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

Another nursing home employee was arrested by Florida authorities on charges she abused an elderly nursing home resident under her care. Karlene Brown was arrested by the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.   Brown was employed as a Certified Nursing Assistant by Bay Pointe Terrace, a in Broward County.

Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit's Patient Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation (PANE) team had investigated.  They wee acting on information received from the Department of Children and Families. According to investigators, Brown became angered at an 88-year-old resident who suffers from dementia. She grabbed the resident by the collar and forcefully dragged the elderly woman into the woman's room. The events were captured by a video recorder which was in the resident's room.

Did the facility train her on how to handle demented residents?  Was the facility short-staffed leading to frustration and burn-out?  Did she have too much responsibility and not enough help? How long had she worked there?

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There is a great article about the use of the game Wii to help residents with socialization and physical therapyin nursing homes.  Wii-hab is the name of the game sweeping nursing homes across the region.
Morrell Nursing & Rehab Center in Hartsville and Bethea Baptist in Darlington are among the long-term care facilities taking part in the craze, much to the delight of their residents.  The new Wii-hab program uses the Nintendo Wii to promote exercise at the facility.   

The favorite game is Wii bowling, because it allows the residents to exercise upper body despite physical  limitations.  Residents and staff alike gather in the center’s sunny activities room to both play and watch others play such Wii games as bowling, tennis, baseball and boxing.

Mary Etheredge, activities director at Morrell, is the person responsible for bringing the program to all three of Wilson Senior Care’s facilities in the Pee Dee. She said so far, the program has been a great success.  Etheredge said the biggest challenge so far has been getting the male residents to participate.  The exercise from the Wii-hab is deceptively easy for many of the residents, Etheredge said, almost tricking them into doing rehab to make their daily lives easier.

“When they’re doing this, they really don’t realize how much they are moving,” she said. “It has them concentrating. They have to watch their eye and hand movement. It really works.”
While the tournament was going on, residents and employees gathered around Hopkins and Woodham to cheer them on with yells and clapping.

Etheredge said that sort of involvement has become almost commonplace since the Wii-hab program began at the facility. She said the Wii-hab program has made a difference in the quality of life for residents and it’s a change she plans on keeping around for a long time.

Hopefully this will become standard practice at other nursing homes.

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Here is a link to the list of nursing homes that are failing in providing good care for pressure ulcers and physical restraints.  There are over 50 nursing homes located in South Carolina on this list.  South Carolina can certainly do better.  Pages 81 and 82 list the South Carolina nursing homes on the list.

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A nursing home in Squirrel Hill was fined more than $20,000 after being accused of restraining patients to their beds.  According to Health Department surveyors, patients at the Wightman Street nursing home were restrained, but there was no documentation by doctors showing the restraints were necessary.

According to the inspection report, one patient was found with a seat belt wrapped tightly around his chest, on the floor in front of his wheelchair.  The facility failed to investigate the incident.

A health department official said the facility used the restraints far too often. Typically, restraints are used on residents to prevent them from falling out of bed or wheelchairs.

Here is the full article.

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