Articles Posted in Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse

For many people, there comes a time when they can no longer live on their own and depend upon nursing homes to provide them with comfort and care. Unfortunately, some nursing homes fail to live up to their obligation to patients. This is a terrible tragedy and our nursing home neglect attorneys urge every family member to be watchful for any signs of abuse or neglect during holiday visits to loved ones in nursing homes.

Nursing home neglect is just as dangerous, in many cases, as abusive behavior. When a nursing home has assumed the responsibility of providing care to a vulnerable senior and the nursing home fails to do so, then the senior could suffer a number of very serious health consequences.

When a senior is suffering from neglect, the senior may be even more reluctant or unable to speak out than in cases of outright abuse, since complaining about inadequate care could be seen as just making trouble. As such, it is especially important for visiting family members to be on the lookout for signs of neglect. If this neglect is occurring over the holidays at a time when relatives and friends tend to visit more than at other times during the year, it is an indication that something is very wrong indeed in the nursing home.

Watching for Signs of Nursing Home Neglect
Unlike with physical abuse, neglect doesn’t leave bruises, bumps or marks. None-the-less, the physical toll on an elderly and vulnerable senior can be just as damaging. As such, some potential signs of neglect that you should be aware of include:

• Pressure uclers or bedsores. When a senior is not turned and moved often enough and he or she is bedridden or sits or lays for long periods of time, these painful and unpleasant sores can arise.
• Malnutrition or dehydration. This might occur as a result of the senior not being brought proper meals or water or not being helped to eat if there is a problem that makes mobility difficult for the senior.
• An untidy appearance or filth in the senior’s living conditions. If the loved one you are visiting looks dirty or has a dirty room, then this can be a sign that the nursing home is failing in the basic tasks of keeping the living space clean and tending to personal hygiene needs.

Unexplained changes in behavior, depression or anxiety can also be signs that neglect is occurring.

If You Suspect Neglect…
If you suspect neglect, then you should follow up and try to find out what is going on. Talk to the senior to see if you can get any information about care. You should also notify the proper authorities. The Massachusetts Elder Abuse Hot Line takes reports of elder abuse and can be reached seven days per week, 24 hours a day at 1-800-922-2275. You may also report elder abuse at Designated Protective Services agencies throughout the state. A full listing of this agencies can be found on the website of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs.

An attorney can also offer assistance in taking action in cases of nursing home neglect.
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Dwindling social services budgets and for-profit nursing homes are leaving nursing home residents in Massachusetts without a bed, according to boston.com. Elderly residents who may be hospitalized for a short while or those who leave to make a visit to family member risk losing their spot in their nursing home. More and more budget cuts are worsening the risks. Beds are not be held for much longer.

As those living in nursing homes relying on Medicaid continue to experience budget cuts, more and more are facing risks of losing a bed — overcrowding and short staffing also increase the risk of nursing home neglect in Boston and elsewhere throughout the state. We expect our elderly family members to be taken care of and to be provided for while they’re living in these homes. Sadly, that’s often not the case.

Our Massachusetts nursing home abuse attorneys understand that many of our local nursing homes are in fact run by large corporations and are for-profit companies. When a resident temporarily leaves the home, there is sometimes no guarantee that they’ll have a place to return to.

Advocates made attempts to influence government to reevaluate their cuts, but there efforts have largely been ineffective.

A new rule will take effect on the first of November. The new rule cuts state Medicaid and could potentially force nursing home facilities to readmit elderly residents once they’ve left the facility. By readmitting them they’re likely to be placed in a new room.

Advocates worry that this procedure with confuse a number of residents that are diagnosed with dementia.

“Imagine the stress this will put on families, heading into the winter holiday season, and they’re thinking, ‘I will have to tell my loved one that I won’t be able to bring them home…because they’ll risk losing their bed,’ ” said Debbie Banda, director of the Massachusetts office of AARP.

Approximately 1,600 signatures were collected by the Massachusetts Advocates for Nursing Home Reform in an effort to get lawmakers to find other areas to make their budget cuts. The Medicaid budget only consisted of about $10 million before cuts. The program offers compensation to nursing homes for holding on to beds for residents for 10 days if they had to temporarily leave the facility. Facilities will no longer receive this compensation and could give the beds to new residents in an effort to bring in the most revenue.

Back in 2010, there were nearly 29,000 instances in which resident’s beds were held for then through Medicaid funding. Medicaid reported that there were as many as 5,000 empty beds at any given time under the old provisions.

Advocates will continue fighting Congress in an attempt to help ensure that these elderly residents have a place they can call home without the fear of losing it.
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Many of us will visit relatives in nursing homes this holiday season. In fact, area homes will see more visitors during the next three weeks than at any other time of the year. Our Massachusetts nursing home abuse lawyers encourage you to pay attention when visiting a home and to share any concerns you may have with the authorities or with an experienced attorney.

