California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Blog

In the case of Scampone v. Grane Healthcare Company, the Pennsylvania Superior Court unanimously ruled that nursing homes can be held liable under a corporate negligence theory. Scampone v. Grane Healthcare Company, 210 PA. Super 124, 11 A.3d 967 (Pa. Super. July 15, 2010). For years, there have been nursing homes that have made decisions, including the number of staff to employ, based solely on monetary motivation instead of patient needs. A large majority of nursing homes are dangerously understaffed which directly affects patient care. In Scampone, former employees testified that not only was the nursing home chronically understaffed despite complaints but that the nursing home would increase staffing levels in anticipation of state inspections and then return to its inadequate levels immediately following inspection. Scampone v. Grane Healthcare Company, 210 PA. Super 124, 11 A.3d 967 (Pa. Super. July 15, 2010). Former employees also testified that medical records were regularly altered to hide substandard care. Scampone v. Grane Healthcare Company, 210 PA. Super 124, 11 A.3d 967, 2010 (Pa. Super. July 15, 2010).

It is undeniable that corporate decisions such as staffing levels, standards of care and training are inexorably linked to the care and treatment that nursing home residents receive on a daily basis. Understaffing, lack of adequate training and hiring unskilled employees are all key elements that greatly determine the care a resident will receive. Nursing homes are a business and the majority of them are run for profit. However, when families admit their loved ones they are told that the nursing home will care for both their emotional and medical needs. At the same time as these promises are being made, nursing home companies are determining how to utilize the least amount of staff as possible to keep costs down. Those decisions are not taking your loved ones care into account.

The ability to hold a corporation liable for making a choice to put profits ahead of patients is of the utmost importance. Allowing a corporation to run a nursing home with inadequate staff and training in exchange for the nursing home making larger profits is unacceptable.

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An indictment blames a Southern California nursing home and its former administrator for the death of a suicidal patient says California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyer Steven Peck.

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said on July 11, 2011 that Verdugo Valley Skilled Nursing and Wellness Centre and former administrator Phyllis Paver face abuse and neglect charges in the death of Charles Morrill.

Harris says the 34-year-old Morrill was accepted into the facility despite its lack of equipment or staff trained to handle patients with mental illness.

Morrill, who had a long history of psychiatric illness, attempted suicide three times while there. He was successful the last time.

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Sepsis is a potentially deadly medical condition that is characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state (called a systemic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS) and the presence of a known or suspected infection. The body may develop this inflammatory response by the immune system to microbes in the blood, urine, lungs, skin, or other tissues. A lay term for sepsis is blood poisoning, also used to describe septicaemia. Severe sepsis is the systemic inflammatory response, plus infection, plus the presence of organ dysfunction.

Septicemia (also septicaemia or septicæmia is a related medical term referring to the presence of pathogenic organisms in the bloodstream, leading to sepsis.The term has not been sharply defined. It has been inconsistently used in the past by medical professionals, for example as a synonym of bacteremia, causing some confusion.

Severe sepsis is usually treated in the intensive care unit with intravenous fluids and antibiotics. If fluid replacement is insufficient to maintain blood pressure, specific vasopressor medications can be used. Mechanical ventilation and dialysis may be needed to support the function of the lungs and kidneys, respectively. To guide therapy, a central venous catheter and an arterial catheter may be placed; measurement of other hemodynamic variables (such as cardiac output, or mixed venous oxygen saturation) may also be used. Sepsis patients require preventive measures for deep vein thrombosis, stress ulcers and pressure ulcers, unless other conditions prevent this. Some patients might benefit from tight control of blood sugar levels with insulin (targeting stress hyperglycemia), low-dose corticosteroids or activated drotrecogin alfa (recombinant protein C).

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This list of nursing home neglect symptoms includes persistent infections, poor hygiene, bed sores also known as decubitus ulcers and pressure ulcers, dehydration and malnourishment. Because many signs of nursing home neglect may be dismissed as signs of old age, individuals who have made the difficult decision of placing a loved one in a nursing home should be aware of the signs which may indicate a nursing home resident is being neglected. .

In addition to malnourishment, poor hygiene and infections, there are many other nursing home neglect signs. Bedsores may indicate that a nursing home resident is being neglected, as elderly patients should be routinely turned to avoid the development of pressure sores and decubitus ulcers. Dehydration may also present itself as a sign of nursing home neglect if the nursing home staff fails to address the dietary and hydration needs of its residents. Lastly, if a resident is frequently falling in a nursing home, this may indicate that he or she is not being properly supervised by the staff.

Continue reading "Nursing Homes Routinely Have Issues With Infections, Malnourishment, Dehydration and Bed Sores says California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyer Steven Peck" »

Nursing homes, along with the rest of the long-term care sector, have a disproportionately large impact on the nation's health care and economy.

