neglect

A recent investigation of nursing homes by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that conducting background checks would have likely flagged some but not all nursing aides who were later disciplined. According to an NPR report, the investigation looked at cases of 1,611 nursing aides who were disciplined for abuse, neglect and theft at nursing homes in 2010. About 20 percent of these aides had prior criminal convictions that would have surfaced in a simple background check.

The article states that on the one hand, it is evident that a straightforward background check could have prevented those with criminal records from working in a nursing home, putting vulnerable senior citizens at risk. On the other hand, it is also troubling that 80 percent of those who were ultimately disciplined could not have been screened with background checks.

Read the rest »

A recent article in The Washington Post discusses the issues involving arbitration agreements, which nursing homes require residents or their families to sign at the time of admission. The implications of such an agreement are definitely far-reaching. For instance, signing an arbitration agreement with a nursing home means that even in the case of a resident suffering an injury due to negligence on the part of its staff members, he or she agrees to bring the dispute before a professional arbitrator rather than file a lawsuit for negligence or wrongful death.

While, accepting the terms of the agreement is often stated to be mandatory for admission to the facility, many nursing homes apparently have adopted the practice of placing the arbitration agreement documents quietly inside the admissions package, without drawing much attention to it. As a result, many seniors or family members who place their loved ones into nursing homes don’t even know about the existence of such a document until they are faced with a situation and find out the hard way.

Read the rest »

The California Department of Public Health has slapped a $100,000 fine on a care facility in Daly City for nursing home neglect. According to a news report in The Associated Press, Seton Medical Center is facing the most severe penalty allowed under state law in connection with the death of an 81-year-old woman. Officials say, a nurse at the facility left the cap on a breathing tube that was inserted into the woman’s trachea. The woman suffocated and died. State officials said the nursing home received the maximum penalty because it did not have a policy in place for properly inserting the device, which is known as a “T-piece.”

I offer my deepest sympathies to the family members of this elderly patient who died as a result of negligence. They will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Serious Deficiencies in Nursing Homes

More than 1.5 million people live in nursing homes nationwide. That number has only been increasing and is expected to go up in the coming years. According to the Government Accountability Office, about one-fifth of nursing homes in the nation were cited for serious deficiencies – those that jeopardized the life of the patient – in 2008. The GAO report cited poor quality of care such as worsening pressure sores or untreated weight loss in a high number of nursing homes. These deficiencies, the report stated, puts nursing home residents in “immediate jeopardy,” which means that they are at risk of death or serious injury.

Failure to Meet Standards

Nursing homes are required to meet federal standards as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid, which cover more than two-thirds of their residents at a cost of more than $75 billion a year. In this particular case, the nursing home in Daly City seems to have committed a fatal error because they did not have a policy in place when it came to inserting a T-piece.

A number of incidents involving nursing home neglect or nursing home abuse occur due to understaffing in nursing homes. When care facilities hire fewer staff and keep untrained or unqualified personnel on staff, because they are cheaper, and overwork them, it creates an environment that is ripe for abuse and neglect. Such situations stem from nursing homes putting profits ahead of the people they are supposed to serve.

Compensation for Victims’ Families

A family that has lost a loved one as a result of nursing home neglect can file a wrongful death claim against the at-fault facility. Victims’ families in such cases would be well advised to contact an experienced California personal injury lawyer, who has experience successfully handling similar cases and holding nursing homes accountable for their wrongdoing. The best nursing home abuse law firms always offer a free consultation and comprehensive case evaluation to victims or their families.

Two Orange County nursing homes are facing fines over allegations of nursing home neglect in connection with the deaths of two patients. According to a news report in The Orange County Register, Newport Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Newport Beach was fined $100,000 after a patient fell while left unattended to use the bathroom. Emeritus Nursing Home in Yorba Linda was fined $90,000 after an unsupervised patient choked on a piece of meat. In both cases, the California Department of Public Health officials said, the patients received “inadequate care.” Both facilities received the most serious citations allowed under state law.

Read the rest »

As our elderly population continues to grow we continue to see more and more cases of elder abuse and neglect. This alarming trend is frightening to imagine. Placing your loved one in the care of a nursing home should not cause them pain or discomfort. When placing your elderly parent in the care of a nursing home you want it to be a place where they can comfortable spend their last days. When elder abuse or neglect happens the results can be devastating. Read the rest »

A widower is alleging that nursing home neglect led to the death of his wife of 61 years, Johnnie Esco. Don Esco sued El Dorado Care Center and its parent company Horizon West for elder abuse and wrongful death in connection with his wife’s death. KCRA.com reports that 77-year-old Johnnie Esco was treated for pneumonia at Marshall Hospital and then went to El Dorado Care Center in Placerville. Her stay at the nursing home was supposed to be temporary while she recuperated. After two weeks at the center, her health deteriorated and she had to be sent back to the hospital, where she passed away. Don Esco claimed that the substandard care she received at El Dorado lead to her death. Read the rest »