As an attorney who focuses on holding long-term care facilities accountable for negligent care and abuse of the sick and elderly, I often represent clients who were placed on palliative care, or hospice services. These cases often involve the failure of the skilled nursing facility to provide adequate care to my clients prior to their passing. Litigation of these cases inevitably leads to presenting my client’s surviving children and/or spouse for sworn depositions.
Biden Administration Increases Access to Nursing Home Residents
On Wednesday, March 10th the Biden Administration released an updated set of guidelines for those visiting nursing homes. This is the first set of revisions to the restrictions and nursing home guidance since September 2020, most of which revolve around indoor visitation. Specifically, regardless of whether they (visitors and/or residents) have received a vaccination or not, visitors are allowed to go inside and see residents.
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Attorney General Investigates State’s Nursing Homes – Hotbed of COVID-19 Fatalities
An investigation has been launched by the State Attorney General’s Office into the handling of COVID-19 by nursing homes in New Jersey. The investigation will focus on both civil and criminal liability and penalties for these facilities. The Office will be investigating the lack of staffing and mishandling that may have led to infection and death of patients, as well as the lack of transparency and failure to communicate with patients’ families during this distressing time.
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Long-Standing Inadequacies Lead to Further Issues Within Nursing Homes
It is important to recognize the hard work of nurses in the fight against COVID-19, but in nursing homes, problems continue to be discovered.
Unfortunately, we saw a spike of more than 1,500 deaths of nursing home patients from early to mid- April according to recent reports. As is being recognized, the nursing home population is vulnerable to the pandemic due to their age, or already compromised health. However, it should not go unnoticed that the problems some nursing homes are now experiencing are due in part to long-standing inadequacies in those facilities prior to the spread of COVID-19.
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Problematic Developments in Nursing Homes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
We commend the nurses and medical personnel on the front lines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as long time advocates for nursing home patients, we are aware of some of the issues developing in already problematic nursing homes. Some of these issues are being revealed by the media.
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Visitation Rights of New Jersey Nursing Home Residents During COVID-19 Pandemic
Generally speaking, a nursing home facility is a resident’s home. Consequently, residents can have guests visit them at the nursing home whenever they want. Residents can choose whomever they want to visit and can decide to have their visitors present while they are receiving medical or nursing care. By federal law, in nursing homes that accept federal Medicare or Medicaid funding, residents have a right to visitors any time they like, regardless of whether the nursing home has posted visitation hours.
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Nursing Home Ownership Gets Thorough Examination
Nursing homes and corporate raiders don’t seem like they’d have much in common at first blush, but nursing home management is coming under the microscope after Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-VT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) directed a pointed letter to the CEOs of The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm specializing in corporate private equity.
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Railroaded: Forced Arbitration Clause Should Alarm Nursing Home Residents
When a family member moves into an assisted care facility, their new home is evaluated from many angles. What is the living space like? What are the staff qualifications? Have there been concerns raised in the past? Most likely, you aren’t considering the potential need for litigation.
Yet among the many pages of admissions paperwork, nursing home residents and their families are being asked to sign a forced arbitration agreement before being admitted. This agreement bars a court hearing in the case of disputes, including those that address abuse, injury, or wrongful death while at the facility.
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Nursing Home ‘Fight Club’ Shows Need for Training, Background Checks
Three women working at a nursing home have been arrested and charged with assault after engaging in elder abuse, pushing a patient, and encouraging a physical altercation between two residents. The incident was recorded, showing none of the employees stepped in to stop the fight.
The patients, who had dementia, were at the facility and should have received care that made them feel safe. Instead, they were physically abused and encouraged to fight one another, with employees looking on as the fight progressed to punching and choking. Rather than stepping in, one of the employees called out to the resident to punch the other in the face, still not intervening even when the resident called out for help.
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September is Sepsis Awareness Month
Every two minutes, someone in the U.S. dies from sepsis. Despite its prevalence, many people are unfamiliar with this life-threatening medical issue. To raise awareness about what sepsis is, how to recognize its symptoms, and the importance of timely treatment, September has been named Sepsis Awareness Month.
Sepsis is the body’s response to an infection, and occurs when the immune system sends infection-fighting chemicals to the entire body rather than just to the infection. The damage from these chemicals causes impaired blood flow, organ damage, and death. Of the 2 million people who develop sepsis in the U.S. each year, one-quarter of them will not survive. For those that do survive, many develop post-sepsis syndrome (PSS), which can cause long-term physical and psychological effects.