The long-term care industry is now the nation's 10th largest employer, responsible for more than 3.2 million jobs, up from 1.8 million jobs a decade ago. Long-term care facilities directly employ more than 250,000 workers in California -- with a district-by-district breakdown of their economic impact available here -- and the state has the most nursing facilities in the nation.

Some say that long-term care is overly guided by its profit motive. Altogether, there are about 15,700 nursing homes across the nation, and roughly two-thirds are for-profit. (For comparison's sake, fewer than one-third of U.S. hospitals are for-profit.)

A 2010 California Watch investigation found that hundreds of California nursing homes cut staff or reduced wages despite a 2004 state law that was intended to boost nursing home wages and increase staffing levels.

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An estimated 400,000 people die every year due to infections in US hospitals and nursing homes, according to a new study says Los Angeles Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyer Steven Peck.

Infections in nursing homes have become a leading cause of illness and death in the US, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health said in the study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

The study examined the deficiency citation records used in Medicare/Medicaid certification between 2000 and 2007. The data represented 96 percent of all US nursing home facilities, Xinhua reported.

Nearly one in seven nursing homes is cited for deficiencies in infection control practices each year, the findings showed.

There is a strong correlation between low staff levels at these nursing homes and the receipt of an infection control deficiency citation, the researchers noted.

The high number of deficiency citations suggests there was a need for infection prevention programs to protect the elderly, according to the study.

The researchers said that when faced with staff shortage, nurse aides, licensed practical nurses and registered nurses are likely to rush and may cut corners on infection control measures, such as proper hand washing. according to Elder Abuse Attorney Peck.

A number of states have already enacted laws that apply to infection prevention practices in long-term care facilities.

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Prolonged sitting by a person in a wheelchair exposes that person to a high risk of
decubitus ulcers. Decubitus ulcers are lesions ranging from areas with "intact skin
with non-blanchable redness" (stage I) to full thickness tissue loss with exposed
bone, tendon or muscle" (stage IV) (National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel 2007).
We use the term "decubitus ulcer" rather than "pressure sore" or "pressure ulcer"
because, as explained in this article, pressure is only one of many factors leading
to formation of a lesion says Los Angeles Elder Abuse Attorney Steven Peck.

It is difficult for most people to understand the devastating consequences that
can result from decubitus ulcers. For a person who normally uses a wheelchair,
it can mean months of bed rest and hospitalization indicates San Diego

In addition, after a decubitus ulcer has healed, the skin never fully recovers.
Scarring, adhesions and tissue loss in the wake of a decubitus ulcer heighten
future risk. Finally, as a person ages, tissue and circulation gradually become
less resilient and viable.

Because of the effects of aging, the margin of safety for people using wheelchairs
narrows year by year, and the likelihood of something triggering a skin breakdown
increases. Decubitus ulcers can destroy careers, upend lifestyles, reduce
independence and lead to depression. They can ultimately lead to repeated
amputations reaching the trans-pelvic level. Septic conditions can be very
difficult to control and lead to death. Fifty percent of all admissions and 8% of
all deaths at specialized spinal cord-injury hospitals are due to decubitus
ulcers also known as pressure ulcers and bed sores.

Continue reading "Prolonged Sitting Exposes Elders and Dependant Adults to Decubitus Ulcers, Pressure Ulcers and Bedsores says Elder Abuse Lawyer Steven Peck" »

The U.S. Department of Health insurance and Human Services' Office of Inspector General investigated the number of individuals with criminal records working in nursing homes. To conduct the investigation, the OIG selected a stratified random sample of 260 nursing facilities from more than 15,000 Medicare-certified nursing facilities and performed Federal Bureau of Investigation background checks on the employees of those 260 nursing homes. Long-term care facilities like hospices weren't investigated, and contract workers at nursing facilities were also not considered.

Study Finds Most Nursing Homes Have Employees With Criminal Convictions says Los Angeles Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyer Steven Peck.

Based on a government report, a lot more than 90 percent of nursing facilities have employees with criminal records. The current patchwork system of criminal-background checks may bring about the high number of individuals with criminal convictions working in nursing homes, and it leaves vulnerable nursing-home residents at risk of harm.

Criminals in Nursing Homes
The analysis says, in 2009, 92 percent from the nursing homes employed at least one person with a criminal conviction. Further, almost 1 / 2 of the nursing homes employed five or even more people with criminal convictions.

At one facility with a total of 164 employees, 34 employees had a minumum of one conviction each, said Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Seven registered sex offenders were working at five different nursing homes, and 13 percent from the employees with criminal convictions were found guilty of crimes against people. The majority of the employees' convictions, 44 percent, were for crimes against property such as shoplifting, burglary or writing bad checks.

Medicare and Medicaid Regulations
Federal regulations report that nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid payments cannot employ people convicted of "abusing, neglecting or mistreating" nursing-home residents and can't employ people entered in state nurse-aide registries for neglect, abuse or mistreatment of nursing-home residents, including theft of resident property.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' guidelines suggest that nursing homes "must be thorough within their investigations of the past histories of people they are considering hiring." However, criminal-background checks are not required by federal law. Individual states may create their own background-check standards, but the insufficient centralized screening of nursing-home employees puts nursing-home residents at risk.