For others, a long visit over the holidays will make clear the looming need to provide a loved one with living assistance or nursing home care.

The fact is the majority of the state’s homes are part of large chain- corporations operating for-profit nursing facilities. Mass Resources reports the average cost of nursing home care in Massachusetts is $75,000 a year.

What kind of care should you receive for more than $200 a day? Unfortunately, the answer is better care than is often provided in the more than 400 nursing homes in Massachusetts. Tragically, residents are sometimes afraid to report neglect or abuse. In other cases, they do not want to trouble family or loved ones by sharing such concerns.

The Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services offers a number of resources:

–Nursing Home Reports are available here.

–Guide to Nursing Home Care.

–Massachusetts Nursing Home Regulations are available here.

–Massachusetts Nursing Home Guidelines are available here.

Signs of nursing home neglect or abuse in Boston:

-Unexplained bruises, broken bones or other injuries
-Bed sores, sepsis or other related medical conditions
-Unsanitary conditions
-Reluctance by staff to permit unsupervised visits
-Disrepair
-Frequent staff turnover
-Unexplained changes in loved one’s behavior
-Unexplained financial transactions
-Overmedicated state
-Malnutrition or dehydration Continue reading

A Sudbury nursing home resident will be allowed to testify about being sexually assaulted by an employee, the MetroWest Daily News reported.

Our Boston nursing home abuse lawyers work with families dealing with the abuse or neglect of a loved one in a Massachusetts nursing home. Nursing homes have an obligation to ensure the safety and welfare of residents. When a resident is abused or assaulted by a staff member, the nursing home and its operators can and should be held responsible.

In this case, a local judge had denied the victim the right to testify because she suffers from a medical condition that makes it difficult for her to speak or communicate through writing. However, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled the victim should be permitted to testify with the assistance of an aide.

The 49-year-old defendant was arrested in February 2009 and charged with indecent assault and battery on a person older than 14.

He is in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement because an immigration judge has ordered that he be deported to Ghana.
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Across the state, there are just 179 case workers specifically assigned to investigating claims of elder abuse or neglect in Massachusetts. They represent 22 regional agencies that cover more than 450 nursing homes in 176 cities. By mid-year 2009 alone, Massachusetts case workers had investigated about 16,000 claims of elder abuse and neglect. But as complaints of abuse have continued to tick upward in recent years, resources to investigate them wear thin, the Herald News reports.

The experienced Boston nursing home neglect and abuse attorneys with Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers understand that few among us are more vulnerable or voiceless than elderly residents of Massachusetts assisted-living or nursing home facilities. And, with about 13.6 percent of the more than 6.5 million Massachusetts residents over age 65, we recognize the decision to place a loved one in nursing home care is one almost all Massachusetts families face at some point in time.

Signs of elder abuse or neglect can be both overt and difficult to spot. But for elder adults in nursing home care, a slip and fall accident is among the most common signs of nursing home neglect. According to the CDC, about 1,800 people living in a nursing home die from falls each year.

While falling is often an indicator of other underlying health issues tied to mobility and cognitive decline, muscle weakness or medication related, between 16-27 percent of falls among residents are caused by environmental factors. Wet floors, improperly maintained equipment and poor lighting are just a few hazards that can contribute to a slip and fall.

And an astounding number of falls occur in nursing homes each year. In fact, the federal government reports that about 200 falls occur each year in the average 100-bed nursing facility. As many as three-quarters of all nursing home residents fall each year — twice the rate of falls within the outlying community.

Nursing homes have an obligation to prevent falls. Fall injuries are the leading cause of accidental death in older adults. Injuries frequently lead to a decline in mobility and quality of life from which some patients never recover.
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A woman has been awarded $400,000 for the disfigurement and death of her stepfather in a nursing home, the Boston Globe reported.

The Massachusetts nursing home neglect and abuse claim stemmed from the 2005 death of a 93-year-old nursing home resident. The resident died a month and a half after suffering an eye injury at a Brockton nursing home owned by Kindred Healthcare.

The victim’s eye was gouged by a metal hook as he was being mechanically lifted from his bed. Two people were supposed to operate the machine. The patient later died from sepsis, which is an infection-related complication.

A jury awarded the stepdaughter $400,000 plus interest for disfigurement and pain and suffering. However, they did not find Kindred responsible for the death. It was a victory even getting the case to trial — last year, a judge invalidated an arbitration agreement the victim signed, which agreed not to sue if he was killed or injured at the nursing home.

Kindred owns more than 40 nursing homes in the state.

Hiring a Massachusetts nursing home neglect lawyer is critical to protecting the rights of nursing home patients against the large corporations that dominate the nursing home industry. The American Health Care Association reports that more than half of the nation’s nursing homes are run by large chain corporations and two-thirds are operated as for-profit companies.

