dollars in his Etta's checks, and their granddaughter, Jeannie Beidler, had to resign from her job to manage their health and legal battles. Because of their son's abuse, the Jennings were deeply in debt, with several accounts past due. Beidler took control of their finances and, over a period of several years, was able to balance their accounts. She prosecuted her uncle, who pleaded guilty to two counts of abuse or neglect of an incapacitated adult, and was ultimately incarcerated for less than three years.

Continue reading "Financial Exploitation of Seniors Totals Nearly $3 Billion per Year" »

Nursing home negligence lawyers at Pintas & Mullins point to a troubling new study published in the Annals of Surgery detailing the risk of abdominal procedures in nursing home residents. Compared to seniors of the same age undergoing the same surgical procedure, nursing home residents experienced substantially higher rates of mortality and invasive interventions.

The study compared mortality rates for four types of abdominal surgery in elderly patients, which included surgeries for: bleeding ulcers, burst appendix, infected gallbladder, and noncancerous colon diseases such as colitis or diverticulitis. These conditions were chosen because they require immediate corrective surgery, opposed to diagnoses like lung cancer that enable patients to take a longer amount of time to consider treatment options.

Researchers used nursing home surveys and national Medicare claims to track more than 70,000 nursing home residents who underwent one of those four surgeries between 1999 and 2006. They then compared these patients' outcomes with more than one million seniors who did not reside in nursing homes but underwent the same abdominal procedure.

After an appendectomy, 12% of the nursing home residents died, compared to only 2% of other Medicare patients not in an assisted living facility. Similarly, nursing home residents undergoing gallbladder surgery died at a rate of 11%, compared to 3% of their senior counterparts.

Troublingly, mortality rates rose sharply for the other two procedures. Nearly one third of patients from nursing homes undergoing colon operations passed away, while only 13% of the other elders did. Ulcer procedures were by far the most dangerous, with a mortality rate of an astonishing 42% in institutionalized elders and 25% of the others.

Dr. Emily Finlayson, the study's lead author, stated that, even when they matched the two groups by specific age and number of diseases, those patients living in a long-term care facility still had significantly higher mortality rates. She offered that this may be because those institutionalized patients do not have the strength and mobility to live independently, which extends to their energy and vitality, and ultimately, their physiology.

Even those patients who survived the initial surgery, however, were not complete success stories. Nursing home residents were far more likely to have to undergo invasive interventions after the procedure, meaning they needed machines to help them breathe for days afterward, feeding tubes, and/or venous catheterization.

A substantial number of elders who are hospitalized for procedures will never again function at the same physical or mental levels, even if their initial malady is successfully treated. Surgeons and hospitals consider a procedure a success if a patient leaves the hospital alive - regardless of what happens in the near future. With elders, however, the emphasis should be treating illnesses with the least-invasive methods, instead of with what is conventional for patients half their age or with twice their vitality.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, upon reviewing years of research, recommended that adults over 75 years of age should not screen for colorectal cancer. It has been reported by several institutions that colonoscopies are significantly overused in the elderly, with increasingly damaging consequences. Colon cancer develops very slowly, so, to put it bluntly, most patients over the age of 80 will not live long enough to benefit from a colonoscopy, which is risky in itself.

Continue reading "Surgeries Increasingly Dangerous in Nursing Home Residents " »

Nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report that he former head nurse of the El Dorado Care Center in California will stand trial this August on charges of felony elder abuse. She is one of two of the facility's nurses charged in the 2008 death of a resident.

77-year-old Johnnie Esco died five years ago after suffering severe fecal impaction from chronic constipation. Fecal impactions come with an array of symptoms that certified nurses are trained to recognize, symptoms which persist for numerous days before being rendered a medical emergency. Complaints may include constant or spastic lower abdominal pain, nausea, and low-grade fevers. The condition is most common among the physically challenged, institutionalized, and those with chronic constipation - all factors that Esco exhibited.

The other nurse charged in the case, a licensed vocational nurse, negotiated a plea deal in 2012 with California officials. The Deputy Attorney General, Steven Muni, who pursued the case after the El Dorado County district attorney declined to prosecute, argues that both nurses failed to properly perform their duties. He contends that they failed to adequately supervise the Center's staff in Esco's care, which resulted in her death.

Esco was admitted to El Dorado Care Center in Placerville only 13 days before her death, after a bout of pneumonia. She and her family expected her to return home with her husband after some rest and recuperation at the skilled nursing center.

