Pennsylvania Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Blog

The Troy (New York) Record recently reported on the sentencing of a former nursing home aide for sexually abusing a nursing home patient. As a Pennsylvania nursing home abuse lawyer, I was glad to see the court make clear that abuse of helpless nursing home patients will not be tolerated. Robert Gunderson, 52, of Schoharie County, NY, pled guilty to attempted first-degree sexual abuse. Gunderson admitted to touching the breast of a 78-year-old woman who was a patient at the Northwoods Rehabilitation Center and Extended Care Facility in Schaghticoke, NY, where he worked as a nurse's aide. The patient was "physically helpless," according to the Record, and the abuse occurred in late 2007 and early 2008. Gunderson was sentenced to ten years' probation, although he could have faced up to seven years of jail time on the charges that were brought against him.

Surprisingly, these are not the first allegations of sexual abuse concerning Gunderson. He is also facing a charge of third-degree sexual abuse for an alleged incident that took place during his employment at the Eddy Ford Nursing Home in Cohoes, NY. In August and September of 2008, Gunderson is alleged to have French kissed a patient with multiple sclerosis who was confined to a wheelchair. It is disturbing that Gunderson was able to behave this way toward patients in two different nursing homes over the course of a year. Nursing homes have a legal responsibility to ensure that they hire qualified staff with no history of abuse or other dangerous criminal violations. Nevertheless, some homes may cut corners to save money. For example, they may not conduct sufficient background checks. Or they may be so understaffed that personnel do not see patients frequently enough to notice signs of abuse from another staff member.

Nursing home patients' family members should be alert to signs of abuse when they visit. According to an article in Nursing Homes, signs that a patient may have been sexually abused include: "difficulty in walking or sitting, pain or itching in genital areas, the occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases, unexplained bruising, welts, lacerations, fractures, or other injuries, decreased socialization, self-injurious behavior and/or attempts to hurt others, fear of specific people or places, [and] habit disorders such as pulling hair or ears."

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Families Should Be Alert to Sexual Abuse of Nursing Home Patients" »

A former nursing home business office manager in California has been charged with kidnapping an 85-year-old Alzheimer's disease patient from her Berkeley nursing home. According to the San Francisco Gate, Concepcion "Connie" Pinco Giron, 51, stole more than $50,000 from six elderly patients of the Elmwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, including the one she kidnapped. California state Attorney General Jerry Brown said, "This is a shocking case of nursing-home abuse and a gross violation of trust." As a Pennsylvania nursing home abuse lawyer, I urge nursing home patients and their families to watch their finances as carefully as they can.

Giron's schemes involved opening bank accounts at Citibank in the patients' names, according to the Department of Justice. Then she transferred their money into her own account, wrote herself checks from their accounts, and used their ATM cards. She also allegedly stole money from their trust accounts at the nursing home. Giron also told one patient's son that he had to pay an extra $600 per month for his mother's care, and then kept the money for herself, over the course of 18 months. And in August 2008, Giron claimed that one of the patients would be transferring to another facility, but in fact kidnapped the patient and moved her into Giron's own home. Then Giron cashed the patient's pension and Social Security checks.

In August 2009, the state attorney general's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse began investigating Giron in response to a complaint about her. That month, investigators found the kidnapping victim, 85-year-old Carnell Williams, in Giron's home, physically unharmed. Giron has been charged in Alameda County with kidnapping to commit another crime, false imprisonment, elder abuse and six counts of theft from elder or dependent adults by a caretaker. She is being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of $365,000 bail.

A dependent, elderly nursing home resident should not have to fear that his or her lifetime's worth of savings will be stolen by his or her caretakers, and thankfully many nursing home employees are honest. Nevertheless, financial exploitation of the elderly is all too common. Patients and their families should track their bank accounts and be alert to any unusual activity.

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Families Should Take Note of Financial Abuse Schemes in Nursing Homes" »

Spurred by reports of negligence in patient care, McKnight's Long Term Care News reports that the Senate Finance Committee has demanded that Select Medical Corporation answer questions about its staffing levels and quality that were raised in a recent New York Times article. Select, a Pennsylvania-based corporation, runs 89 long-term care hospitals and is one of the largest such companies in the United States. Among the troubling cases that concern the Senate Finance Committee are a patient's heart attack and death after a nurse turned off his heart monitor because she was tired of hearing its beep.

