Articles Posted in Nursing Home Negligence

Last month, a former resident of the Hickory Creek of Athens nursing home filed charges against several owners, operators, and supervisors of the nursing home, alleging inadequate care. Specifically that the nursing home and its employees caused him “to lose his personal dignity and extreme and unnecessary pain, degradation, anguish, and emotional trauma.” According to a report by AthensOhioToday.com, the plaintiff was admitted to the nursing home in September 2012 and was a resident until January 2013. While it is not known why the plaintiff entered the facility, he claims that he “suffered catastrophic injuries, extreme pain, suffering, and mental anguish” while a resident.

The plaintiff claims that the owners and management of the nursing home were aware of the dangerous conditions present at the time of his residency. While he cannot identify all parties in the suit—listing several “John Does” as temporary placeholders until their names are revealed—he explains that supply shortages and understaffing problems were the cause of the inadequate care. Specifically, the plaintiff’s claims against the nursing home are for corporate negligence, medical malpractice, premises liability, fraud, and breach of duty.

Similar Problems Maryland Nursing Homes

Like the nursing home above, Maryland nursing homes are notorious for providing inadequate care to their residents. The reasons for the inadequate care are numerous; however, all the reasons relate to one fact: nursing homes are for-profit enterprises. Because of this, nursing home administrators are often incentivized to provide as little as possible to the residents. As long as the beds are filled, nursing homes are getting paid.

Red Flags that Nursing Homes Are Providing Inadequate Care

In most cases, the person staying at the nursing home is in the best position to understand what kind of care the nursing home is providing. However, the reality is that many times residents of nursing homes cannot affect the change on their own. Therefore, they will often reach out to family members. Here are a few red flags that may indicate that a nursing home is not providing the necessary standard of care for your loved one:

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Earlier this month, the family of a recently deceased 81-year old man filed charges in a central Texas court alleging that the nursing home the family placed the man in provided negligent care that led to the man’s death. According to a report by the Waco Tribune, the family admitted the elderly man in December of 2011 after a fall had rendered him in need of constant care and attention.

The elderly man, who suffered from Alheimer’s and Parkinson’s, died in September of 2012, “after months of severe and agonizing pain and suffering” caused by a series of pressure ulcers that worsened into a more serious, life-threatening condition.

The man’s family claims that there was nothing about his condition that made the pressure ulcers unavoidable. They note that pressure ulcers are an avoidable condition that merely require the proper level of care and attention. Instead, the family claims, the pressure ulcers were a result of the negligent care provided by the nursing home facility. The man had never suffered from a pressure ulcer before being admitted to this particular nursing home.

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Earlier this week, a man was sentenced in Washington County for the neglect of an 84-year-old woman who was placed in the care of the man’s Boonsboro assisted living facility. According to a report by Harold Mail Media, the man pled guilty to neglect of a vulnerable adult for his role in the 2012 injuries suffered by a resident of his assisted living facility when she fell through the floor in a second-story bathroom. Apparently, the manager failed to properly cordon off the second-story bathroom. The accident left the elderly woman—who also suffers from dementia—without the ability to walk.

While this accident may seem shocking, what is even more upsetting is how it was handled by the manager. The manager reported that he heard a noise and, upon investigating, found the woman lying on the floor with a hole above her in the ceiling. When police responded to a possible assault on the elderly woman a few days later, the manager told police what happened, but said the woman did not sustain any injuries. However, in subsequent talks with the woman’s doctor, it came out that she had suffered a broken ankle, several broken ribs and vertebrae, a broken pelvis and a head injury likely all caused by the fall. The assisted living manager claimed that he “panicked” and didn’t know what to do.

At sentencing, the manager was given an eight year prison sentence, five years of which were suspended in favor of probation. In addition, he was ordered to pay the victim nearly $15,000 in restitution.

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A U.S. Court of Appeals recently sided with the federal government in regards to several federal law violations in a nursing home, which culminated in a patient’s attempted escape.

In the case, MISSISSIPPI CARE CENTER OF GREENVILLE v. United States Department of Health and Human Service, U.S. Ct. App, 5th Cir. (2013), a resident of a Mississippi nursing home left the facility without supervision or permission, and wandered out into the street. Luckily, the man was spotted by a staff member, and safely returned to the facility.

As a result of the incident, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services found that, as a result of the facility’s inability to prevent such incidents, the nursing home’s residents were in immediate jeopardy. The facility was subsequently fined $85,000 and ordered to amend its policies and procedures. The facility then requested a hearing before an administrative law judge and, upon an adverse ruling, appealed to the administrative review board. The administrative review board upheld the ALJ’s findings. On appeal to this court, the facility challenged the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s factual findings and determination that the Center’s residents were in immediate jeopardy.

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An Iowa woman’s death has reportedly prompted a federal lawsuit brought by her husband and granddaughter, seeking damages for wrongful death, and loss of consortium.

The nursing home resident reportedly died under circumstances in which state investigators discovered that the woman had fallen more than 50 times prior to her death. While it is unclear whether the investigation was limited to this case, the facility was fined more than $10,000 in relation to the woman’s case and for another matter that was uncovered.