Patient Safety Risks
Currently, only ten states require pre-employment state and FBI criminal-background checks. Because only the FBI background check reports criminal convictions in multiple states, someone with a conviction in one state may find employment in a elderly care in a different state that does not use FBI criminal-background checks.

Senator Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin, Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said the current background-check system is "haphazard, inconsistent and full of gaping holes in many states. Predators can certainly evade detection throughout the hiring process, securing jobs that permit them to assault, abuse and steal from defenseless elders."

Additionally, AARP spokesman Jim Dau said, "There are still potentially-dangerous gaps in the system accustomed to determine who will be responsible for providing care for many people during vulnerable points within their lives."

Since nursing-home employees often work unsupervised in close connection with people who are less in a position to protect their property and defend themselves, a background-check system -- or lack thereof -- which allows people with criminal convictions to slip through the cracks puts family members at risk for theft and, even worse, maltreatment or nursing-home abuse.

National Criminal record check Program
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. According to the OIG report, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires the Secretary of Health insurance and Human Services to implement a nationwide program for individual states to conduct both state and FBI background checks for nursing-home employees with immediate access to nursing-home residents.

Because criminal convictions are occasionally under different names, the National Background Check Program will work fingerprint-based searches of state and federal criminal-conviction records. However, FBI records generally do not indicate whether the victim of the crime was a nursing-home resident. Therefore, additional information on a potential nursing-home employee's criminal conviction is necessary.

Improvements to nursing-home employee screening ought to be made quickly so elderly and vulnerable residents are not harmed by people with criminal convictions. If you suspect that a relative or loved one in a nursing home might be suffering neglect, abuse or maltreatment from nursing-home employees, contact an experienced nursing home attorney in your area to discuss your legal options.

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We know that one of the high-risk groups for carriage of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are patients who come into our hospitals from long-term care facilities. Previous studies have shown a prevalence rate of anywhere from 5%-40% in this patient population. Recently, a study by Reynolds and colleagues, published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, looked at not just residents of 1 nursing home, but in all of the nursing homes in Orange County, California. This included 10 different nursing homes. Between October 2008 and November 2009, they sampled the nares of over 500 admissions and 1000 patients in a point-prevalence survey. MRSA on admission ranged from 8%-31%. The MRSA prevalence ranged from 7%-52%. When you subtracted from the point-prevalence survey those who had MRSA on admission, it ranged from 5%-22%.

Overall, point prevalence was 31% of patients having MRSA. These data show that at least these nursing homes in Orange County, California -- and there's no reason to believe that their nursing homes are any different than many other nursing homes -- have a very high prevalence of MRSA says California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney Steven Peck.

We know that infection control practices at such nursing homes tend to be worse than at acute care facilities, and it facilitates the spread of MRSA from patient to patient. So it's not surprising then that these nursing home patients serve as a major reservoir for MRSA when they come into our acute care facilities. For that reason, nursing home patients should be at least one of the groups that is targeted if you're limiting your screening to high-risk patients

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When somebody is bed-bound, it is needed for them to change position periodically to stop bed sores. Bedsores happen when a patient lies motionless for an extended period of time. Constant pressure on spots on that person\'s body can trigger the skin underneath the contact point to die, making a hole in the person\'s skin. If they are caught early, bedsores can be treated simply. But if they are overlooked, they can lead to massive infections and death says Los Angeles Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney Steven Peck.

Any spot the patient\'s body that experiences pressure whilst that person is motionless can develop a bed sore if the conditions are proper. For example, if the person is lying in a position where component of the bed's frame is in constant contact with the person's knee, the sustained pressure of the frame on the leg can cut off blood supply to that tiny area of skin. If blood flow is cut off for too lengthy, the skin underneath the contact point will die.

Sadly bed sores are specially frequent in nursing homes. Nursing houses are designed to care for patients who can not take care of themselves, and patients typically live there for years. A substantial portion of nursing home patients might be unable to leave their beds. Nurses are expected to frequently help patients reorient their bodies and to check for bedsores, but some facilities fail to safeguard their patients indicates California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyer Steven Peck.

Early-stage bedsores, if they are detected, only trigger damage to the upper layers of skin. Over time, the tissue death proceeds deeper and deeper. Beyond a certain point, the body can't recover on its own. Treating a bed sore demands surgically removing the dead tissue and applying anti-microbial dressings to maintain it covered. Severe wounds call for skin grafts or comparable surgery, as the body can not close the hole on its own.

The causes, nature, and effects of bedsores are well known. Nursing homes, hospitals, and other care facilities have an obligation to ensure that bed-bound patients do not develop bedsores. If their negligence causes a patient wonderful suffering, that individual and their loved ones have the appropriate to seek compensation for their suffering.

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