New York City Personal Injury Lawyer - Nursing Home & Elder Abuse

Senator Proposes Bill To Track Elderly Abuse

Chrissie Cole — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:28:00 GMT

In 2008, there were more than 30,000 reported cases of elder abuse in New York State, according to a newly released report.

The report, commissioned by State senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester), includes data drawn from seven state agencies, which he says is largely the problem. Klein has proposed a bill that would make one agency responsible for tracking elder abuse.

“It will empower the Office of Children and Family Services to bring together data from different agencies on elder abuse. I think once we have that information in place, it can certainly lead to a lot of other effective enforcement,” Klein told WYNC.

According to the report, 90 percent of elder abuse incidents spur in domestic settings. Financial exploitation is the fastest growing type of elder abuse.

Elderly abuse is a broad term that includes anything - from failing to feed or provide medication to deceiving a senior into signing documents that transfers finances to the caregiver.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Two Health Care Workers Arrested for Elder Abuse

Chrissie Cole — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:50:00 GMT

Two local health care workers have been arrested for abusing elderly residents in two area nursing homes, announced New York’s Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Monique Jones, 32, of Rochester, a certified nurse aid a Kirkhaven Nursing Home is accused of kicking an 88-year-old resident in the ribs.

On Thursday, Jones was arraigned in Rochester City Court, charged with endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person, along with violating health laws.

In a separate incident, Nellie Weller, 47, of Rochester, is accused of tying a nightgown around the neck of a 76-year-old patient. At the time of the incident, Weller was a nurse aid at Edna Tina Wilson Living Center, according to Cuomo.

Weller was also arraigned on Thursday, in Greece Town Court. She faces the same charges as Jones. Both have been fired.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Officials Investigating Sexual Abuse At Shore Winds Nursing Home

Chrissie Cole — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:52:00 GMT

A Shore Winds nursing home patient is at the hospital and unable to return to her home for her own safety, following allegations of sex abuse by a staff member, according to News 10NBC.

A male nurse is suspected of abusing the middle-aged woman who suffers from dementia. He has been placed on suspension while the nursing home investigates the allegations.

The New York State Department of Health said it inspected the nursing home before Christmas and found the claim warranted a full investigation.

Rochester Police is also investigating with the case. So far no one has been arrested or charged.

While the nursing home claims nothing has happened, they are cooperating with the investigation.

Over the course of the last three years the state has investigated 46 complaints at Shore Winds and cited them four times. Most of the complaints had to do with medical or structural complaints, nothing like this.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Four New York Nursing Homes Cited

Chrissie Cole — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:01:00 GMT

Four nursing homes in the Mohawk Valley have been cited by the state for failing to provide adequate and sufficient health care to its residents.

The findings, from the Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC), an agency devoted to improving care for the elderly and disabled are outlined below:

St. Joseph Nursing Home had 13 violations, including failure to meet nutritional needs, properly mark drugs and more.

Frank Trimboli, St. Joseph administrator, says the problems have been immediately corrected.

Loretto Utica Residential Facility had 21 violations, including failure to protect residents from abuse and physical punishment, abuse of patients and theft of property, among other findings.

The issues have since been corrected, according to Sally Berry, senior vice president of Loretto.

Oneida Healthcare Center had 5 violations in August, all of which were addressed and corrected, said Byran Ehlinger, center administrator.

Folts Home had 13 violations including failure to provide meals at scheduled times and failure to keep a save and clean surrounding, among others.

Pat Frazier, director of public relations at Folts Home, said the violations have been corrected.

Richard Mollot, executive director of Long Term Care Community Coalition that reports the state's violations, said the compliance of some facilities is known as “yo-yo compliance,” a term that was coined nationally that means the state comes in, identifies deficiencies, and the facilities respond to the inspection by fixing the violations - but the problem is that the facility hasn't taken steps to ensure long-term solutions to the problems.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Western New York Nursing Homes To Be Monitored By Hidden Cameras

Chrissie Cole — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:30:00 GMT

State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, recently announced that his office will be using hidden camera technology in Western New York nursing homes to detect and prosecute the abuse and neglect of patients.

Twenty-six convictions of nurses, nurse aides and a nursing home owner have been the result of hidden cameras in four cases so far.

Four nursing home workers were found guilty and charged with falsifying records and jeopardizing a resident at a Medford facility earlier this month. And, in May, Highgate LTC Management was fined $15,000 and banned from the nursing home industry due to patient neglect, following a criminal conviction at a facility located in Cortland.

“In several ways, this is a double crime,” said Cuomo at a news conference.

“It’s abuse of disabled and elderly people who reside in nursing homes,” he said. “And many of these homes are paid for by taxpayers. We have taxpayer-financed abuse.”

