Maryland Nursing Home Lawyer Blog

New Regulations on Nursing Homes Hope to Bring Increased Quality of Care to Residents in Delmarva

March 3, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

It is a well-known fact that nursing homes do not enjoy an unblemished reputation when it comes to the quality of care they provide to their residents. In fact, it seems that one can hardly go a couple days without reading about some instance of abuse, neglect, or other misconduct committed by nursing home staff or management.

Because of these concerns, lawmakers across the country have banded together to increase the regulations placed on nursing homes in the hopes that the quality of care being provided will increase. According to one DelmarvaNow report, a local online news source, the following areas will be targeted by federal regulations:

Measures of facilities’ use of anti-psychotic drugs; and
The use of more refined metrics to check for adequate staffing.

Delmarva Nursing Homes Are On Par

The article goes into a superficial, although somewhat useful, analysis of Delmarva nursing homes, noting that the peninsula’s nursing facilities fare about average as compared to the rest of the nation. One area where the local nursing homes excel is in the area of prevalence of pressure ulcers, use of restraints, and the extent of falls resulting in injury. This is an important category, but it is far from the only important metric in the study.

Family of Nursing Home Resident Sues Facility After Accusations of Rape Substantiated

February 27, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month, the family of a woman who was raped while a patient at a local nursing home sued the nursing home facility under the theory that it knew of the employee’s history of sexual assault and failed to take any precautions. According to one local news report, the nursing home employee was sentenced last year in a criminal court to two to 20 years’ incarceration for rape.

Evidently, it is alleged that the 22-year-old employee of the nursing home had previous instances of alleged sexual abuse in the past, and the nursing facility failed to take any action against the employee.

The nursing home complied with the police investigation for the most part and claimed that they “administer multiple screens that all employees must pass before hire, including extensive criminal and background checks, reference checks and drug screens.” However, it seems as though this employee and his questionable past may have slipped through the cracks.

Man Acquitted for Charges of Nursing Home Abuse, Civil Case Still Possible

February 20, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in Illinois, a jury heard a criminal case against a man charged with aggravated battery after his involvement in alleged nursing home abuse. According to one local Illinois news report, the man was acquitted of all charges after the jury deliberated for 90 minutes.

Evidently, the man was charged with aggravated battery after he allegedly struck a 64-year-old nursing home resident in June of last year. The prosecution put up an eyewitness to the alleged abuse that testified that she saw the defendant strike a resident with a closed fist and then heard the resident ask why he was being hit. The resident began crying after he was hit by the defendant.

However, the credibility of the eyewitness was called into question by the defense, since apparently the defendant had turned down sexual advances from the eyewitness not long before the instance of abuse was reported.

Newly Filed Lawsuit Claims Nursing Home Responsible for Amputation of Patient’s Leg

February 13, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this year, a lawsuit was filed against a Florida nursing home after a former resident had to undergo a partial leg amputation that he alleged was due to the sub-standard care he received while staying at the nursing home. According to a report by one local news source, the nursing home named in the lawsuit had been fined over $4,500 over the past several years for various violations.

Evidently, the plaintiff in the current case was suffering from an infection on his second toe. At first, doctors told the man that the toe would need to be amputated, but that the leg was fine. However, after further investigation, doctors determined that the man needed to have his leg amputated just above the knee.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, who had only stayed at the nursing home for five months at the time of the accident, also suffered numerous falls while in their care.

Former Nursing Home Employee Faces Criminal Charges for Alleged Abuse

February 6, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, a young man faced criminal charges for the alleged abuse of a nursing home resident back in October of last year. According to one local news report, the young man was seen holding the door shut while an elderly patient was trying to get out of her room.

Evidently, the young man was also seen dragging the victim by her arms and wrists. According to court documents, the woman had the bruises to prove such abuse occurred.

The alleged abuser’s defense attorney claims that his client, who is 24 years old, was only listening to older, more experienced employees at the time and should not be held criminally responsible for the event. However, the prosecution has subpoenaed the video tape that supposedly caught the entire interaction on film. The videotape, prosecutors claim, clearly shows that he is not merely a loyal employee listening to supervisors, but was engaging in the intentional abuse of the resident.

