Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog
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.
This nursing home point-of-care technology will help to record and verify in a real time setting that residents are receiving the proper care and healthcare standard that they deserve. With supervision alerts when a healthcare step is missed, negligence and abuse in nursing homes can be traced immediately, and the proper care and treatment can be administered, regulated and maintained.
If you suspect that someone you know at a nursing facility is being neglected or abused in the Maryland or Washington D.C. area, chances are that other residents are also being treated poorly and suffering. You should speak with an experienced nursing home abuse and neglect attorney who can advise you on what actions to take. Contact Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers today, for a free consultation.
After Lawsuit, Nursing Home to Install Patient Care Devices, Press Connects.com, October 22, 2009
Rochester neglect case sparks changes in Healthcare Associates-owned nursing homes, RocNow.com, October 23, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Office of the New York State Attorney General: Andrew M. Cuomo