Long-term care hospitals treat seriously ill patients who are too sick for nursing homes and who are not improving quickly at regular hospitals. The New York Times reports allegations that Select structures its patients' stays so that it can maximize payments from Medicare, regardless of the patients' medical needs, and it inadequately staffs its hospitals for financial reasons. Patient care is compromised as a result of these profit-driven concerns. Select denies all of these allegations. Nevertheless, Select's hospitals received four times the number of citations for serious violations of Medicare rules that regular hospitals received in 2007 and 2008. As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer I have realized that certain facilities routinely provide substandard care.

The only penalty that Medicare can use to punish hospitals for such violations is to bar them from Medicare entirely. That penalty is rarely used, and in one case when it was applied, the hospital successfully sued to bar Medicare from imposing it. However, the families of some victims of long-term care hospital negligence have filed lawsuits against the companies. Even if Medicare does not stop abusive long-term care hospitals from continuing to harm patients, negligent institutions and the companies that run them can still be held accountable through lawsuits.

Continue reading "Dangerous Negligence Attributed to Pennsylvania Long-Term Care Hospital Company" »

An investigative report that found 38% of Massachusetts nursing homes had been rated "below average" got the attention of our Pennsylvania nursing home neglect attorneys. The Boston Herald's March 7 report found dozens of problems with neglect, lack of cleanliness, and poor staff training over two years. These lapses led to patients' deaths and nursing home staff members' attempts to cover up their negligence. In a 2008 incident in Danvers, Massachusetts, nurses failed to do CPR on an unresponsive patient, whom a doctor pronounced dead 15 minutes later. A nurse admitted to falsifying the patient's medical records.

In other reports, nursing home staff ignored treatment plans to keep patients from losing too much weight -- a common problem in nursing homes -- neglected to provide appropriate pain medication, and failed to protect patients from themselves and each other. Industry experts pinned part of the blame on low staff-to-patient ratios, leading to staffs that are too overworked to give patients the attention they need. "Most nursing homes are too understaffed to avoid harming residents," said Janet Wells, director of public policy at the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform. Even W. Scott Plumb of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, which represents nursing homes, said that high staff turnover and worker shortages are continuing problems for nursing homes. These problems will only worsen as baby boomers age and nursing homes are flooded with even more patients.

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Families Should Take Note of Serious Problems in Nursing Homes" »

As Philadelphia nursing home abuse lawyers, we took note of the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader's March 3 report about a mistake by a nursing assistant that cost a nursing home resident his life. Lynwood C. Bauer, 27, was charged with reckless abuse of an adult in connection with his work as a former certified nursing assistant at the Pineville, KY, Britthaven Nursing Home. The nursing home was also cited for actual harm and for failing to report the incident immediately. Bauer was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Bauer failed to read the patient's treatment plan before working with him. Because of this, Bauer was unaware of appropriate and safe procedures for moving the patient from his bed. The patient was paralyzed on his left side from a stroke, so two people and a mechanical lift were required to move him, according to his treatment plan. But Bauer moved the patient alone and left him sitting on the edge of his bed. The patient fell, and Bauer put him back in bed, again without assistance. In another violation of the nursing home's policy, Bauer failed to assess the patient for injuries after the fall. Other staff members later found that the patient was injured and required hospitalization. Bauer was fired, and the patient died at the hospital.

We see cases like this often in our work as Pennsylvania nursing home negligence attorneys. Nursing home patients are often unable to speak up for themselves to remind staff members of their treatment plans. It takes only one negligent staff member to harm a nursing home patient, leaving him or her with further damaged health and quality of life, not to mention the costly medical bills from hospitalization that should never have been needed in the first place. Lynwood Bauer will face up to a year in jail if convicted, but family members of patients who have been injured or killed because of nursing home negligence can sue to recover damages for their pain, suffering and expense.

