Pennsylvania Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Blog

The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC ) announced the establishment of the Elder Law Task Force formed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to investigate the increasing troubles regarding abuse, neglect, guardianship and the access senior citizens have to justice. Justice Debra Todd is chairing the task force, which will recommend possible legislation, amended laws, training and best practices. The task force has one year to finalize their study.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille said that Pennsylvania's older population has significantly increased and as it grows, it is straining the ability of courts to provide services to protect elderly Pennsylvanians. He further stated that the requirements of the elderly will last for years, especially with regard to elder abuse, guardianships and their access to legal recourse. He said that it is time to guarantee that older Pennsylvania citizens will not suffer abuse or the loss of their savings.

Justice Todd has said that our society focuses on child abuse, but rarely addresses the abuse of the elderly. The force is hoping to put new laws into effect before the elderly population swells even more because with more elderly citizens comes more elderly abuse. Nowadays the number of people in the United States who are over 65 years old is greater numerically and proportionately than it has ever been, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Pennsylvania is only exceeded by three other states in terms of elderly population density.

The AOPC gave three instances of elder abuse that would be addressed by the task force. One example was a 64-year-old man from Lancaster who relied on his personal care aide to fix his meals, bathe and dress him because he only had one leg. The police said that the aide neglected the man so severely that the amputee developed skin ulcers that reached the entire way to the man's bone. Due to the extensive wounds, he lost his other leg.

Another example dealt with a Bucks County woman enlisted a neighbor to handle her personal finances since she was entering a nursing home. The neighbor squandered her savings on casino trips, jewelry, posh vacations and golf outings rather than paying her bills. The man has been charged with five felony theft charges.

The National Institute of Justice recently funded a study that reported that in 2009 eleven percent of folks over the age of 60 were the victims of senior abuse. Justice Todd said that at least the two previous cases had been reported. Todd said the U.S. Administration of Aging's National Center on Elder Abuse reported recently that for every one reported case, it's estimated that there are five unreported cases. Justice Todd called that statistic shameful and insisted that Pennsylvania can do a better job protecting seniors from abuse and neglect.

As a lawyer who specializes in Philadelphia nursing home abuse and neglect, I am constantly astounded by the lack of government control and outrage. How is it possible that so many facilities, not just here in Pennsylvania, but throughout the United States, allow residents to live in unsanitary conditions, to be overmedicated with the drugs, to suffer bedsores, and to endure indignities like fraudulent billing, identity theft, sexual mistreatment, and so forth?

Unfortunately, since Rosenbaum & Associates is an advocacy firm for victims who've been damaged by Pennsylvania nursing home neglect and abuse, we are not an exactly an objective news source. Thus, when we sound the alarm bells, our claims might be dismissed as partisan.

That's why it's important to look to objective assessments, such as a recent series of 14 reports collected and analyzed by "Operation Guardian" out in California. From January 2010 through March of this year, California's Attorney General secretly sent investigators into nursing homes in Pasadena, Woodland Hills, and elsewhere in Southern California.

The stark results were released in the middle of July. Inspectors found all sorts of ghastly violations of human dignity:

• Improperly treated bed sores;
• Patients being improperly medicated or being put on psychotropic drugs, needlessly;
• Patients left to sit in their own urine and feces for hours at the time;
• Nurse/patient ratios that were ridiculously inadequate;
• Fraudulent billing;
• Poor end of life care;
• Dehydration and malnutrition -- easily avoidable, too!;
• Inadequate fall prevention;
• And beyond.

The California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) called the investigation "hair-raising" and said "the reports demonstrate that some nursing homes are houses of horror with life threatening filthy conditions, lack of staff to perform core functions, and poor management."

The California Association of Health Facilities (CAHF) tried to defend the industry as a whole, suggesting that the 14 facilities that proved dramatically noncompliant constituted a "small portion" of the facilities that care for 300,000 California patients annually. The California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform were not placated, however, and asked California's Attorney General to act on the information to make serious and robust changes: to prosecute managers, members, and owners of nursing homes with both civil and criminal charges.

From California to Pennsylvania: Nursing Home Abuse And Neglect Is A Nationwide Problem

Continue reading "Philadelphia Nursing Home Abuse News: "Houses of Horror" Are All Over California" »

McKnight's Long Term Care News recently reported that Australian nursing homes have begun using a new tool that promises to significantly reduce staff time devoted to managing patient incontinence: electronic underpants. This technology, called the Smart Incontinence Management System, or SIMsystem, uses an electronic moisture sensor that detects when a patient has had an accident. Then, SIMsystem sends a text message or page to staff to let them know that the patient needs their assistance. SIMsystem can be used with disposable diapers, and the article suggests that it can cut staff time spent on incontinence significantly.

As a Philadelphia nursing home neglect lawyer, I was interested in this news because more attentive care for incontinent patients could also help prevent bedsores, a common problem for nursing home patients. Bedsores form when patients are left in the same position for too long, but excess moisture from incontinence is one typical way they are aggravated. However, an electronic system can't prevent bed sores all by itself, obviously. Nursing home staff members still need to tend to patients regularly and appropriately. And even with the aid of innovative technology in patient care, adequate staffing is necessary to make sure that patients' treatment plans are followed and that there are enough staff members to go around. As a Pennsylvania nursing home abuse attorney, I hope that nursing homes that outfit incontinent patients with the SIMsystem will not assume that this new technology means that they can get away with fewer staff members. Understaffing in nursing homes can lead to serious failures in patient care, including but certainly not limited to pressure sores. As a Philadelphia injury lawyer i believe that adequate staffing must be a top priority to make sure all the residents needs are met.

Patients in nursing homes have the right to expect that they will be well cared for, regardless of what kind of technology the nursing home employs. Paralyzed or otherwise immobile patients develop bedsores because they are unable to shift positions on their own. The Mayo Clinic's Web site points out that elderly patients have thinner skin than young people do, so they are more susceptible to bedsores. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's data show that 1 in 10 nursing home patients suffered from bedsores in 2004, showing just how common this injury is in nursing homes. The presence of severe bedsores can be evidence of nursing home negligence.

Continue reading "Technology for Incontinence Management Could Help Pennsylvania Nursing Home Patients" »

As Philadelphia nursing home neglect attorneys, we are extremely interested in a database of caregivers that will be released March 1. McKnight's Long-Term Care News reported Feb. 17 that the database of caregiving workers deemed "dangerous" in some way has been delayed for 22 years -- since 1988. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to finally make it available next month. But McKnight's reported that an investigative report has already criticized the database as incomplete.

The criticism comes from a joint investigation between ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, and the Los Angeles Times. That report found that states don't communicate well with one another. This allows caregivers with records of violence, theft or incompetence to move to a new state after the first state revokes their professional credentials. The investigation compared the federal database to state records and discovered that many states simply hadn't reported cases, or all of the details of those cases, to the federal government. Many of them are among the most recent complaints.

One licensed nurse in the article had been accused of mistreating nursing home residents at three previous facilities before he was charged in Minnesota with assaulting a resident. His licenses in three other states are on probation or restricted and he had surrendered a Texas license -- but his California license is clear.

McKnight's said DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded to the report by asking state governors to fill in the missing information. As Pennsylvania nursing home abuse lawyers, we hope they respond quickly and decisively. Elderly, ill and disabled nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable people in our society. They deserve better.

Continue reading "Long-Delayed Federal Database of Dangerous Pennsylvania Caregivers to Be Released" »