Advances in Patient Safety

Hidden Camera Investigation Leads to Nursing Home Abuse Charges for Nurses, Aides

October 1, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent nursing home investigation that our Washington D.C. nursing home abuse attorneys discussed in a blog, Attorney General of the State of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) have engaged in a state-wide investigation into nursing home abuse and neglect, using hidden cameras in New York nursing homes, to ensure that residents are receiving quality nursing home care, that is free from negligence and abuse.

Earlier this year fourteen healthcare workers at Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility were arrested for nursing home abuse and neglect, and last week, nine of the licensed nurses and aides were charged in a 175-count indictment, alleging that the nurses neglected to provide proper care and treatment for a patient who was incapacitated.

The nurses have been reportedly charged with endangering the welfare of a person who is physically disabled or incompetent, and willful violation of health laws—both of which are misdemeanors. They have also been charged with a felony for falsifying business records to cover up their nursing home negligence. The nurses all pleaded not guilty. The five other defendants with similar charges have already settled their nursing home negligence cases with guilty pleas.

The Attorney General Cuomo’s office reported that along with falsifying records to hide negligence, the nurses and aides neglected to administer the incapacitated patient’s medications and also neglected to treat the patient’s pressure sores. They also reportedly neglected to check the patient for incontinence, and failed to change the patient’s undergarments for long time periods. As our Washington D.C. nursing home injury attorneys have reported in a previous blog, when residents have limited movement or are immobile, resting in the same position for long periods puts them at high risk for developing bedsores.

Maryland to Receive $1.7 M in HHS Grants to Help Seniors and Disabled Individuals in Homes

September 28, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Our Baltimore nursing home attorneys have been following the recent news release that the state of Maryland is slated to collect around $1.7 million in grants by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to help disabled people, seniors, and their health care givers to better comprehend and explore their long-term health care options.

The Maryland grants are reportedly being distributed by HHS as part of a new program under the Affordable Care Act. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced yesterday that under the act, around $68 million in grants will be awarded to states, tribal and community-based organizations, and territories across the country.

Sebelius stated that the Affordable Care Act will help to give individuals more power to make decisions about finding quality health care in nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities— to improve the level of care, and reduce the cost.

The national funds will reportedly be used for programs that will aim to help disabled people and the elderly and their families and caregivers to better comprehend their benefits under Medicaid and Medicare. The grant money is also intended to help seniors and disabled individuals to better understand their long-term health care options, including those that help people to remain with in nursing homes, and those to help ease the transition for people who are moving back to their home residents, after residing in a nursing home or rehabilitation facility.

Skilled Healthcare Announces Nursing Home Lawsuit Settlement—After Recent $677 M Verdict

September 8, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a previous blog, our nursing home negligence attorneys in Baltimore, Maryland discussed a recent lawsuit verdict, where a jury handed Skilled Healthcare Group Inc., a nursing home company based in California, a $677 million verdict over nursing home negligence due to understaffing in the homes.

According to Bloomberg news, Skilled Healthcare announced a $50 million lawsuit settlement today, in an effort to avoid the $677 million verdict in damages—what Bloomberg calls the largest award announced in the U.S. this year, by the Humboldt County jury in July.

In the July verdict, Skilled Healthcare was found to be negligent for violating state regulations by failing to properly staff the number of nurses required for duty in the 22 facilities throughout California.

According to California State law, nursing homes are required to provide 3.2 hours of direct skilled nursing care per day, per patient. The federal recommendation standard for nursing requirements is reportedly 4.1 nursing hours per patient. As part of the settlement, the facilities operating the nursing homes will be responsible for providing the legally mandated nurse staffing, and complying with federal and state regulations on staffing.

For-profit Nursing Home Industry Slammed in $677 Million Nursing Home Verdict

September 1, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As Washington D.C. nursing home negligence attorneys, we have been watching a recent lawsuit where a Humboldt County jury slapped a California nursing home company with a $677 million verdict over staffing.

According to Cindy Cool, whose father was a resident of Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, she would often come to visit the home and find her father wearing clothes that were soaked in urine, due to nursing home negligence. Cool claimed that it would often take more than 20 minutes to find a staff member to help care for her father.

Cool is a member of the class-action lawsuit that represents over 30,000 patients that blame the nursing home for abuse and negligence due to staff shortages—a reportedly common complaint with for-profit nursing homes across the country, that homes are more concerned with money than the nursing home care. Cool provided a key testimony last month, which led to the jury deciding on a $677 million verdict.

Cool’s father lived in a home that is operated by Skilled Healthcare, and last month the jury found that the public corporation violated state regulations numerous times, by failing to maintain the number of nurses required for duty, 3.2 nursing hours per patient per day, in its 22 nursing homes throughout the state. The federal recommendation standard for nursing requirements is 4.1 nursing hours per patient.

Jury Awards Stepdaughter with $400,000 in Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit Verdict

August 26, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent nursing home lawsuit verdict that our Maryland nursing home injury attorneys have read about, the stepdaughter of a former nursing home resident has been awarded $400,000 after years of fighting to hold the home accountable for the nursing home abuse of her step father.

