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

Colleen Jenkins of the St. Petersburg Times had an article on the conditions of abused residents and the failure to prosecute the health care providers to the fullest extent of the law.  The article explains the living conditions in Daphne Jones' boarding home in West Tampa.   After finding elderly and disabled people crammed into windowless bedrooms without air conditioning or enough drinking water in August 2007, authorities arrested Jones on 18 felony counts of adult abuse.  Jones pled guilty to a single misdemeanor count, for which she will serve six months of probation and 25 hours of community service. Her attorney said the whole ordeal had been overblown.

Prosecutors offered little explanation for the lack of a jail sentence.

Jones had pulled a bait-and-switch scheme. Some residents' family members said they thought their loved ones were living in Jones' 6,000-square-foot gated mansion in Temple Terrace. The property was licensed by the state as an adult family care home.  The families were upset to learn their loved ones had been moved to the boarding house, sharing one bathroom and sleeping on bunk beds.

Tampa police officers arrived on Aug. 9, 2007, after receiving a tip about neglect.  The air conditioning had been broken and the residents were dehydrated.   Goudie said she took the deposition of one former resident who had bad things to say about the boarding house. The woman substantiated the information about the air conditioning.

Elrod Curry, 64, of Plant City, said his family had suspected that "something strange" was going on at the boarding house where his sister, Rosa Wilson, lived, but she couldn't tell them much because her mind came and went. He said Thursday that Jones' sentence seemed too light.

In 2003, a federal judge sentenced Jones to 24 months of probation and ordered her to pay $41,000 in restitution to the Social Security Administration after she misrepresented her financial situation when applying for benefits for her son, who has cerebral palsy.

After her most recent arrest, the state Agency for Health Care Administration fined Jones $20,000 and revoked her license for not cooperating with the agency.

On Thursday, she pleaded guilty to culpable negligence. That charge resulted from one elderly female resident who had to be hospitalized for severe dehydration after police arrived.

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KAALtv.com had a disturbing article on residents being abused in a Minnesota nursing home.  The conduct of these "professionals" is outrageous and disgusting.  They should be arrested and thrown in jail and never work in the health car eindustry again.  I would be surprised if anything happens to them.  They will probably get rehired easily knowing how the nursing home industry works.

The article mentions that an investigation by the Minnesota Department of Health found that at least 15 nursing home residents were abused mentally and physically.  The abuse actually could have been prevented months earlier.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health 15 residents at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home were verbally and or physically abused by several nursing assistants, some of them are not even 18 years old.  The abuse was discovered back in December of 2007, but could have been earlier than that.

The 5 perpetrators were responsible for caring for the residents.  The Freeborn County Attorney's office says dealing with vulnerable adults makes it difficult to prosecute when they don't have statements from the victims.   It sounds like the prosecutor is making excuses for his own incompetence.  Why doesn't he ask the nurses to take polygraph tests?

The Freeborn County Attorney says the five women face gross misdemeanor charges, which means only one year in jail, a $3-thousand dollar fine or both as a maximum plenty. There is no mention in the article if the nurses licenses have been revoked or if they work at another nursing home now.

 

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The DesMoines Register has an article about a woman who complained about the care her mother ws recieving at a nursing home being arrested after the nursing home stated that she was "abusing" her mother.  This lack of accountability by the nursing home is astounding.  Trying to quiet the family of a neglected resident who had every right to complain about the poor care given to her mother is ridiculous.  Obviously, the nursing home did not want the family to witness other acts of neglect and wanted to protect their mother.  Below are excerpts of the article.

A Cedar Falls woman who claims she was jailed in retaliation for complaints about her mother's care at a Waverly nursing home has sued the home and the city.   Maxine Veatch, 64, and her sister, Christine Price, 57, of Mason City sued Bartels Retirement Community, at whose nursing home their 94-year-old mother, Agnes Bell, has lived since 2004.

Co-defendants include the home's administrator, Debra Schroeder; its director of nursing, Brianna Brunner; and Police Sgt. Jason Leonard.  Veatch and Price allege false imprisonment, negligence, defamation and malicious prosecution. Police and nursing home officials could not be reached for comment. The sisters have asked for at least $75,000.

The federal lawsuit alleges the sisters noticed problems such as medication errors and a lack of cleanliness in 2006 when they visited their mother at Bartels' Woodland Terrace nursing home. When they raised their concerns with managers, administrators compiled "a book of false and/or misleading accusations" against the sisters, the lawsuit claims.

The state has cited the home for 11 violations since 2004. Last year, inspectors alleged a high rate of medicine errors and problems with nursing services.

Bell allegedly collapsed in Veatch's arms on Sept. 27, 2006, while she walked with her daughters to the home's dining room. Veatch swung her 145-pound mother into the nearest wheelchair, and Bell recovered within a few minutes, according to the lawsuit.  A worker at the home reportedly complained to her bosses that she saw Veatch shove her mother into the wheelchair. Veatch was summoned two days later to the police station, where Leonard allegedly issued her a citation for assault and put her in jail for 23 hours. Veatch was then barred from the nursing home for 13 months. Price was denied visits for eight months.

Veatch was acquitted of the criminal charge. After Iowa Department of Human Services officials classified her as an abuser, Veatch appealed the decision, and her mother testified on her behalf. Administrative Law Judge Mark Lambert overturned the department's finding and stated that Veatch had "prevented a potentially much more serious injury to her mother."

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