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

The Times-Tribune reported a lawsuit filed on behalf of former Jewish Home resident Elizabeth LaCoste against the Scranton nursing home, claiming aides were negligent when they left Mrs. LaCoste unattended in her wheelchair, which rolled away and crashed, throwing her onto the street. Mrs. LaCoste suffered a broken collarbone, a head injury, bruises and abrasions.

The preventable incident occurred after Mrs. LaCoste and several other residents had been driven from the nursing home to center city Scranton to watch a musical performance. Sometime between 1 and 1:30 p.m., Mrs. LaCoste was left alone and unsupervised in her wheelchair on a sidewalk that pitched toward Spruce Street. The wheelchair rolled toward the street and jumped the curb, heaving her out of the wheelchair and onto the street.  She suffered significant injuries and died months later.

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Chicago Tribune had an article about the Joint Commission's new campaign to help prevent falls in health care settings and in nursing homes. Millions of Americans are injured in falls each year, and many of them are preventable with proper supervision and safety devices.  The Joint Commission's new campaign includes brochures on prevention tips. These are things like exercise to improve balance; turning on lights when entering dark rooms; and getting help before trying to get out of a bed.

The commission's president, Dr. Mark Chassin, points out that falls can cause life-threatening injuries and can even be fatal. And he says following these simple precautions can really help.

Restraints are not typically used in nursing homes.  However, in some situations restraints are necessary to prevent a fall incident.  The percentage of nursing home patients with restraints fell to 5% in 2007, down more than half from 1999, according to a recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Roughly 11% of all nursing home patients had restraints at the end of the last decade, according to the 2009 National Healthcare Disparities Report from AHRQ. Restraint use was at 6% in 2006.

Nursing home residents who are physically restrained for long periods are prone to pressure sores and other problems, such as chronic constipation or incontinence as well as emotional problems, according to AHRQ.

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The News & Observer had an article about the civil lawsuits that have been filed against Britthaven after a Britthaven nurse heads to court on murder charges in the morphine-related death of a patient, and serious injuries to two other patients.  Registered nurse Angela Almore ihas been charged with second-degree murder and patient-abuse charges related to the death of 84-year-old Rachel Holliday and morphine-induced injuries to six other patients.   A medical examiner reported that Holliday died of pneumonia and that the levels of morphine in her system likely contributed to her death. None of the patients had been prescribed morphine.

The case of Jadwiga Orlowski v. Britthaven Inc. is one of the cases pending.  The suit accuses Britthaven of negligence, including failure to monitor Orlowski, who suffered from dementia according to the complaint, and not providing a bed with side rails.

Her husband, Marian Orlowski, died of pneumonia on July 16 at age 86.  Orlowski was a former distinguished professor in pharmacology at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, was nominated for a Nobel prize in 2004 for his pioneering drug treatment for blood-plasma cancer.

"Later on that same day, Dr. Marian Orlowski was found on the floor of his room," states a legal complaint filed by the Orlowskis' attorney, Carmaletta Henson. "He had fallen and sustained serious personal injuries, including a fracture to his left hip."

Britthaven of Chapel Hill is one of four "special focus facilities" in the state. This designation by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notes a pattern of substandard care. Chapel Hill Health and Rehabilitation, along with the Brian Centers in Goldsboro and Gastonia (owned by SavaSeniorCare), are also on the list.

Last year, CMS ordered Britthaven of Chapel Hill to pay $216,400 in fines because it was out of compliance with Medicare requirements. Those penalties stem from the case of Mary Lou Barthazon, a 95-year-old woman who likely broke both thigh bones near her knees on Sept. 30, 2007, when a nursing assistant dropped her while trying to lift her from a chair to her bed, according to a federal judge.  The nursing assistant ignored Barthazon's care plan, which required a mechanical lift.  Her fractures went untreated for two weeks because the nursing assistant did not report the incident. Barthazon's daughter, Anne Blanchard, insisted Barthazon go to the emergency room on Oct. 14. She died four days later.

Blanchard has sued Britthaven, alleging negligence and wrongful death. In her motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Britthaven lawyer Pamela Robertson denies "that defendants had a duty to supervise or control the clinical care, treatment or judgment of any healthcare provider."

Robertson's motion also denies "that either state or federal nursing home standards, policies, regulations, rules or standards of participation establish the standards of health care applicable to Britthaven of Chapel Hill."

Britthaven tried to avoid a trial by forcing the case to arbitration. Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones concluded that the contract was signed under duress as both she and her mother were suffering serious health problems and her 23-year-old daughter had only months earlier suffered partial paralysis in a rollerblading accident. Wrote Jones, "The contract is ... procedurally and substantively unconscionable."