Connecticut Nursing Home Cited for Several Failures in Care

January 30, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month, a local Connecticut newspaper published a long list of local nursing homes that had been cited by the state’s department of health for failures in nursing homes. One of those failures resulted in the preventable death of a resident.

According to the report, back in November of last year, one local nursing home in Connecticut was fined $1,020 for a failure in care that led to a resident’s death. One of the residents at Bridgeport Manor died last October of a cardiac arrest after an oversight of the nursing home staff sent her to the hospital.

Apparently, the woman was admitted to the nursing home with throat cancer and had a tracheostomy tube. One night, nursing home staff found the woman on the floor with the tube dislodged. However, the nursing staff failed to call for help immediately and waited 20 minutes to do so.

Alabama Nursing Home Employee Indicted for Abusing 96-Year-Old Resident

January 23, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier last month, a former health care provider at an elderly care facility was charged for the abuse of a 96-year-old patient under her care. According to one local news report, the Alabama nursing home resident suffered injuries after the nurse was caught “grabbing or twisting her arm [and] hitting and thumping her on the head.” The 27-year-old nurse responsible was indicted for second-degree elderly abuse and neglect.

Evidently, back in August of last year, the nursing home employee got frustrated with the resident for some unknown reason and started physically abusing her. The police issued an arrest warrant for the nurse shortly after the incident was reported. However, it took them several months to locate her. Finally, in December, she was brought into custody and charged for her abusive acts.

The nursing home that employed the nurse told reporters that it has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to the abuse of residents. Its policy—which is standard in the industry—is to immediately suspend or terminate any employee who has a credible threat of abuse made against him or her.

Nursing Home Blamed for Resident’s Death after She Falls Out of Wheelchair

January 16, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in southern Minnesota, an elderly woman died as a result of injuries she sustained when she fell out of her wheelchair in a local nursing home. According to a report by one news source, the woman’s care plan included the use of footrests for her wheelchair. However, at the time of the accident, the footrests were not installed on the chair.

Evidently, the footrests were lying behind her bed, out of sight of the nursing home staff, and were not installed on the woman’s wheelchair. As she was being pushed to the dining area, the woman’s foot got caught under the chair, and she was thrown from the chair. As she fell off of the wheelchair, she struck her head on the floor, sustaining serious head and neck injuries. Specifically, she suffered a bleeding in the brain, a fractured vertebrae in the neck, and a dislocated and broken shoulder.

After the accident, the woman was admitted to Hospice care, and she passed away two days later. When asked about the oversight, the nursing assistant told the nursing home director one thing and fellow employees another. First, she told the director that the wheelchair footrests didn’t fit on the woman’s chair. However, later she told fellow employees that she forgot to install the footrests.

Another Report of an Abusive Nursing Home Aide

January 9, 2015 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Nursing homes are hardly known for the diligent and caring staff members they choose to hire. In fact, the opposite is often true. It seems that lately there have been countless news reports of abusive aides getting into physical altercations with elderly residents.

In the most recent of these reports, an elderly Guatemalan woman was mistreated and abused in a Culver City, California nursing home facility. According to one local news report, the elderly woman had a colostomy bag that collected her feces. As a part of the care that was to be provided to her, her nurses and nurse’s aides were to periodically empty the bag. However, one of the nurse’s aides used the opportunity to assault the woman with a hook that held the bag at the woman’s side when the woman asked for the aide to be less rough with her.

Aide Arrested After Resident Dies in Nursing Home Fight

December 26, 2014 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Earlier this month in the Bronx, New York, a 77-year-old man died after he was involved in a fight with a nursing aide in a local nursing home. According to a report by one local news source, the two got involved in an intense fight that eventually required witnesses to physically separate the two.

Evidently, the fight broke out when the resident wanted to get out of bed but the aide wasn’t allowing him to do so. At some point during the fracas, the nursing home resident fell on a broken table and was impaled by a piece of metal. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but he passed away from his injuries just a few hours later.

The nurse—who had been employed with the nursing home for 14 years—told police and reporters that the resident attacked her first. However, that has yet to be verified. For her involvement in the death of the resident, the aide has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, felony assault, and endangering the welfare of an adult. She was released on bail after pleading not guilty to all charges.