The Care Center's former owner, Horizon West Healthcare, has an illustrious history of licensing and regulatory violations. Esco's case not only raised questions about the standard level of care in Horizon's nursing homes, but about the integrity of medical records as well. Esco's husband, Don, obtained his wife's medical records after her death and stated that employees had just penciled in what they wanted the records to show, not what actually happened to his wife, stating simply, that they were complete fabrications.

Esco's lawsuit accuses the facility, its owners and employees, of elder abuse, wrongful death, fraud, and falsifying, altering, and improperly handling his wife's medical charts. Unfortunately, falsifying or amending patient records is remarkably common in U.S. nursing homes, although it is rarely discovered or punished by authorities. Only with the help of a skilled and experienced senior abuse attorney may this unlawful practice be brought to light, ultimately helping families of deceased loved ones obtain justice.

Horizon West Healthcare settled the first lawsuit in 2010 in a confidential amount, directly after selling its 27 nursing homes to a San Marcos-based chain. Since, El Dorado Care Center's name has been changed to Western Slope Health Center.

Several staff members of the nursing home stated that resident charting was not always done with care and precision. In a deposition, one admitted that she was often so busy that she did not have time to fill out patient's charts. Other employees would share similar concerns to supervisors, to no avail. Altering residents' medical charts masks serious conditions and neglected care, and is an insidious form of senior abuse and neglect.

In the years before her death, Don Esco was his wife's primary caregiver, and he devised intricate charts to keep track of her medications, some of which caused constipation. If left unmanaged, the condition could lead to fecal impaction, which is life-threatening in the elderly, causing bowel obstruction or ruptured colon and infection.

Continue reading "Head Nurse Faces Felony Elder Abuse Charges " »

Senior neglect lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report that, nearly two years ago, a jury awarded the family of a deceased nursing home resident $91.5 million. The facility's corporate owner, HCR Manor Care, attempted to appeal, however a judge recently decided that the size of the award was appropriate, and that malpractice caps do not apply to nursing home cases.

The initial lawsuit was filed in 2009 by the family of an 87-year-old woman who died from dehydration just 19 days after being admitted to the nursing home. The West Virginia woman, Dorothy Douglas, suffered from severe dehydration and kidney failure before her death, which her family claims was the result of the facility's significant understaffing.

The woman suffered from dementia and Parkinson's, and it was noted in her care plan that she required assistance feeding and hydrating. In addition to the kidney failure and dehydration, the suit also details the woman suffered head trauma from multiple falls and developed sores in her mouth that required scraping away by a scalpel - all occurring less than 20 days after she arrived at the nursing home.

The $91.5 million was decided to punish HCR for failing to adequately staff its nursing homes, which was done in order to increase profit margins. During the trial, experts stated that HCR failed to give the woman proper food, water, and medical care. The jury agreed, and awarded the family $80 million in punitive damages and $11.5 million in compensatory damages.

HCR attempted to appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court, arguing that the state's medical malpractice cap applied to this verdict; caps in West Virginia for non-economic damages are only $500,000. Plaintiffs argued that the malpractice caps were intended only for physicians, never meant to apply so broadly to cover such facilities as nursing homes and their parent companies.

The County Circuit Judge who initially resided over the case decided that the malpractice caps did not apply because HCR does not quality as a health care provider. It once again intends to appeal to the state's Supreme Court.

HCR enjoyed a profit of $75 million in 2009, the year the resident passed away. Two years later, the nursing home that was responsible for her death lost its Medicare and Medicaid funding after state inspectors found several serious violations.

In a related story, the family of a woman who died at an Ohio nursing home recently sued the facility for wrongful death. The resident walked out of the facility, Grace Woods in Ohio, in 2012, became lost, and eventually died of hypothermia. The suit alleged that the facility and one of its employees was negligent in its supervision of the resident, and failed to give her adequate, appropriate and timely medical care consistent with the program for which he was paying for.

Continue reading "$91.5 Million Nursing Home Verdict Stands" »

Elder neglect lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report that Normandy Nursing Center in St. Louis, Missouri was recently ordered to pay $700,000 after the death of a mentally ill resident who overdosed on a painkiller he was never prescribed to. It still remains unclear how he had access to the drug.

The resident, William Christopher Jones, was only 46 years old at the time of his death. He was not permitted to leave the nursing home at all, and anything he may have received prior to his overdose had to have come from either the nursing home or its staff. During the weeklong trial, Normandy employees, among other witnesses, testified that pain pills were sometimes left unattended on a counter in the nursing station. Some patients at Normandy were also prescribed morphine injections, which is the pain drug Jones overdosed from.