Continue reading "Treatment Plans are of Vital Importance for Pennsylvania Nursing Home Patients " »

Recently, we wrote about the dangers of agreeing to binding arbitration in nursing home contracts. As Pennsylvania nursing home negligence attorneys, we strongly advise nursing home patients and their families to avoid binding arbitration agreements, and a March 8 story in the Boston Herald starkly illustrates the reasons why. The family of John J. Donahue is suing a Brockton, Mass., nursing home over his death from serious injuries sustained because of a staff member's negligence. Donahue, 93, was paralyzed and needed staff members' help moving. Because a staff member tried to move Donahue alone, using a lift that was supposed to be operated by two people, Donahue's left eye was gouged by a metal safety hook on the machine. For reasons not made clear in the article, the home waited 15 hours before taking him to the hospital. Donahue's eye had to be removed, but he still developed an infection that caused sepsis, a dangerous immune system overreaction. This led to his death six weeks later.

Donahue's stepdaughter and the executor of his affairs, Marlene Owens, tried to sue Embassy House Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. However Donahue had signed an arbitration agreement when he entered the home at the age of 91, barring him from requesting a jury trial if he was killed or injured by Embassy House's negligence. At that time, Embassy House's own records showed that he was suffering from confusion, delusions and depression. Owens and her nursing home abuse attorney fought this agreement in court, winning a declaration last year that the agreement was invalid because Donahue was "unable to act in a reasonable manner." Further, the judge said, Embassy House should have known that Donahue was not competent to sign away his right to a trial. This decision opened the way for Owens to sue Embassy House and Kindred Healthcare, Embassy House's parent company at the time. Kindred Healthcare operates in Pennsylvania as well. Owens alleges that both companies' negligence led to her stepfather's terrible accident, deformity and death.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Company Operating in Pennsylvania Allowed Delusional Patient to Sign Binding Arbitration Agreement" »

As Philadelphia nursing home neglect lawyers, we took note of a recent study reporting that the rate of dementia is likely to rise significantly as people live longer. McKnight's Long-Term Care News reported Feb. 25 that the University of California study predicted "epidemic" levels of dementia in people over the age of 90. For people over 100 years of age, the likelihood of having dementia is over 40%. Over the next four decades, the number of seniors over age 90 will more than quadruple.

Often, the families of patients with dementia are unable to care for them at home, so it is likely that many of these people will need care in a nursing home setting. This makes it particularly important to be vigilant for signs of abuse -- for example, overmedication of patients to make them easier for the nursing home staff to manage. As we discussed recently, a nursing home company operating in Pennsylvania was accused of participating in a kickbacks scheme with pharmaceutical companies. As part of this scheme, the nursing homes had incentives to overprescribe Risperdal, an anti-psychotic drug that is used to "chemically restrain" patients with dementia. Unfortunately, patients who are unnecessarily prescribed these chemical restraints may die from them.

Continue reading "Dementia Predicted to Rise Among Very Elderly in Pennsylvania Nursing Homes " »

As Pennsylvania nursing home negligence attorneys, we were dismayed to read in McKnight's Long Term Care News that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported that 90% of all nursing homes in the United States were charged with varying degrees of violations in 2007. These violations often involved the nursing homes' failure to follow established federal or state rules and regulations. McKnight's columnists Paola DiNatale and Brad Granger say that nursing homes need to include all these rules and regulations in their facilities' policies as a way of avoiding harm of all kinds.

Of course nursing homes should do this. It benefits patients, staff, and the institutions alike if nursing homes are run well and no one suffers any harm. And of course, most nursing homes do say they plan to follow these rules and policies in the literature they give to patients and families. But if 90% of all nursing homes are failing to meet the standards set out by state and federal rules and regulations, clearly not all nursing homes are following through. In some cases, inattention may cause the lapses; in other cases, it's a dangerously overworked staff or employees who misuse their power to residents' detriment. But no matter what the cause, families that discover the problems too late can end up with a seriously injured or ill loved one and high medical bills that make them seriously consider a lawsuit.

Continue reading "Report Shows 90 Percent of Nursing Homes in Pennsylvania and Elsewhere Had Violations in 2007" »

As Pennsylvania nursing home abuse attorneys, we are keenly aware of the dangers of overmedicating nursing home patients and we are pleased to see pharmaceutical providers and nursing home companies held accountable for it. As we noted just over a month ago, federal regulators have pursued several companies over a kickbacks scandal involving nursing home medications.