In an increasing number of cases, nursing homes are seeking to have residents or family members sign arbitration agreements or other releases as a condition of admission. Essentially, they are acknowledging that your loved one is at high risk of serious or fatal injury in their facility and are asking you to agree not to sue them in the event of gross negligence. We recommend that families refuse to sign such releases; consulting an attorney to discuss a nursing home’s admissions procedures is also a good idea.
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The Supreme Judicial Court ruled the owner of a Massachusetts nursing home cannot face criminal charges for the death or a nursing home resident who fell down a set of steps in a wheelchair, the Boston Herald reported.

Falls are one of the leading causes of deaths in nursing homes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A Massachusetts nursing home neglect and abuse lawyer can help residents and families hold nursing homes accountable when neglectful care results in a serious or fatal fall. However, in this case the state’s high court ruled the owner cannot be criminally charged if no nursing home employee committed a crime.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office charged Life Care Centers of America Inc. with involuntary manslaughter following the 2004 incident, arguing various staff errors contributed to the fatal fall.

The Supreme Judicial Court said the Attorney General could not combine actions of negligence to charge the company with a crime. At least two other companies in Massachusetts have been charged recently with involuntary manslaughter.

-In 2007, a New York manufacturer of tile fasteners was charged after a motorist was killed by a falling ceiling panel in a Big Dig tunnel. The company pleaded guilty last year to a charge of making false statements.

-A sportsman’s club was charged after an 8-year-old boy shot himself in the head with an Uzi at a gun show in 2008. The club pleaded no contest and paid a $1,000 fine. Three men unaffiliated with the club face involuntary manslaughter charges in that case.

In the nursing home case, a 74-year-old resident suffering from brain damage and dementia was killed after her wheelchair fell down a set of steps outside the facility. A doctor had ordered the patient to wear a signaling device to help prevent her from attempting to leave the facility unattended. She was not wearing it at the time of her death.
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A Boston resident is behind the proposed Act to Protect Nursing Home Residents, which aims to safeguard elderly residents from Massachusetts nursing home neglect and abuse.

Dr. Rachel Geller wrote the act three years ago after a bad experienced with her aunt, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and was shuttled between five nursing homes over a seven year period, according to the Newburyport News. Her aunt spent several weeks in a hospital’s locked psychiatric ward after being kicked out of a nursing home. At one point, the elderly woman was reportedly released with no place to go.

Geller has teamed with state Rep. Ruth Balser, D-Newton, in backing a law that will better inform patients and family members about nursing home regulations.

“The existing problem is there are already very good laws on the books, yet nursing homes routinely lie, break the laws, follow illegal procedures and omit information,” Geller said. “Because we as ‘consumers’ of nursing homes are unfamiliar with the nursing home regulations, we are automatically inclined to believe everything told to us by a nursing home.”

She said better informed families and patients will force homes to obey the law.

“Nursing homes follow standard operating procedures that violate the laws. How can it be that so many nursing homes have been allowed to develop procedures that violate the regulations which govern them?” Geller said. “I’m very pleased nursing homes will be required to give families a copy of the law in clear and understandable layperson’s terms to enable us to better advocate for our loved ones in nursing homes.”

While the bill still has a ways to go before becoming law, it was moved out of the Joint Committee on Health Care Finance last week, a critical step to making it to the floor for a vote.
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The Patriot Ledger published an outstanding report on Massachusetts nursing homes over the weekend, full of informative resources for anyone considering placing a loved one in a nursing home or assisted-living facility.

More than half of the nation’s nursing homes are operated by large chain corporations and two-thirds are for-profit companies. Placing a loved one in a caring home requires diligence and some homework. And ensuring the safety of our elderly residents requires everyone visiting a nursing home to remain aware of the potential for neglect or abuse.

Massachusetts nursing home neglect and abuse complaints were launched almost daily by state investigators last year — 339 investigations in all — yet less than one-third of the complaints were substantiated by investigators.

The Patriot Ledger reports an aide at the highly-rated Hancock Park Rehabilitation and Nursing Center was charged with rape last week after a complaint by a 68-year-old resident. There were no red flags at the home, or concerning the employee, prior to the charges.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health determined evidence of abuse or neglect was present in findings against 41 nursing aides statewide during the past two years, while another 55 agreed to voluntary license suspensions. Another 11 aides received warning letters.

Tragically, nursing home neglect and abuse complaints sometimes go unsubstantiated because of a lack of evidence in cases involving only an allegation from a resident and a denial from an employee. The isolation faced by many nursing home residents often complicates an investigation. In other case, dementia, Alzheimer’s or other medical conditions can make a resident less able to defend themselves against neglect or abuse.

The following resources are among those available to families considering a Massachusetts nursing home:

-Inspection reports and other details available through the state’s Nursing Home Survey system.

-The federal government’s Medicare Guide to selecting a nursing home.

-Massachusetts Department of Public Health nursing home survey.

The Patriot Ledger’s report also offers a host of other resources, as well as tips for choosing a nursing home and signs of elder neglect or abuse.
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