The local police started an investigation into his death after toxicology reports showed Jones had a lethal level of morphine in his system at the time of his death. The police, however, did not file any charges against the nursing center after they determined that all lots of the center's morphine supply were accounted for. Missouri state health officials also failed to file any violations against Normandy pertaining to Jones' death.

In its most recent Medicare inspection, Normandy Nursing Center received a below-average rating of two out of five starts. In December 2012, the facility was cited for failing to control resident's weight loss. Significant weight loss in nursing home residents is a major red flag of neglect, as malnutrition occurs often in residents who are cognitively incapable of remembering to properly feed themselves. Malnutrition and dehydration may also be a sign of nursing home abuse; some malicious employees may purposefully withhold food and drinks from residents as retribution, or to punish residents for acts they cannot control, such as soiling bed sheets.

In 2011, the Missouri Protection and Advocacy Services, which is an agency that handles allegations of abuse and neglect of people with disabilities, initiated an investigation into the Normandy Nursing Center. The investigation stemmed from the hospitalization of a 37-year-old resident who was found to be severely dehydrated, malnourished, and was suffering from kidney failure. The investigation is still ongoing.

Although Normandy was ordered to pay the family for Jones' wrongful death, it remains unclear exactly how he obtained the morphine that killed him. Medication in nursing homes is, for an array of reasons, very abundant, and all pharmaceuticals must always be kept under the careful watch of employees. Any unlocked cabinets, unattended nursing carts, or bottles left on counters may lead to the accidental death of residents.

Unfortunately, overmedication is also a major issue in long-term care facilities throughout the country. Recently, in California, the Department of Public Health issued its most severe citation to a facility after a resident died from overmedication. The violation was ordered when the resident's blood-thinning medication levels were 18 times the normal dose.

The resident was admitted to Lincoln Meadows Care Center in 2006 after suffering a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. After staying at Lincoln Meadows for five years, the resident fell from his wheelchair and hit his lead, leaving with significant internal injury, although he was not immediately hospitalized.

Continue reading "Jury Awards Family $700,000 after Nursing Home Resident Overdose " »

Nursing home abuse lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report that the state of Florida recently fined Avante at Ormond Beach Nursing Home $36,000 for improper handling of a sexual abuse claim. The allegation was reported by a resident who said an employee crawled into bed with her roommate.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration sent investigators in after the claim was filed, and found that the nursing home was not adhering to an adequate standard of care. This noncompliance, they determined, was likely to lead to serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to the patients in that facility. The state initially ordered a $45,000 fine, but later settled in the lower amount.

The incident occurred in January 2012. One of Avante's residents witnessed an employee climb into bed with her female roommate, and, although the witness reported it, nursing home staff failed to notify local police or social services. Avante at Ormond Beach has 133 beds, and is on a state and national watch list for repeated and consistent violations. In its most recent inspection, in February 2013, officials noted several violations, such as excessive medication errors, inadequate food, and deficient infection-control policies.

Florida just issued the facility a conditional license, which means that it is on high-notice, and subject to frequent inspections. Each individual state determines standards for fines for nursing homes, and among Florida's standards, this fine is quite considerable. The most serious long-term care violations typically result in an average fine of about $40,000. Avante at Ormond Beach recently sent a plan of corrective action to the state, which was accepted by the Agency for Health Care Administration.

In a similar case in Ohio, a 65-year-old man was recently imprisoned for sexually assaulting an 85-year-old woman in a nursing home where they were both residents. He was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent and sexual assault, and aggravated indecent assault. The victim, an Alzheimer's patient, was assaulted in January 2013 at Maple Farm Nursing Center.

According to the police report, a nurse and nursing assistant noticed the man, Glenn Hershey, exiting the woman's room at 1:30 a.m. The two nurses asked if she had had a visitor, to which the patient replied she did not. Three hours later, two of the facility's other nursing assistants went into her room to administer care. They found her uncovered, nude from the waist down, and as workers began to care for her, she complained of pain in her abdomen and genital area. The nursing assistants noted much redness in the area.

Hershey was a registered sex offender under Ohio's Megan's Law, which Maple Farm was aware of. Newspaper records from 1993 indicate that Hershey contacted a Philadelphia escort service requesting a woman for $1,000. When the woman arrived and discovered he had no intention of paying, he sexually assaulted her. He pled guilty to the assault, and was sentenced to 1 ½ to 5 years in prison.

Another female resident stated that Hershey admitted to her to entering the Alzheimer's resident's room and having sexual contact with her. He was arrested that same day and taken into custody, where he admitted again to the assault. He was issued a notice of discharge and will not be allowed to return to the facility, where staff immediately took measures to protect the residents.