McKnight's Long Term Care News reported on March 2 that two large, Atlanta-based nursing home companies, Sava Senior Care, which operates two Pennsylvania nursing homes, and Mariner Health Care Inc., have agreed to pay a $14 million settlement for participating in some of the same pharmacy kickbacks that recently cost Omnicare $98 million in penalties. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Omnicare, the nation's largest specialized provider of pharmaceuticals to nursing home patients, took kickbacks for encouraging doctors to prescribe Risperdal, an anti-psychotic drug, to nursing home patients.

Commenting on the Omnicare settlement announced in November 2009, Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, pointed out that "Illegal conduct like this can... lead to patients being prescribed medications they do not need" and that such kickbacks put profits ahead of good medicine. As Philadelphia nursing home negligence attorneys, we are here to represent the victims of profit-seeking schemes such as this. Over-prescribing medication for nursing home patients costs them and their families money as well as potentially harming them physically, when many of them are already suffering from weakened health. Unnecessary side effects and interactions with other drugs are bad enough, but these patients' dignity as human beings also suffers when they are overmedicated for the sake of nursing homes' profits and convenience.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Chain Operating in Pennsylvania Settles Kickbacks Case" »

Pneumonia is one of the most commonly acquired diseases in nursing homes. This is a serious problem for nursing homes, residents, families and Philadelphia nursing home negligence attorneys, because pneumonia can also be a life-threatening disease in older people and people in poor health. In fact, the health care community has made nursing-home-acquired pneumonia a distinct subcategory of pneumonias, because pneumonia in this group is most likely to come from contact with health care facilities, and because pneumonia can have different symptoms in people with dementia and the very elderly.

That is why we were interested in a study about pneumonia published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Researchers in the Netherlands found that a steroid drug commonly used to fight the disease did not improve the patients' health. In fact, the Dutch researchers found that patients taking prednisolone had a significantly greater chance of their symptoms recurring after three days of treatment. The study looked at the use of prednisolone versus a placebo in 213 hospitalized patients with all levels of pneumonia severity. The researchers concluded that prednisolone should not be used routinely.

Our Pennsylvania nursing home neglect attorneys are already slightly suspicious of homes with a large number of pneumonia cases. The preventive measures tend to be common sense measures like hand-washing -- which calls into question the practices at facilities with severe or chronic problems. This study suggests that nursing homes and hospitals that treat nursing home residents should carefully consider whether prenisolone does more harm than good to patients. If more studies turn up this problem, homes should seriously consider stopping routine use of prenisolone altogether.

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Last year, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided a case very interesting to us as Philadelphia nursing home abuse lawyers. In John J. Kane Regional Centers - Glen Hazel v. Grammer (PDF), the issue was whether patients' families may claim in lawsuits that poor care amounts to a civil rights violation. The Third Circuit decided in July that they could, setting off a controversy in the world of nursing homes and nursing home negligence law. McKnight's Long-Term Care News reported Feb. 24 that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up the case, allowing the Third Circuit's decision to stand.

In the original case, Sarah Grammer sued a Pittsburgh-area nursing home, John J. Kane Regional Centers, over the death in its care of her mother, Melvinteen Daniels. She alleged that Daniels was so badly neglected that she developed severe bedsores and malnutrition, leading to sepsis and death. This would form the basis of any Pennsylvania nursing home negligence claim, but Grammer took a different approach. The Federal Nursing Home Reform Amendments guarantee certain rights for nursing home patients, such as the right to be well cared for and free of abuse. Grammer argued that this allowed her to sue under the section of civil law governing civil rights violations. The home countered that the FNHRA do not create rights, but set forth requirements for receiving Medicare funds. The appeals court sided with Grammer.

This case is important for our work as Pennsylvania nursing home neglect attorneys because it opens another avenue to seek redress when a patient has been abused, neglected or otherwise subjected to mistreatment. Most nursing home negligence claims are state court claims, but under this decision, patients may file lawsuits as well. This gives them yet another layer of protection -- and it gives nursing homes yet another incentive to measure up to the reasonable standards laid out by federal law.

Continue reading "Supreme Court Turns Down Appeal of Pennsylvania Nursing Home Rights Verdict" »