The world is being affected by the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This is an unprecedented time, and everyone is learning different ways to cope and adjust to the new environment.
The federal government has instituted temporary changes for long-term care facilities (nursing homes) to help combat the spread of the disease. The changes include:…
Continue Reading Maintaining Routine and Procedures in Nursing Homes During COVID-19
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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Continue Reading Visitation Rights of New Jersey Nursing Home Residents During COVID-19 Pandemic
When a loved one goes into an assisted care facility, it’s the hope that they’ll receive the compassionate and attentive care they were promised. No one wants to think about the opposite happening: neglect, abuse, injury, or death.
This scenario recently made headline news when a great-grandmother in Puyallup, Washington sustained fatal injuries after falling from her bed.
Betty Torrey 95, fell from her bed at Able Care Adult Family Home on November 13, 2019, breaking her leg. She died 11 days afterward following complications from the injury. Police reports state that the staff left her laying on the floor of her room for 2 ½ hours after she fell, ignoring her cries for help.…
Continue Reading Critical Care: Helping Your Loved Ones Navigate Care Facility Risks
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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Continue Reading Nursing Home Ownership Gets Thorough Examination
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.…
Continue Reading Nursing Home ‘Fight Club’ Shows Need for Training, Background Checks
The rise and spread of drug-resistant germs, including infections and funguses, has been tied to nursing facilities and long-term care facilities. Due to lack of staff training on infection procedures, understaffing, and not being equipped to deal with serious infections, patients wind up being cycled through the hospital and back again. As a result, these dangerous germs spread not just within the facility, but also to hospitals—with devastating results.
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Continue Reading Nursing Homes Contribute to Spread Life-Threatening and Drug-Resistant Germs
In a recent incident at a memory care and dementia facility in Illinois, two employees can be seen on Snapchat videos mocking and humiliating residents. Police investigating the incident have called the footage “disturbing,” highlighting a discrepancy between the facility’s seemingly well-intentioned mission and the actual events occurring under its care.
Residents at the facility in Burr Ridge, Illinois suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s. Entrusted with the compassionate care of its patients, the videos showed employees instead emotionally traumatized patients – an ordeal no resident should have to go through. While there was no physical abuse shown in the videos, the emotional damage done can have long-lasting effects on its victims.…
Continue Reading Videos from Care Facility Show Emotional Abuse of Residents
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.…
Bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers, are an all too common occurrence in nursing homes and extended care facilities. The Federal Government has made a determination that “bedsores,” should not happen in nursing homes. See 42 C.F.R. 483.25(b)(ii) (stating “a resident . . . does not develop pressure sores unless the individual’s clinical condition demonstrates that they were unavoidable.”)
Those who are in a nursing home or extended care facility are usually there because there is a need for care beyond what can be provided at home. Elderly patients are especially prone to these potentially life-threatening sores, given their age, lack of mobility, thinner skin, and medical issues. However, bedsores can often be prevented with the right care plan in place. Their occurrence can be a sign of nursing home neglect.…
Continue Reading Are Bedsores a Sign of Nursing Home Neglect?
On June 12, 2019, a report released by the Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General revealed that Nursing Home Abuse remains largely unreported. The study examined claims sent to Medicare in 2016 by beneficiaries residing in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The report states that approximately one in five of those emergency room visits were the result of potential abuse or neglect.
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Continue Reading Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Incidents are Largely Unreported