Continue reading "Florida Nursing Home Fined for Mishandling Sexual Abuse Case " »

Elder abuse and neglect lawyers are happy to report that several nursing homes in the U.S. are now offering solace to victims of senior abuse. To combat the alarmingly high occurrence of emotional, physical, and financial abuse of seniors, several nursing homes are creating shelters within their facilities to provide emergency short-term housing and healthcare to those victims.

In 2005, the Hebrew Home in New York opened the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Abuse Prevention. This was the nation's first comprehensive elder abuse shelter, serving seniors 60 years of age and older within an existing long-term care facility. The Weinberg Center integrates the abuse victims with the rest of the Hebrew Home's long-term community. The seniors are therefore placed in the appropriate community (dementia patients in memory care, victims with broken bones into rehab units, etc), instead of having to be isolated on their own floor or wing.

Victims are referred to the Weinberg Center by ER staff, police officers, or social service agents. It also offers specialty training to people in unique positions to recognize and identify senior abuse, such as doormen, meal delivery staff, or clergy members. For example, a doorman is responsible for knowing who enters the residence and when, and through training, would be able to spot a relative who visits the senior only on days their disability check arrives in the mail. The Center also retains attorneys who work to retrieve stolen money or help remove an abusive person from the home of the victim.

To date, at least six other facilities have instituted similar programs, one of which is at Crest View Senior Communities in Minnesota. The CEO of Crest View stated that it is important for neighbors and all family members to stay alert to red flags and patterns associated with abuse. An elderly person may, for example, as a neighbor to take his wallet or check book for safe keeping, or may suddenly talk about having trouble affording certain items. Similar changes in behavior that may indicate financial abuse will be sudden, not gradual.

The sad reality is that much of the financial abuse inflicted upon our nation's elders is carried out by their own relatives, often by their children with substance abuse disorders or undiagnosed emotional conditions. Some family members may try to justify their actions by claiming that they were entitled to the money, saying they were going to inherit it anyway.

The CEO of the Hebrew Home stated that about two million Americans abuse their elderly relatives. He stated that common scenarios include children cashing in their parent's social security checks and stealing money directly from bank accounts. The MetLife Mature Market Institute studied elder financial abuse and found that, in 2011, senior victims lost nearly $3 billion.

Too often, abused seniors do not seek help because they feel guilty or embarrassed, especially in those cases where the abuser is their spouse, child or trusted individual. Additionally, there may be a higher percentage of abuse among seniors with cognitive conditions, such as Alzheimer's. Cognitive disabilities render patients more vulnerable and susceptible to crimes. Some may not even remember abuse is occurring when you ask them. This is why it is so imperative to keep a watchful eye on those at risk, and to contact local authorities if you suspect any mistreatment is occurring.

Continue reading "Nursing Homes Offering Shelter for Abused Seniors " »

Elder abuse lawyers at Pintas & Mullins highlight a recent verdict against Emeritus, an assisted-living giant that offers apartment living communities to seniors. The Sacramento jury ordered the company to pay $23 million in connection to the death of an 81-year-old woman.

Emeritus is the largest assisted living operator in the nation, with more than 50,000 units and annual revenue of more than $1.5 billion. This most recent lawsuit against the company was filed by the family of Joan Boice, a woman with advanced dementia who was allowed into the company's senior apartments even though she was too debilitated for their care requirements. Boice should have been in a nursing home, where skilled nurses would have kept track of and properly managed her well-being.

According to the lawsuit, Emeritus left Boice at the mercy of only a few unqualified, untrained, and overworked employees. The results of this negligence were foreseeable and preventable, however, the company failed to take any action to avoid the tragic consequences. She was living in the memory-care unit of Emerald Hills in Auburn, California when she started developing bedsores, or pressure ulcers.

Bedsores are the result of immobility, being confined to remain in one position for an extended period of time. Over a three month span, Boice's bedsores developed into deep, necrotic pressure ulcers. Because of her advanced dementia, she was clearly unable to adequately care for herself. After three months Boice was transferred to a hospice care unit in a skilled nursing facility - where she should have been in the first place - and died ten weeks later.

This is not the first case against Emeritus alleging inadequate care, and it undoubtedly will not be the last. In 2011, the executive director of an Emeritus facility in Texas was awarded more than $130,000 after he was forced out of his job. He was wrongfully terminated when he complained that the staffing cuts Emeritus was ordering rendered the care at his facility inadequate, leaving remaining employees unable to care for resident needs. One year earlier, an Emeritus facility in Orlando had its license cancelled when investigators found three residents with late-stage bedsores. These residents, like Boice, should have been moved to skilled nursing facilities long before their bedsores started to develop.

