Another lawsuit against Sunrise Senior Living
Sunrise Senior Living faces another neglect and negligence lawsuit (08/20/08 Orange County Register). Sunrise was ordered to pay $2 million in damages after the death of a resident in May. The family of Therese Sperry is suing Virginia-based Sunrise Senior Living which owns and operates Villa Valencia Health Care Center.
Sperry spent two weeks in Villa Valencia's skilled nursing unit in January 2007. She developed avoidable pressure ulcers on her feet that were neglected and went untreated. The lawsuit alleges negligence by Sunrise Senior Living and says the nursing home failed to provide adequate medical staff for ailing residents - despite five health and safety citations in the last decade by state health regulators. The most recent violations, from last year, include sexual molestation of a patient during a bath and failure to change a patient's catheter often enough to prevent infection.
After a brief hospital stay, she was sent to Villa Valencia for a week to gain strength. Four days after her admission, she had redness on both heels, which later developed into ulcers that spread to her muscle and bone. Sperry's family immediately transferred to a different nursing home, where she was properly treated for wounds. She endured debilitating pain until her death.
The suit argues that the facility "carried out a scheme to place 'profits over people' ... (and) intentionally underfunded and understaffed the facility in order to decrease expenses and increase profits." Proof of understaffing arose in the trial over the death of Mary Kathleen Adams, who also developed pressure ulcers while at the center in February 2005. She died two months later. In May, a jury ordered Sunrise to pay $2 million to Adams' family for negligence and punitive damages.
"Big corporations like Sunrise cut down on costs and staffing at the expense of patients," said Kim Valentine, one of the lawyers representing the Sperry family, and who also represented Adams. Valentine also said court testimony showed employees were quitting because of the poor quality of care - a finding reflected in a report by the independent California Nursing Home Search. The agency found that nursing staff turnover at Villa Valencia was 82 percent in 2006, much higher than the state average of 67 percent.
Sunrise Senior Living advertises on the company websites that it offers Hospice Services in their Assisted Living Facilities. In reality, Sunrise facilities such as Assisted Living do not provide the care needed for a dying resident. Hospice typically visits 2-3 times weekly sending a skilled nurse for an hour and a half minimum and an HHA for 1- 2 short visits to provide bathing and personal care. The remainder of the time the dying resident is virtually left unattended. In situations I have personally witnessed a resident was left in a bed saturated with urine and the room flooded with the odor of human waste.The resident was semi comatose and unable to even request help. I have heard the complaints of family members who arrived to find a loved one seated in a wheelchair heavily soiled with feces or urine who was recieving Hospice Services.Often Hospice patients suffer pain at the end of life due to cancer or other terminal diagnoses. Sunrise AL facilities will not administer medications commonly used for pain for terminal illness and their reasoning is the staff passing these medications are not trained to assess pain.In reality the staff passing medications recieve minimal training , however the Sunrise facilites advertise they provide Hospice care. Hospice patients are at the mercy of the caregiver and Sunrise assumes the role of care giver. I am certain these inadequacies are not mentioned at the time a resident is placed in a Sunrise facility for end of life care.The focus of Sunrise is capital gain and profit. If an elderly resident becomes terminally ill the goal is to maintain that profit the resident brings by remaining at Sunrise through death. The focus is the dollar not the humane and compassionate care of the dying.
Here is some information of who is at risk of bedsores that might be useful:
It is good to know that the Feds have a target list. It will be interesting to see what action they will take other than making the facilities eat the extra cost. It's time to begin holding administrators personally liable for failing to implement prevention prevention protocols. They are, after all, licensed professionals.
Here is some information about risk factors that might be helpful:
In making the assessment, your admitting nurse must determine whether anyone or more of the following risk factors exist:
age over 60
spinal cord paralysis
stroke
nervous system disease
poor circulation
diabetes
confined to bed
altered level of consciousness
confusion
bladder incontinence
bowel incontinence
diarrhea
anemia
dehydration
malnutrition
obesity
emaciation
reduced mobility (traction or body cast)
The usual procedure is to assign a value of 1 to each risk factor and add up those that exist. The totals then translate to one of the three levels of risk as follows: 0 to 6 indicates low risk, 7 to 13 indicates moderate risk, 14 to 18 indicates high risk. The parts of the body that are susceptible to pressure ulcers are the heels, ankles, knees, buttocks, tailbone, lower spine, shoulder blades, ears, and back of the head.
Amen, Jen, Amen.
Hospice care is intended to ASSIST the primary care giver of dying patients. The primary responsibility of care for patients in long term facilities lies with the facility itself.Day-to-day changing of those wearing Depends,etc rests in the care of the facility.
Sunrise assisted living is infamous for overstating their level of care. When needs arise they simply shift the responsiblility to the family, saying "its the families responsiblility". Being that there is little regulation for assisted living facilities they are able to get away with this.