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Amarillo Globe News had an interesting article about new technologies at Texas long term care facilities to help care for Alzheimer's patients and give them more freedom.  The article mentions The Garden at Childers Place and its "plush accommodations".  The 20-bed "neighborhood," preferred over the term "unit," was built in 2007 and recently became a state-certified facility for Alzheimer's patients.

Childers Place is now one of four Amarillo facilities that are state-approved for Alzheimer's patients. The other three are: Ussery-Roan Texas State Veterans Home, Ware Memorial Care Center and Windflower Nursing, a part of Craig Methodist Retirement Community. All four combined have capacity for 155 patients.

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive and fatal brain disorder affecting 5.3 million Americans, the majority of which are 65 or older. The disease also is the most common cause of dementia, a mental disorder characterized by loss of memory and other intellectual abilities, according to the Alzheimer's Association. More than 80 percent of dementia cases are attributed to Alzheimer's.

Childers Place is operated by the Bivins Foundation. Residents living in one of the neighborhoods can move into The Garden if their condition deteriorates or they need more assistance. The layouts of the three communities are the same, allowing for as smooth a transition as possible.

The facility can only be entered by key-card access, required by the state. The wing is divided into two sections, with 10 rooms down each hallway. Each room has its own bathroom and shower, and residents are encouraged to outfit it with their own furniture.  Each section has its own communal living room, immaculately set with furniture and a fireplace. A communal kitchen also is available and equipped with staff-operated safety features to avoid any harm to residents.

The use of technology is likely the facility's greatest asset. Motion sensors in the room alert the nurses' station and pagers can notify staff members if a resident leaves a room. A resident who needs to use the restroom at night need only get out of bed, and a weight sensor placed in the bed gradually turns on lights in the room and bathroom. The lights turn off whenever the patient returns to bed. Residents who need help getting to the restroom are a fall risk, and staff members are quickly alerted so they can come to help.

"The smart-room technology keeps staff from hovering over a patient, and it gives them more freedom," Hendley said. "It really cuts down on (patient) anxiety."

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WKYT News reported on the verdict of a nursing home negligence trial in Kentucky.  The jury determined that an aide at the Hillcrest Center was responsible for abusing resident Grace Fugate.   Fugate sued Hillcrest Nursing Home claiming an act of negligence changed her life forever.

She moved into the nursing home in July 2003 for short term rehab and recover from knee surgery. But on August 9th, when she needed help going to the restroom, the aide came in and  told Grace she knew she could transfer herself, that she was ‘busy, she had other things to do, get up and get to the potty.  Grace eventually attempted to move and reach the restroom herself. Her still mending knee could not handle the strain, however, and she ended up falling. 

She eventually lost so much blood after the fall that she had to be resuscitated at a local hospital. Fugate then fell and damaged her knee even worse.  The injury was so bad that 6 years later she lost her entire leg.  The aide that refused to help her get to the bathroom was uncertified and showed a history of poor work habits.

A Laurel Circuit Court jury agreed with Fugate and compensated her more than $7 million in damages.  Fugate wants to hire a nurse and move into a private home.

See article here.
 

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Levin & Perconti reported on their blog that they helped the family of a victim of nursing home abuse in their settlement against the Mercy Health Care Rehabilitation Center, securing a $690,000 settlement for the 87-year-old victim's family.

The victim was initially admitted to the nursing home after suffering a stroke that caused her some left-sided weakness. When she entered the nursing home she required supervision and needed assistance with activities. She was known to be a fall risk. However, despite the nursing home’s knowledge of her fall risk, they allowed her to fall. She suffered a right femur fracture which was treated with a brace. While still in the nursing home’s care, she suffered a skin breakdown from the brace rubbing against her leg. This breakdown still went untreated by the nursing home staff and the victim developed Osteomyelitis. The combination of the fracture and the infection contributed to the victim’s death seven months later, according to the settlement report.

The nursing home negligence complaint alleged that the defendant nursing home failed to appropriately develop, implement or revise a care plan to address the decedent’s fall risk and failed to ensure that the decedent received proper supervision to prevent falls. It also stated that after her fall, the nursing home failed to provide preventative measures to avoid the development of skin breakdown, and failed to provide the necessary treatment and services to promote the healing of the decedent’s skin breakdown.

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The Madison-St. Clair Record had an article about a lawsuit filed on behalf of Wealthie Lee Lockett against The Lincoln Home and Weiss Management Group for acts of negligence resulting in a broken thigh bone.  The lawsuit contends that employees continuously violated Lockett's rights from Jan. 18, 2008, through her death on Dec. 18, 2008.

