Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog
In a recent blog, our nursing home injury attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers discussed a news story involving a Baltimore, Maryland nursing home that moved 150 residents out of the center after the building’s air conditioning system malfunctioned—failing to keep residents cool during a heat wave, and reportedly affecting the health and safety of the residents.
This week, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) released a lengthy report, after conducting a thorough investigation, and claimed that the Ravenswood Nursing Home gave nursing home residents a “substandard” quality of care that resulted in “actual harm” to the residents.
Maryland regulators reportedly fined Ravenswood $52,500 after the air conditioning malfunction left residents sweltering in nearly 100-degree heat in the nursing home.
In the DHMH report, six state and federal violations were reportedly cited, that focus on the air conditioning problem. The report also found that the nursing home facility was storing food that was potentially hazardous at unsafe temperatures, the building was not in good shape, and that the nursing home residents were receiving inadequate care, treatment and services.
According to Nancy Grimm, Director of the DHMH, the department looked at every floor of the nursing home facility, assessing each patient, to make proper evaluations in the report. Grimm stated that they will not allow nursing home residents to move back into the facility until all of the deficiencies are addressed, with a strong plan of correction.
Ravenswood reportedly has ten days to prepare a plan of correction to address how the violations will be corrected to care for the residents on a long-term basis, to avoid nursing home neglect, injury or wrongful death of Maryland residents in the future.
If you are worried that a friend or loved one staying at a nursing home in Maryland or the Washington D.C. area is suffering from nursing home neglect, or substandard care that could lead to personal harm or injury, contact our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation. Call us at 1-800-654-1949.
Md. Nursing Home Fined for A/C Breakdown, The Washington Post, July 22, 2010
Report Says Nursing Home Harmed Residents, NBC/WJZ, July 21, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Nursing Home Could Face Deficiencies for No A/C, WBALTV, July 12, 2010
Nursing Home Residents With No A/C to Move, WBALTV, July 6, 2010
Second Nursing Home Moves Its Residents, WBALTV, July 8, 2010
150 Residents Moved Out of Hot Md. Nursing Home, July 7, 2010
Maryland Office of Health Care Quality