In 2007, the resident-care director of Emerald Hills, where Boice was living, wrote a five-page letter to ten of Emeritus' top executives detailing the severe shortage of staff at the facility. She wrote that there were not enough employees to cover any parts of the day-to-day needs of the residents. There was not enough kitchen, housekeeping, med tech, or resident assistant employees. She believed that if California investigators came into the facility, the company would be in big trouble for its inadequacies.

The resident-care director never heard back from the executives. Meanwhile, Emeritus was painting an opposing picture of its care standards in its public relations and marketing materials. During the course of Boice's trial, for example, it claimed it provided adequate care and faulted Kaiser Home Health for her degeneration. Kaiser was brought in to help Boice in her daily activities. One executive claimed that there was nothing Emerald Hills' management could have done about her overall medical condition. He even went as far as to say that Emeritus was the real victim in the trial.

Continue reading "Assisted Living Giant Emeritus Ordered to Pay $23 Million in Wrongful Death" »

Senior abuse and neglect lawyers at Pintas & Mullins point to a new study that found that patients with dementia can expect to pay more than those with cancer or heart disease in the next few decades. Both the cost and the number of Americans diagnosed with the degenerative disease are expected to double by 2040.

The study was headed by an economist at the RAND Corporation, which is an international non-profit research and analysis organization, and financed by the federal government. Currently, the cost of treating dementia in the U.S. ranges from $157 to $215 billion per year, the highest amounts going into institutional and in-home long-term care.

The aging baby boomers are significantly contributing to this rise in dementia diagnosis and care, which the country seems to be largely unprepared for. The National Alzheimer's Plan's advisory chairman, Dr. Ronald Peterson, told the New York Times that this surge is going to swamp the system. He went on to say that the numbers RAND projected are even somewhat conservative. Peterson is also the director of the Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, which is also currently collecting data on dementia's healthcare costs.

RAND determined that almost 15% of the 71 and over population - or about 3.8 million Americans - are currently suffering from dementia. Over the next 30 years, the number is expected to surge to 9.1 million. Further intensifying the problem is that the baby boomers, on average, have fewer children than their parents did, which means less people to care for them, which subsequently means more reliance on nursing homes, assisted living centers, and in-home caregivers.

The current direct cost to the healthcare system from dementia is $109 billion. To put this in perspective, the healthcare costs for cancer total about $77 billion. This does not take into account the amount paid for informal dementia care performed by relatives.

The bulk of these costs (between 75 to 84%) stem from aiding dementia patients in nursing homes. This is due to the degenerative and long-term nature of the disease, which impairs cognitive functions slowly, until the patient is wholly dependent both mentally and physically on caregivers. According to the study, each dementia patient costs between $41,000 and $56,000 a year to care for. RAND used data collected from the Health and Retirement Study database, studying nearly 11,000 people over a ten year period.

In 2011, President Obama signed the National Alzheimer's Project Act, which increases national efforts to discover new treatments for dementia and improve care. The Act also requires the economic costs of dementia care to be tracked and recorded.

What the RAND study did not taken into account for, however, are the emotional costs of dementia. For those taking care of a related dementia patient at home, the emotional, mental, and spiritual toll cannot be understated. Most dementia patients are merely a shell of who they once were. For those dementia patients who are under the care of nursing home staffs, the reality is often significantly grimmer. Unfortunately, there is a very high prevalence of abuse and neglect among dementia patients in nursing homes.

Due to the pursuit of profits, nursing homes are often understaffed, causing existing staff to be overworked and in turn leading to depression and anxiety. The occurrence of psychological aggression among caregivers has been reported from a low of 30% to a high of 60%, and reports of the occurrence of physical abuse among dementia patients range from 6% to 23%. Dementia patients at the most risk of mistreatment include those with poor financial status, less social contacts, and more severe cognitive impairment.

Continue reading "Dementia Care Costs Expected to Double by 2040" »

Elder abuse lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report that the California Department of Public Health recently issued its most severe citation to a nursing home after a resident died from overmedication. The investigation was initiated when the resident's blood-thinning medication levels were 18 times the normal dose.

The patient entered Lincoln Meadows Care Center in 2006 after he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Five years later, at the same nursing home, the patient fell from his wheelchair and hit his head, leaving him with significant bruising, although he was not immediately hospitalized. At the instance of his daughter, the resident was sent to the hospital four days later, where doctors found he had a subdural hematoma, which means blood vessels in his brain were ruptured, causing blood to leak and compress the brain tissue. The resident was on Coumadin, which is a blood-thinning medication that carries an increased risk of bleeding, particularly in the elderly.