According to the lawsuit, John J. Donahue was a nursing home resident of Embassy House in Brockton, Massachusetts, that is owned by Kindred Healthcare. While a resident at the home, in 2005, Donahue’s left eye was reportedly gouged by the metal safety hook on a machine that one of the employees used to move him from his bed. The state investigation into the case stated that the machine used on Donahue was supposed to be operated by two employees and not one, which the lawsuit claimed was negligent on the part of the nursing home.

Donahue’s eye had to be surgically removed after the incident, and he died 46 days later at the age of 93, from sepsis, a blood infection, that reportedly came from a result of the eye removal. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition, when bacteria enters the bloodstream and spreads throughout the body. Sepsis progresses rapidly and can cause organ failure and death.

The jury reportedly found the nursing home negligent in failing to prevent the eye injury, and awarded Donahue’s stepdaughter $400,000 plus interest for suffering, pain and disfigurement while a resident of the home. Kindred was not held accountable for Donahue’s death.

Resident Death and Antipsychotic Drug Violations in Nursing Homes

June 30, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Our Washington D.C. Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys recently discussed the topic of chemical restraints in a blog, and the unnecessary use of antipsychotics in nursing homes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that around 15,000 nursing home deaths occur every year from the off-label use of antipsychotic medications that are unapproved by the FDA.

Center for Medicare Advocacy Senior Policy Attorney Toby Edelman, recently released a statement in reaction to a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing, claiming that nursing home residents die every day from the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications given to residents who have no diagnosis of psychosis. Edelman claims that nursing home facilities are violating the Controlled Substances Act and the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Law, by failing to provide the residents with proper medical attention, and physicians who are available to treat them 24 hrs a day.

According to the statement, under the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Law, every resident must be under the care of a physician, and each nursing home must provide a physician for medical care in case of an emergency, with another physician on-call. Edelman claims that nursing homes and long-term care pharmacies have long been relying on the practice of “chart orders,” for medications, where nurses assess the nursing home resident’s changed condition, and contact the physician—who then prescribes pain medication recommendations.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has reportedly begun to enforce the rules and policy of the Controlled Substances Act, requiring physicians to write and sign prescriptions, sending nursing home and nursing home pharmacy industries into a frenzy, claiming that without these practices, residents will not receive the pain medication they need.

Physical Restraints in Maryland Nursing Homes

April 15, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In yesterday’s blog post, our lawyers from Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers, discussed the resent release of the annual state-by-state check-up of healthcare ratings, in the National Healthcare Quality Report from 2009, which includes Maryland’s ratings on nursing home care, and the use of physical restraint.

Nursing home restraint is a physical or pharmacologic restraint used to keep a resident or patient from moving freely, and is only allowed when medically necessary, as it can also cause patients to become weak or develop other health complications like pressure sores, isolation, loss of walking ability, incontinence, or injury from trying to escape the restraints, leading to possible injury or wrongful death.

Restraints have been used in nursing homes when impaired residents with mental conditions are prone to nursing home falls, wandering, or the potential for personal injury—but are controversial as they have been also been used for the purposes of discipline, or for the convenience of the nursing home—leading to nursing home abuse and neglect.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that the use of physical and chemical restraints has reduced substantially after the implementation the CMS restraint regulation in 1990, showing that physical restraints had serious negative effects including the risk of wrongful death, and nursing home abuse and neglect.

Negligence Lawsuit Demands Nursing Homes Install Patient Care Devices

November 17, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In recent nursing home patient safety and technology news, our Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Negligence Lawyers have been following the required development of electronic point-of-care devices, to be installed in Vestal Nursing Center, along with eight other nursing homes in New York. This nursing home healthcare technology development was as part of a deal made with the state Attorney General’s Office, after 14 employees were convicted of criminal charges for falsely testifying that they had provided appropriate care to patients—and were caught on a surveillance camera doing otherwise.

In 2005, Feliz Ortiz suspected that his father, a dementia patient resident at the Rochester nursing home wasn’t getting the proper care he deserved. His family was visiting him every day, and suspected serious nursing home abuse and neglect. After the state Department of Health checked the records of his care and suspected that the records were doctored, the state Attorney’s Office installed a hidden surveillance camera in his father’s room—to investigate of the level of care being provided.

The video results corroborated with Ortiz’s suspicions—his father wasn’t being turned every two hours to prevent bed sores, wasn’t being hydrated properly, and was left for hours on end lying in his own waste, while the nursing home caregivers claimed to be treating him properly. Employees were found allegedly sleeping, smoking, watching movies and not providing the promised nursing home care.

Point-of-care technology uses electronic devices to record services at health-care facilities, like the turning of a bed-ridden patient and the dispensing of patient medication in actual time. The new system of technology will also allow the nursing home caregivers to record information about the residents in their rooms, instead of having to walk back and forth to the nursing station—a process that will save time spent on paperwork, and give more time to the patients.

Electronic records will then be created for patients’ medical charts with the necessary information that can be easily accessible in the future after the implementation of electronic medical records occurs—where patient information for doctor visits, nursing homes, and critical care-facilities are all available electronically.