South Carolina Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Poliakoff & Associates Law Firm : Elderly Care, Senior Care

The Birmingham Mail had an interesting article about a nursing home administrator defending the care provided to residents despite the fact that 27 of her resdients died in one year!  The former manager of a Birmingham nursing home has hit back at allegations she didn’t look after residents properly.

Kathleen Smith, who ran the Maypole Nursing Home, in Kings Heath, until it was shut down by inspectors told a Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing yesterday that she adequately managed residents’ incontinence.

Defending herself, Smith, described it as not "unusual" to see residents seated with incontinence pads showing above their trousers.  But, she said: "It’s different to say you’re leaving them walk around with a pad out – that’s undignified."

Smith also dismissed claims she allowed a resident with chest problems to be inappropriately restrained in a bucket chair.  "It’s rubbish," she said, "I totally, totally disagree with that. The chair didn’t tilt back, it was a semi-recumbent chair."

Smith also refuted accusations she had allowed a resident’s nails to grow curled and yellow. "It’s absolutely ludicrous," she added.

The misconduct probe into Smith, who said she currently worked as a community psychiatric nurse, is also looking into allegations against her former Maypole nurse colleagues Carol Estelle Bushell and Mary Kathleen Casey.

Bushell, 48, of West Heath, and Casey, 70, of Harborne, have already admitted allowing drugs to be given to the wrong patients.

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Kathleen Glanville, a writer for The Oregonian, wrote an article about a $900,000 verdict for a resident who was treated ridiculously bad by a nursing home.  The jury ruled that an 86-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease suffered a loss of dignity when Lake Oswego police forced her to the floor of her nursing home and handcuffed her.   The jury awarded more than $900,000 to the family of the late Elvera Stephan for the way she was treated the night of April 13, 2006, at The Pearl at Kruse Way in Lake Oswego.

The jury agreed that Avamere Health Services, the corporate owner of the Alzheimer's care center, had acted with malice or reckless indifference.  Stephan's children moved her into the Alzheimer's care center in early April 2006 after her husband became seriously ill and was hospitalized. Within a few days she became agitated, wandering the nursing home barefoot in her pajamas, confused and, according to her caretakers, dangerously aggressive.

The staff notified a registered nurse in another part of the nursing home, who called the woman's doctor for guidance. He said Stephan should be taken to the emergency room for evaluation and medication.  The nurse called 9-1-1 to summon an ambulance, and because she told the emergency dispatcher that the patient was extremely aggressive, Lake Oswego police responded as well.

But jurors said she didn't look dangerous on a surveillance video from the nursing home. She was gesturing with a telephone receiver but didn't try to hit anyone with it.

Two officers forced the elderly woman to the floor, where they rolled her onto her stomach and handcuffed her hands behind her back. She remained on the floor on her stomach for six minutes until paramedics put her on a stretcher and took her to the hospital, according to Kocher. She returned to The Pearl the next day, when a nurse reported that her wrists were bruised.

A state investigator found the nursing home at fault for failing to assess the woman's condition and intervene in a timely manner.   Stephan's son, James, testified that he didn't learn about what had happened to his mother for six days, when he was told by the relatives of another patient at The Pearl.

The video of the police subduing the woman was played for the jury.   Kocher had asked the jury to award Stephan's family $1 million to send a message to corporations that care for Oregon's elderly and vulnerable.

The jury agreed on $4,200 in economic damages -- the cost of Stephan's shared room for a month -- and $400,000 in noneconomic damages. The jury then awarded $500,000 in punitive damages. Under state law, 60 percent of punitive damages go to the state victims assistance fund.

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In many of our neglect and abuse cases, the victim is unable to testify regarding the bad care because of dementia or death.  I read an article today about a man who is competent and speaking up for his rights and the rights of others at the facility where he lives.  Mr. Crawley is a competent 48 year old man who resides at Sunrise Rehabilitation & Care in Marion, N.C.   "I am not being treated like, I feel, as a human being," said Crawley. 

Crawley became a paraplegic as a result of a car wreck in 1982. His 81-year-old father, Joe Crawley Sr., can no longer take care of him and he started living at Sunrise Rehab on Oct. 15. For the first two weeks there, the staff didn't give him a bath or shower.  "I don't know what is going on here," he said. "It seems like they make a lot of errors in simple things."

Crawley said his elderly roommate will talk incoherently and constantly yell about having to urinate, and, rather than listening to him, the staff will shut the door. With the heater running, that makes the room get hot for both Crawley and his roommate. He said he has called the nurse's station to have the door opened but is ignored.

His sister said the staff once left a feces-soiled blue pad on his wheelchair for more than two hours. His father, who visits him twice a week, found it and thought his son had had an accident. He bagged up the soiled pad and took it to the nurse's desk.  "That's an unsanitary condition and that's neglect," said Pilgrim.

Crawley said he's confined in his bed 21 hours a day.   This will increase the likelihood of developing pressure ulcers. 

Crawley added he's paying $879 a month to stay at Sunrise Rehab, which leaves him with just $30 out of his monthly disability check. He wishes he could go someplace else.

"I don't know if they think I am incoherent or lost my faculties or don't know what is going on," he said. "But I do know what is going on. I need more than anything to be transferred to a place that deals with wound care."

"They are neglecting the people," said Buckner. "That is why there is a waiting list at Autumn Care."

The official Web site for Medicare contains information about nursing homes across the nation. The site states that Sunrise Rehab had 11 health deficiencies, which are above the state and national averages. One of the deficiencies included failure to "write and use policies that forbid mistreatment, neglect and abuse of residents and theft of residents' property."  Another deficiency found on May 10 by inspectors was failure to "give professional services that meet a professional standard of quality."

In addition, inspectors found on Aug. 30 that Sunrise Rehab failed to "make sure that residents are safe from serious medication errors" and it also failed to "make sure that the nursing home area is free of dangers that cause accidents."

See full article here.

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This article is shocking and disgusting.  This woman should go to jail for a very long time!

A 79-year-old woman who has lost the use of her arms, legs and speech was humiliated in May when her caregiver at Homeland nursing home in Harrisburg smeared fecal matter over the woman's face during a shower, city police reported.

Roseanne Anderson, 50, of the 2400 block of Market Street, Harrisburg, was arraigned Tuesday night before District Judge William Wenner on charges of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person. She was committed to Dauphin County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Police said the incident happened May 9 at the nursing home in the 1900 block of North Fifth Street.
Where was the woman's supervisor?  Did she do this before?  How did the police find out?

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A federal jury awarded $1.75 million to a woman who said her sister lost her dignity in the last days of her life because of unhygienic conditions and improper care at a Charleston nursing home.

Tammy Rectenwald, 44, lived at Meadowbrook Acres on Greenbrier Street from March 1999 until October 2003.

On Oct. 8, 2003, she had chest congestion and other signs of pneumonia, but nursing home staff did not call her family or an ambulance.  When the nursing home called Taylor 12 hours later, she insisted that Rectenwald be sent to the hospital.

Rectenwald died a week later at Saint Francis Hospital, where doctors found evidence that she had been neglected, such as an infected catheter site and dirty nails and skin. 

Taylor sued Harrell Memorial Nursing Home Inc., which owns the nursing home, and Nursing Care Management of America Inc., which manages it. Both companies are based in Ohio. The jury found on April 20 the company failed to provide adequate care for Rectenwald.

The award is West Virginia’s second-highest nursing home verdict. “The only way to punish a facility and make them clean up their act is financially,” he said.

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