Hospital tests also concluded that the resident was suffering from extremely low blood pressure, multiple organ failure, and toxic levels of Coumadin. Just a few days after his hospitalization, the resident died at a Roseville nursing home, where he was transferred for hospice care. Lincoln Meadows was ultimately fined $100,000 for overmedicating the resident, which is a Class AA violation. As stated, he had more than 18 times the normal Coumadin levels in his blood at the time of his hospitalization.

Class AA are the most serious violations, only issued with a resident death that can be directly and officially linked to the facility's negligence. Fines can range from $25,000 to $100,000. Clearly, in this case, the state found Lincoln Meadows deserving of the highest possible fine.

In 2011, Lincoln Meadows was owned by Horizon West Healthcare, which one year earlier was ordered to pay nearly $30 million in connection to the death of another patient. One of Horizon West's facilities, Colonial Healthcare of Auburn, CA, was found to be abusing residents in a trial stemming from the death of Frances Tanner in 2005. Tanner died due to complications arising from an infected bedsore.

Tanner suffered from dementia, and entered Colonial Healthcare in 2005. Seven months later, she fell and broke her hip, which rendered her largely immobile. During the trial, witnesses testified to the constant understaffing at the facility and inadequate medical documentation which contributed to the mistreatment of Tanner's bedsores. The jury determined that Colonial's behavior was fraudulent, malicious, and oppressive, and awarded Tanner's family $29.1 million. Tanner's was the fourth death that year linked to Colonial's fraudulent practices.

Bedsores and overmedication are common effects of nursing home abuse and negligence. Bedsores, also referred to as pressure ulcers, can be caused by a number of factors, and can vary in severity. If a resident is ever hospitalized or passes away from an infected bedsore, however, it is clear that they have been abused or neglected in their facility. Residents who are largely immobile require consistent attention, to be shifted and turned throughout the day to avoid the development of pressure ulcers. Seniors are more susceptible to such injuries because their skin is often thinner and have poorer circulation. Bedsores are almost completely preventable, but healing becomes difficult if the sores are left untreated, after which they can become infected, and ultimately lead to death.

Continue reading "California Nursing Home fined for Overmedicating Residents " »

Senior abuse attorneys at Pintas & Mullins report a troubling story out of Virginia Beach, VA, where an in-home caregiver was recently sentenced to 18 months in jail. The woman spent nearly five years caring for the senior, who died in June 2012 at age 94.

A video shown in court revealed that the caregiver, Sheila Beard, repeatedly punched, slapped, and taunted the senior. Another video showed Beard violently twisting the woman's arm. The elderly woman suffered from dementia, and her family, unwilling to admit her to a nursing home, sought in-home services instead. The woman's family found Beard through a Christian family-services provider and hired her to spend about 20 hours a week with the senior, who was living at a private home-care facility.

The facility administrators became suspicious of Beard, noticing bruises and other red-flags, and set up hidden cameras in the woman's bedroom. One of the her sons said that, upon viewing the footage, he and his family were shocked and could not believe the woman they hired and trusted was the same person abusing her. He went on to say that his mother's dementia prevented her from remembering or reporting the abuse.

The caregiver was previously indicted on similar charges of senior abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult in 2011. Beard entered an Alford plea in that case, meaning she did not admit guilt but recognized that the evidence against her was strong enough for a conviction. At the end of the sentencing, Beard turned to the family, saying she knew what she did was wrong, and that she was ashamed of herself. Her nursing license has since been revoked.

In a similar story, a former caregiver at an assisted living facility also received 18 months in jail when she pleaded guilty to three counts of elder abuse. The woman, Sonia King, was fired from Carolina House after another employee witnessed her physically and verbally abusing at least three female patients during her shift. The co-worker saw King slap one 93-year-old woman and force her to smell her own soiled sheets, saw her hit a 70-year-old Alzheimer's resident on the face, causing her cheek to swell, and saw her yank a 79-year-old Alzheimer's patient out of bed by her arm, undress her, and wash her groin area with toothpaste.

The co-worker also reported that she told the patients that she would choke them if they attempted to stop her. Fortunately, none of the three residents suffered life-threatening injuries from the abuse, and each received medical treatment for their injuries. The employee who witnessed these troubling acts recorded them on an audio device, which undoubtedly contributed to the conviction.