The initiative involves placing a hidden video camera in resident rooms, with the permission of families or legal representatives but without the knowledge of the nursing home. The video can be monitored in real time to stop abuse if it is occurring and used as evidence to make a case at trial.

“We’ve had reports [of abuse] for many years, but they are hard cases to make,” Cuomo said. “This allows us to make cases we couldn’t make before.”

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

94 Percent of Nursing Homes Violated Federal Standards in 2007

Chrissie Cole — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:12:00 GMT

Nine out of 10 nursing homes in the U.S. last year were cited for violating federal health and safety standards, says a recently released report by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.

The study found 94% of for-profit homes had received citations relating to problems including medication errors, poor nutrition, abuse and neglect of patients and more.

Overall, 88% of non-profit nursing homes and 91% of government-run homes received citations.

About 20 percent of the more than 37,000 complaints inspectors received last year concerned abuse or neglect of patients.

Deficiency rates varied in each state, for instance: some 76% of Rhode Island nursing homes received a deficiency citation, while 100% of the nursing homes in states such as Alaska and Idaho were cited, the report said.

More than 1.5 million Americans live in nursing homes and as a condition of housing Medicaid and Medicare patients, the nation’s nursing homes must meet federal standards. The federal program costs taxpayers more than $75 billion a year.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Study: Nursing Home Residents Involved in Altercations More Often

Chrissie Cole — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:34:00 GMT

A recent study found nursing home abuse among residents is becoming increasingly more violent – both physically and verbally - on a more frequent basis, than earlier studies indicated, according to researchers at Cornell University.

"Because of the very nature of nursing home life, it is impossible to eliminate the abusive behaviors entirely, but we need better scientific evidence about what works to prevent this problem," said Karl Pillemer, director of the Cornell Institute for Translational Research on Aging at the College of Human Ecology.

The study, led by Pillemer and Mark S. Lachs, professor of medicine, at a large city nursing home, found over 30 different types of physical and verbal abuse commonly occurred between residents. At the top of the list was screaming, followed by pushing, punching and fighting.

In a separate two-week study, researchers found that 2.4% of residents said they were on the receiving end of physical aggression while 7.3% said they had been involved in a verbal altercation.

Researchers need to perform more studies to discover risk factors and preventive measures. The study is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Washington County Nursing Home Found Negligent

Chrissie Cole — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:26:00 GMT

The State Department of Health has been busy investigating several complaints of negligence and wrongful death at the Eden Park Nursing Home in Glen Falls. After a five day trial, a State Supreme Court jury ordered Washington County to pay $300,000 to the family of a woman who died as a result of a fall at the county-owned facility.

The woman, 75, died at the home in March 2003, after falling from the toilet. The family’s attorney claimed the woman’s death was caused by inadequate staffing and improper installation of the toilet seat.

Several wrongful death lawsuits are expected to be filed against the Eden park nursing home as the result of two recent deaths that occurred at the facility.

The spring issue of “The Monitor”, the quarterly publication of the Long Time Care Community Coalition, features an audit report issued earlier this year by the state comptroller’s office on the nursing home complaint system of the state Department of Health.

The audit indicates that the DOH was late in investigating one of every five complaints filed against nursing homes. From April 2005 to September 2006, auditors found that 1,186 of about 6,700 investigations by DOH began late. Although the auditors found that DOH responded promptly to complaints where residents were in immediate danger, it failed to act quickly on other complaints.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Schumer Fights for Elder Abuse Law

Chrissie Cole — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:54:27 GMT

Senator Charles Schumer recently visited Syracuse to discuss a congressional bill intended to fight financial and physical abuse of senior citizens.

In 2007, 8,693 cases of elder abuse were reported in New York, according to the State Office of Children and Family Services.

A study by the Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Aging shows that more than 80 percent of elder abuse goes unreported.

The Elder Justice Act, co-sponsored by Schumer, would create a federal Office of Elder Services in the Justice and Health and Human Services departments, Schumer said. The bill would call for training to provide better detection of problems, safe havens for abused seniors and tougher requirements that abuse be reported even if it reflects badly on a nursing home or other facility.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Serious Nursing Home Violations Increase by 22 Percent

Chrissie Cole — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:42:41 GMT

Serious conditions and citations at U.S. nursing homes rose by 22 percent from 2000 to 2006, according to analysis by USA Today.

"It's not that the quality of care has gone down but we are being more rigorous in our enforcement," Jeffrey Hammond of the New York health department told USA Today.

The U.S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, who regulates nursing home, shows citations for putting patients in serious jeopardy increased by 22 percent from 2000 to 2006.

Many states increased inspections in nursing homes during those years. Officials issued nearly 2,000 citations at 850 of the nation's 16,000 nursing homes, last year alone.

Often times, such citations are the result of physical and/or the sexual abuse of patients, or they are not given necessary medications. In such cases the result is fines being issued or the home is banned from accepting Medicaid funds for new patients.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole