Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog

An elderly couple has died in a nursing home, apparently the result of a nursing home murder-suicide. The husband of the nursing home resident, who often spent time with his wife in the nursing home, apparently shot her in the head before killing himself. News reports indicate that there was a suicide note that both had signed. This incident raises serious questions about the ability of nursing home staff to diagnose mental disorders and depression in nursing home residents. Often, nursing home psychological and psychiatric staff are in short supply and many nurses and nursing aides may not be trained to detect signs of mental illness. It is important that family members stay active and involved with their loved ones’ mental health.

Read more here.

The Weill Cornell Medical School, part of Cornell University, has received a grant to study the feasibility of opening a center on elder abuse. The center, if established, will study ways to educate doctors on identifying and responding to signs of nursing home abuse and neglect. According to a professor, elder abuse and neglect and nursing home abuse and neglect can result in overwhelming feelings of fear, anger, isolation, depression and can even shorten life. Older Americans will soon increase exponentially, making programs that highlight nursing home abuse and neglect even more important for proper health care.

Read the press release here.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has joined the fight against fraud in home health care by exposing a large Medicare fraud led by a major home health care corporation. The corporation provides in-home nursing services. In-home nursing service abuse is a growing problem and is often harder to identify than nursing home abuse and neglect. In this case, the home health care corporation coordinated with corrupt health care aide training programs to certify prospective health care aides without ensuring that the prospective aides took required training courses. This incident raises questions about the quality and safety of in home nursing care and should give family members and home care customers pause for thought.

Read the full story here.

A nursing home in Canton, Ohio has lost its federal funding for having too many violations. According to inspectors, each time they went to the facility there was another problem. Unlike large corporate facilities, many smaller homes survive on Medicare and Medicaid to supplement what individual residents can pay to live in the home. This facility had a troubling list of violations including a patient not getting blood thinning medication until five days after the doctor prescribed it, a resident reported an instance of patient on patient rape and the doctor was not notified until 11 hours afterwards, a patient had severely matted and soiled hair resulting from his hair only being washed two or three times in six months at the facility, and old, used syringes lying around in patient rooms.

Read the full news report here.

A nursing home employee has been arrested and charged with theft of medications from nursing home residents. The employee apparently switched prescription pain relievers with over the counter pain relievers and then gave the wrong medication to the nursing home residents. This case shows another example of how medication mixing, giving the wrong medication, and prescription drug theft are more and more common in nursing homes. Family and patient advocates should be sure to check with their loved ones in nursing homes to make sure the resident feels like their medication is working and should also watch how medication is administered.

See the news story here.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its action plan for nursing home improvement. CMS is responsible for establishing standards for national nursing home care by developing the standards, inspecting homes, and collaborating with other organizations to help ensure standards are met. The CMS action plan lays out the 2008 goals and milestones for improving nursing home standards including plans on improving treatment and management of bedsores and pressure ulcers, ways to improve feeding by using dedicated feeding aides, and other means of improving nursing home care.

Read the full action plan here.

The National Citizen’s Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR), in conjunction with the SEIU, has set up a toll free hotline to get people in touch with their Senators about the importance of S. 2641, the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act of 2008. To call, dial 1-866-544-7573. After a brief message about the bill, you will be asked to press "1" to be connected to a Capitol operator. Ask for your senator's office. (Senators are listed in order by State on the Senate website, if you need to find their names.) According to NCCHNR, When the senator's office answers, identify yourself and say:

"Please ask Senator ______ to co-sponsor S. 2641, the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act. The bill is sponsored by Senators Grassley and Kohl. Nursing home residents and their families in Illinois are strongly supporting this bill."

The Act would improve publicly available resources and information about nursing homes, increase transparency of Medicare and Medicaid spending in nursing homes, shed light on nursing home ownership, and improve the consumer complaint process. See NCCHNR’s website for information on the Act and be sure to call.

See NCCNHR’s website here.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has threatened to cut its payments for nursing homes by 0.3%. Though the percentage seems small, the economic consequences in the nursing home industry will be much larger. This cut could usher in a total of $4.2 billion and has nursing home industry financiers attempting to figure out what these cuts could look like to nursing home profits for the next few years. Unfortunately, profit often seems the only priority for operators of large nursing home chains. All too often, profits are placed above patient and resident care and can lead to cases of nursing home abuse and neglect, and even nursing home resident deaths.

Read more here.

A 20 year old girl with terminal kidney disease has died in a nursing home after crying for help for six hours. According to news reports, the nursing home staff ignored her cries for help for six hours before finding her dead. A nurse quoted in the news article said that the girl begged to see a doctor because something was really wrong. This is a sad case of nursing home neglect that shows how neglect can be deadly. Often, nursing home staff are so overtaxed with tasks and residents that they cannot or do not attend to all resident requests. Unfortunately, this means that many life or death calls can go unanswered. The girl’s family will likely file a wrongful death lawsuit for nursing home abuse and neglect to seek justice for their daughter’s sad and painful death.

Read more here.

Levin & Perconti have filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit against Summit Assisted Living Naperville North for the wrongful death of an 87-year old woman under the Illinois Assisted Living Act. The woman entered the Summit Assisted Living center in 2005 with a condition called Meniere’s disease which disrupts a person’s normal balance in the inner ear, making her more susceptible than a normal resident to falls and losing her balance. However, the assisted living facility did not accommodate for her disorder and she fell 7 times in a 5 month period, leading to a fractured hip, multiple lacerations, and injuries to her right knee and back. This is an assisted living wrongful death action because the woman’s injuries – her fractured hip, damaged knee, lacerations and back injuries – precipitated her death.

Levin & Perconti Founder and Senior Partner John Perconti was interviewed Chicago’s ABC affiliate about the dangers of uninsured nursing homes. The report focused on Rosewood Nursing Homes, specifically the Rosewood Inverness nursing home where a resident died after falling while abandoned in a washroom for an extended period of time. According to Perconti, the nursing home has now taken a defensive position. This case highlights the dangers of uninsured nursing homes: when a nursing home is at fault for a resident’s nursing home abuse and neglect, the victim deserves just and reasonable compensation for their injuries. An uninsured nursing home can attempt to escape responsibility. In fact, some Rosewood Nursing Homes are insured by foreign corporations that do not follow US laws and are not subject to jurisdiction in US courts.

See the video here.

A mental health nursing home has made the news for two colossal problems: frequent resident suicide and unsanitary conditions. Multiple residents in the past year have attempted suicide and the state inspectors believe mental health nursing home abuse and neglect may be the culprit. For instance, two residents jumped from a window and were severely injured in the mental health nursing home and one resident died in the nursing home and was not noticed for 36 hours. These incidents are clearly signs that something has gone terribly wrong. Another resident was found living in a room with a dirt floor, covered with earthworms. The state has opened a major investigation into the home.

Read the full story here.