In 2010, a Virginia nursing assistant was sentenced to 60 years in prison for aggravated sexual battery of four elderly residents. The defendant, James W. Wright, was working at National Healthcare in Bristol at the time of the abuse. All four of the abused residents suffered from Alzheimer's or dementia. Investigators at the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit identified eyewitnesses and obtained an admission of guilt from Wright via an Alford plea, similar to Beard's. Wright worked at National Healthcare for eight years. The judge in his case called his actions indescribably despicable before sentencing him to 60 years.

Continue reading "In-Home Caregiver Sentenced to Jail for Elder Abuse" »

Nursing home negligence lawyers at Pintas & Mullins report that, according to information obtained from ProPublica, the states with the highest number of average serious deficiencies per home are Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, and South Carolina. Texas has the highest number of total serious deficiencies.

ProPublica collected information from Medicare and Medicaid inspections from the past three inspection cycles, which occur every 12 to 15 months. Medicaid rates the deficiencies on a scale from A to L, with the most serious given a J, K, or L rating. The database details about 118,000 issues in more than 14,500 nursing homes.

The facility with the highest number of fines is Princeton Health and Rehab Center, located in Princeton, KY, which is listed as a Special Focus Facility. The nursing home was fined more than $560,000 in 2012, with a total of seven deficiencies and a J rating. The Medicare Survey Report detailed troubling incidents that occurred at the home in that year, at least one of which resulted in a resident's death.

In one incident, a nurse administered a resident pain medication at 2 am. At 4 am, staff helped the same resident sit up on the side of the bed, and then left the resident alone in the room. The resident subsequently fell from the bed, suffering extreme internal bleeding in the brain. The resident died from this internal bleeding, which was listed as the determining factor on the death certificate. In Princeton's investigation, it failed to identify that the staff did not provide adequate care and supervision to prevent the accident.

Another Kentucky facility, Johnson Mathers Nursing Home, is listed as having some of the most serious deficiencies in the nation, also noted as a Special Focus Facility. This nursing home has been subject to seven inspections between June 2010 and November 2012, racking up astounding 54 deficiencies in those two years. In a 2011 report, at least one resident claimed to have been sexually abused in the nursing home, and investigators determined that the facility failed to have an effective program in place to prevent abuse.

The resident alleged that she had been raped, however there was no documentation showing the facility ever completed an investigation into the incident, took action to protect the resident, or notified local law enforcement.

Instances of resident neglect and abuse are the result of a number of factors, but none are as evident as the pursuit of profits over patients. Many nursing homes, not only in Kentucky but across the United States, bill Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary, and often dangerous, services in order to gain reimbursements. An Erlanger nursing home, Villaspring Health Care and Rehabilitation, was recently ordered to pay the federal government $350,000 and enhance its standard of care due to False Claims Act allegations.

Between 2004 and 2008, Villaspring provided unnecessary services and fraudulently billed the government for them, which ultimately resulted in five patient deaths, in order to receive federal reimbursement. Some of the deceased patients went several days on end without baths, suffered from dehydration, and sustained severe bedsores that led to fatal infections.

In one case, a woman was admitted to Villaspring after a surgery on her hip, though she was otherwise alert and continent. The facility, however, put her on adult diapers, and she developed bedsores so severe that her left leg had to be amputated. She ultimately died of a blood infection, just four months after being admitted.

Continue reading "Kentucky has Highest Number of Nursing Home Deficiencies " »

A jury recently ordered a nursing home accused of fraudulent billing, among other illegal practices, to pay more than $28 million in penalties. The case was filed after two former employees of the facility came forward with the information. Nursing home negligence lawyers at Pintas & Mullins remind the public that whistleblower cases such as this are critical in exposing and solving senior abuse and neglect.

During the nine-day trial, it was revealed that the nursing home - Momence Meadows Nursing Center - billed more than 1,700 false claims to Medicare and Medicaid. The facility operates as a for-profit nursing home, as most in the United States do.

It is an unfortunate reality that the national increase of for-profit nursing homes is significantly affecting patient care. Those facilities that focus solely on making profits are much more likely to bill the government for unneeded care or for treatment it never administered. According to a recent Bloomberg article, 70% of American nursing homes are run by companies whose main objective is to make money, and 78% of the annual income for nursing homes in 2010 - $105 billion - was enjoyed by for-profit homes.

This marks a six percent increase in profits since 2002. 30% of the billing claims from for-profit nursing homes were considered improper by federal health care inspectors, compared to only 12% of improper billing by non-profits. This article, along with data from Medicare overseers, supports the argument that the national rise of for-profit facilities is also spurring a rise in wasteful, fraudulent, and harmful health care.