The lawsuit, which was reportedly filed in federal court, cites to at least 23 occasions, known to the plaintiffs, in which the family was aware that the woman fell. The documents further allege that the facility failed to adequately notify the family regarding the falls.

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A recent case that alleged harm under the Federal Tort Claims Act, DUCKWALL-KENNADY v. US, Dist. Ct., ED Ky. (2013), was dismissed due to the court’s finding that the doctor defendant was not acting within her scope of employment as an on-call doctor for Federal Veteran’s Agency, but rather in her capacity as a treating doctor for a state Veteran’s Agency.

The case alleged that the plaintiff’s husband became a patient of a veteran’s affairs center, called the Thomson Hood Veterans Center (“THVC”), which was owned and operated by the Kentucky Department of Veteran’s Affairs. According to the plaintiff, her husband suffered an accelerated deterioration of his health, ultimately resulting in his death, due to the physicians who worked in the home failing to take proper care of him.

The doctor who provided care for the plaintiff’s husband was simultaneously employed by the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs at THVC, where the plaintiff’s husband was a resident, and also maintained “on call” telephonic hours with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs at the VA Nursing Home in Lexington, Kentucky. While her patient, the doctor only provided care to the plaintiff’s husband at the THVC.

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A decision reached within recent years in a nursing home case offers a glimpse into the realm of extensive punitive damages that may be available in nursing home neglect cases.

In the case, a 76 year old woman was place in a nursing home in Florida for rehabilitation. Throughout the course of her stay, the staff and facility reportedly knew that the woman was at risk for falls, but allegedly did not adopt any preventative measures in place in order to protect it from happening.

As a result, the woman reportedly fell within two weeks of being admitted. She suffered head trauma and a fracture to the upper arm. According to the lawsuit, she never fully recovered from the injuries.

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A nursing home in California has been in the headlines lately for allegedly abandoning its facility, and therefore patients. One patient suffering from dementia went missing for several days, until he was finally located by law enforcement officers over 30 miles away.

Government officials began a criminal investigation into elder abuse at the closed residential care facility, where fourteen patients were eventually moved from hospitals to other skilled nursing homes.

The facility had reportedly been battling with California’s elder care oversight agency for months over the state’s attempt to revoke their license over a host of unfixed violations at both this location and another one run by the same family. The lawyer representing the family disputes any allegations of wrongdoing, and alleges that the home was properly staffed for the small number of mostly indigent residents still waiting to find a new place to live.

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According to at least one report, at least five elderly individuals died as a result of a systematic incidence of neglect at a care home that was rated “good” by the relevant official regulator.

An additional fourteen residents also died, though of reported natural causes, after receiving “sub-optimal” care at the home.

A five week long investigation revealed that residents were routinely given overdoses of medication, and were often left in soiled provisions and in pain during two years of staff shortages and mismanagement. The home has also allegedly engaged in deliberate cover up behavior, such as shredding medical records.

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Proponents of reform in nursing home lawsuits are upset with a recent decision by a West Virginia County Circuit judge who decided to uphold a $90.5 million verdict in a nursing home negligence lawsuit as appropriate, thus denying a request for a new trial. The nursing home’s corporate owner claims the state’s medical malpractice cap on awards, which sits at $500,000, should have been applied, thus limiting the verdict.

According to reports, the plaintiff in the case was the son of an 87 year old woman who suffered from various conditions like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, dementia and other health concerns. He had decided to place his mother at defendant’s nursing home temporarily, while the family waited for a space to open in another facility.

While the woman stayed at the defendant’s nursing home for only a short while, according to the lawsuit, by the time she was transferred to a hospice just a few weeks later she was unresponsive, 15 pounds lighter, and suffered quite substantially from dehydration. After only a handful of weeks at the new location, she passed away.

The lawsuit claimed that the nursing home provided unacceptable care for the plaintiff’s mother, and stated that she had suffered severe mouth sores, head trauma sustained from several falls, and that she was confined exclusively to a wheelchair throughout her stay. At trial, experts testified that the employees at the nursing home had not provided the woman with basic necessities such as basic nutritional needs, presumably as evidenced by her severe weight loss and dehydration.

The nursing home had claimed that the woman’s death was a result of her dementia, and not their neglect. However, the defendants had a history of citations and violations by state inspectors, and had lost Medicare and Medicaid funding for a temporary time period following dozens of such violations in 2011. The judge also noted that profit margins may have been kept high as a result of keeping the number of nurses and other aides as low as possible.

The original verdict was for $91.5 million, which included $80 million in punitive damages, and another $11.5 million in compensatory damages. The judge later reduced the overall amount, ruling that a small portion of the damage award fell within the $500,000 cap. The judge ruled that the $500,000 cap for malpractice damages were not applicable to the case overall because the home did not qualify as a health care provider under relevant state law.

In affirming the denial of a new trial, the judge wrote that a punitive damage award must be high in order to deter such a wealthy company from perpetuating a similar act in the future, and that, further, “This verdict sends a clear ‘deterrence’ message to a multi-billion dollar nursing home corporation that its misconduct will not be tolerated in West Virginia.”

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