The number of residents at nursing homes who were kept physically restrained dropped by more than half from 1999 to 2007, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). According to the Federal agency, the percentage of nursing home residents who were...
Tag: nursing home abuse
Nursing Home Arbitration
Here is an interesting article from Mother Jones about the area of mandatory arbitration. While it does not mention nursing homes it is followed by many. This article will open your eyes to the issue of arbitration and can help you in your daily life as well.
The PR Implications of a Bad Experience
Thanks to Jonathan Rosenfeld for calling this to attention. The narrator, while not totally compelling, nonetheless paints a story of life for his father in one nursing home. Think the experience is not important. This is the result when it is not.
Elder Abuse Awareness Day June 15
June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The goal of the day is to recognize elder abuse as a public health and human rights issue and to raise awareness to ultimately put an end to the abuse and neglect of older adults. This annual observance of World Elder Abuse...
Document Nursing Home Abuse In Order to Fight It
I came across a thoughtful blogger who documented his/her grandmother’s alleged abuse at a Virginia nursing facility after years of otherwise wonderful care in an assisted living facility. It is a very thorough documentation of abuse and that struck me. Unfortunately there was a bad ending to the story and...
New Bill Would Protect Senior Citizens from Scams, Fraud and Abuse
Three Congressional representatives have introduced a new bill to protect senior citizens from scams, fraud, and abuse. The bill would give state and local governments more resources to combat elder abuse. Some measures included in the bill: Establish an Elder Justice Coordinating Council to coordinate activities of the Federal, State,...
Resident Wandering Leads to Death
Sarah Wentworth, 89, died at an Itasca, NY nursing home after she wandered into the courtyard and froze to death. A nurse assistant has been charged with negligence in the death of the 89-year-old nursing home resident. Before dawn on February 5, Wentworth wandered down a hall and out a...
Making It Harder To Keep Nursing Homes Honest
The Bush administration shut off a source of information last fall about abuse and neglect in long-term care facilities. The rule designates state inspectors and Medicare and Medicaid contractors as federal employees. The new rule, which was issued in September, generally prohibits state health departments and contractors from participating in...
Voice Activated Resident Charting Saves Lives, Captures Revenue
The Villa St. Joseph, a nursing home near Pittsburgh, PA has introduced a voice activated computer system called AccuNurse that documents in real time all of the care being provided. Gone are charting specific patient interactions sometimes hours after they occurred. That only increases the likelihood of errors and omissions....
Medication Abuse in a Nursing Home
Three employees of a California nursing home are in police custody accused of forcibly administrating psychotropic drugs to patients to make them easier for staff to control. One, a former director of nursing, ordered that dementia patients be given high doses of the mood-altering drugs not as part of their...