Non-profits simply do not have the incentive or need to fraudulently bill, under-staff, or neglect patients. For-profits are owned largely by investors, and their facilities earn a 20% profit on Medicare patients, compared to non-profits, which earn about 9% on those patients. For-profits also employ about 37% less registered nurses per resident, and received almost 60% more deficiency warnings from inspections than non-profits.

The effects of this troubling trend were evident at Momence Meadows Nursing Center, which is why two of its former employees reported the fraudulent behavior to the federal government, who sued the facility under the False Claims Act.

The two employees accused the home of giving grossly inadequate care to its elderly and disabled residents. This substandard care directly led to the deaths of three patients and severe bedsores in countless others. Bedsores become a problem when nursing home staff is so overworked or understaffed that they cannot adequately care for each resident as they require it. Some nursing home residents are bed-ridden or unable to move around without assistance. If they are not moved or turned every few hours, pressure ulcers start to form, and can become infected if not treated immediately. Bedsores that get infected can lead to sepsis, which can ultimately result in death.

The nurses also alleged that Momence Meadows directed them to falsify records for patients and medications to say that care and treatment was given when it was not. Additionally, they were asked to falsify staffing records to indicate that minimum staffing levels had been met, although they had not been. They were also told to re-edit patient charts to conceal events that led up to patient's injury, illness, and even death.

The workers brought their claims against the facility in 2004, and after their complaints were revealed, they were retaliated against by the facility with threats, verbal abuse, and preventing other facilities from hiring them. Once the government sued the facility under the False Claims Act, however, the employees were fully protected under Qui Tam, or Whistleblower, laws. These laws protect whistleblowers from retaliation and also enable them to recover monetary damages from the verdict, usually around 15 to 25% of the penalties.

Continue reading "Illinois Nursing Home to Pay $28 Million in Whistleblower Case " »

The family of professional wrestler George Dahmer, known to fans as Chief White Owl, recently received $2 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. Senior abuse lawyers at Pintas & Mullins affirm that the jury found that Lake Worth Nursing Home was failed to properly care for the aging wrestler, which directly led to his death.

His daughter, Debbie Dahmer, stated that the family is also seeking to reform nursing home laws and penalties, hoping to name the stricter regulations "Chief White Owl's Laws." Dahmer died at a Florida hospital in May 2008 after spending only two months at Lake Worth Manor, which is now Oasis Health.

Dahmer suffered from dementia and entered the nursing facility in February 2008. In the ensuing months his health rapidly deteriorated, according to statements made by his wife and son. He became severely dehydrated, and lost the ability to walk and communicate effectively. In one incident, nursing home staff lost his false teeth and failed to ever replace them. Staff also failed to adequately monitor and regulate his medication, rendering Dahmer severely overmedicating and almost completely immobile.

Within 60 days of being admitted, Dahmer lost 30 pounds. He developed extreme bedsores on his heels and tailbone, which eventually spread by inattentive care and exposed the bone. Upon seeing this, his wife demanded he be transferred to an Alzheimer's facility in April 2008. One month later, he was admitted to JFK Medical Center, and died on May 16, 2008, at age 72.

Doctors at JFK were unable to treat the extensive injuries he received at Lake Worth. He was too weak to receive a feeding tube, and doctors were considering amputating his feet completely, as the pressure ulcers had worn through his skin to the bone.
During trial, it was revealed that Lake Worth Manor was significantly understaffed, and that the owners' behavior caused problems with staff morale. Employees were overworked, and could not, or did not want to perform jobs properly.

Now, with Chief White Owl's Laws, his family is attempting to send a public message about substandard nursing home care. Dahmer exhibited several common signs of nursing home abuse and neglect before his death: dehydration, bedsores, and overmedication. Sadly, his case is indicative of a larger problem affecting nursing homes throughout the United States. Substandard, deficient levels of care are more often than not the result of understaffing.

Lake Worth Enterprises, like so many other firms that own nursing homes, placed profits before patients in choosing to not hire enough staff to care for residents. Overworked staff often turns to medication to subdue patients or to render them virtually motionless so they do not have to constantly monitor or care for them. Like Dahmer, many nursing home residents suffer from cognitive disorders, and cannot remember to feed, hydrate, or clean themselves on their own. If this is the case, it is clearly noted in the pre-determined care plans for that resident, so nurses know to make sure that person is eating, drinking, and bathing regularly.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Sued for Abuse and Death of Pro Wrestler Chief White Owl " »