During her stay at the nursing home, Lockett sustained a comminuted left femur fracture, among other injuries, causing her to suffer severe and repeated pain, mental anguish and emotional distress and to become further debilitated and disabled. Employees at The Lincoln Home failed to evaluate Lockett to ensure she received adequate supervision, failed to provide her with adequate care, failed to provide her with immediate treatment by trained personnel, failed to notify her physician of significant changes in her physical condition, failed to ensure that they established a nursing care plan based on her needs, failed to provide necessary services to maintain Lockett's highest state of well-being and failed to appropriately update her plan following her fracture.

Weiss Management, which owned The Lincoln Home, also allegedly performed a number of negligent acts, including its failure to operate the home in such a way that provided Lockett with adequate supervision, its failure to operate the home in such a way as to protect Lockett from neglect, its failure to properly monitor its employees and staff, its failure to screen and evaluate the references of nursing staff, its failure to terminate employees at the home who were known to be careless and incompetent, its failure to provide nursing personnel duties consistent with their education, its failure to prevent and correct problems at the nursing home and its failure to discharge its legal obligations, the suit states.

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The Record on NorthJersey.com had an article about the trial between the family of a resident who fell to his death from a window left open on the second floor at Preakness Healthcare Center.

“Simply put, as a result of their negligence, he suffered 23 days of hell,” said attorney Angelo Bisceglie, referring to Ora Tate  Tate had been admitted to Preakness by his sister, Loretta Tinsley, on July 3, 2006. He was found by a construction worker at about 7:30 a.m. lying 16 feet below his second-floor room window on July 28, 2006. Pulmonary problems and injuries led to his death three weeks later.

Bisceglie said it was unfortunate that Tate’s room had what is known as an “awning window,” which a person of average size could fall out of as Tate did.

Preakness staffers should have known that Tate might harm himself, given his psychological condition, and been placed in a room that would have been safer.

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The Star Tribune had another great article about State health investigators' conclusion that Providence Place is to blame for the death of a resident who rolled down a stairwell in her wheelchair last May and died.  The Minnesota Health Department said the woman died because the facility failed to change the resident's care plan after she had twice previously tried to open the door to the same stairwell. The second attempt came 30 minutes before the woman died.  Nursing homes have a duty to keep residents safe and prevent foreseeable injuries. 

According to the report:

The woman, who suffered from anxiety, depression and other behavioral problems, had a history of wandering around the facility and trying to open doors. A few weeks before the fatal fall, an employee saw the resident inside the stairwell and pulled her out. The employee reported the incident to a registered nurse on staff. On the day of the fall, the woman was found on the concrete stairwell landing, face-down and strapped into her wheelchair. Efforts to resuscitate her by staff members and paramedics failed.

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The Sacramento Bee had two articles here and here about the jury's verdict against Colonial Healthcare and its parent company, Horizon West of Rocklin.  The jury found that the nursing home committed elder abuse in the death of a woman in 2005.  After deliberating fewer than two days, the jurors unanimously agreed that Defendants were responsible for the death of Frances Tanner.

They awarded $1.1 million in damages for Tanner's pain and suffering and for her daughter Elizabeth Pao's loss of companionship. They also decided that the home's conduct was "malicious, oppressive or fraudulent," therefore punitive damages may be awarded also.  The jury will hear further testimony about the corporation's finances before deciding on punitive damages.

Tanner was 79 years old, spirited and mobile but suffering from mild dementia, when she moved into the home in March 2005. Seven months later, after a preventable fall caused by neglect that resulted in a broken hip, she was dead from an infected bedsore.  Jurors heard evidence of chronic understaffing, poor medical documentation and corporate greed. One former Colonial staffer said he would not place a relative at the home.  Colonial and Horizon put profits before good patient care.

Colonial, which recently changed its name to Hilltop Manor, has a history of problems with state regulators. The Tanner case was the fourth in recent years in which the home was cited in the death of an elderly patient.

"We have a corporate culture here that is callously indifferent to human life," Sacramento attorney Ed Dudensing said in closing arguments this week.  "They value money but not patient care."

Colonial "recklessly failed Frances Tanner in every way conceivable," Dudensing said, including allowing her to endure a fractured hip, keeping poor notes on her care and missing the skin condition that killed her.

One advocate, Carole Herman of Foundation Aiding the Elderly, said lack of proper staffing may be the most critical issue facing nursing home patients and their families.

Here and here are two article reporting the $28 million puntive award verdict.   "The jurors obviously felt that this is what they needed to do to send the message, to attempt to deter future bad conduct," Dudensing said. 

They decided on punitive damages after hearing evidence about the corporation's finances.  Horizon West is worth about $200 million. He suggested $10 million would be an appropriate punitive award for the chronic understaffing and inadequate care that he said led to Tanner's death.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/14/2749834/nursing-home-ordered-to-pay-28.html#ixzz0nubuVtAc
 

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