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.

Abuse in nursing homes is a hot button topic. When our elderly relatives and friends reach a point in their lives when they require assisted living or hospitalization, we expect them to have the best care available. However, nursing home residents are routinely mistreated by the people we entrust to take care of them. Frequently, patients will not mention abuse they may be suffering, so it's important for you to know what constitutes nursing home abuse and how to identify it. Some reports say that for every case of nursing home abuse that's reported, there are five cases that are not reported.

Nursing home abuse come sin three forms: neglect, emotional and physical. General, easy-to-spot signs of these types of abuse include:

• Unexplained injuries like bruises, cuts and sores.
• Infections, rashes, rapid weight loss, dehydration and unsanitary conditions.
• Unusual behavior patterns, depression, irritation and isolation.

Neglect

Neglect is the deprivation of care for a resident of a nursing home. Some examples of neglect are failure to feed, refusing to medicate, refusing to aid with a resident's personal hygiene, failure to provide necessary medical care or failure to protect the resident from hazardous conditions like a wet floor or slippery sidewalk. Noticeable symptoms would be lice, bad breath or dirty bedding.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is harder to detect than physical abuse or neglect, however, emotional abuse can be as harmful to a resident as any type of abuse. Examples of emotional abuse are humiliation, verbal threats or insulting language. Basically, any behavior that causes the resident fear or emotional pain is a form of emotional abuse. Symptoms that a resident has been emotionally abused include:

• Withdrawal from social settings.
• Refusal to speak or answer questions
• Agitation or extreme depression
• Compulsive behavior like thumb sucking, rocking and mumbling

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is the easiest type of nursing home abuse to see. Examples of physical abuse are rape, failure to feed a resident, striking a resident, too much physical restraint or improperly medicating the resident. There are numerous symptoms of physical abuse.

• Ripped clothing
• Broken eyeglasses
• Bruises
• Cuts
• Burns

Rape is a heinous form of physical abuse. Sexual abuse includes inappropriate touching, rape, forcing a resident to pose for pornographic photos or videos, or exposing a resident to pornographic material. Symptoms of sexual abuse include bruises in the genital area, torn or bloodied underwear, bleeding from the vagina or anus, or the unexplainable occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases. Beware of caregivers who insist on overseeing a resident's time with loves ones. They could be making sure the resident doesn't report them for abuse.

Nursing home abuse is the result of an overworked or an under-trained, underpaid staff. Poor vetting of employees and inadequate personnel can also cause nursing home abuse.

If you suspect abuse, talk to the nurses and doctors at the facility. Try to vary your visitation schedule. If you see symptoms of nursing home abuse, file a report.

The 911 call was replayed on all the major television news programs after it was released by the Bakersfield Fire Department. A Bakersfield nurse working at a central California retirement home repeatedly refused to give CPR to an 87 year old patient. The patient died as a result of the nurse's refusal to administer aid.

Throughout the distress call, the 911 dispatcher, Tracey Halvorson, urged the nurse to give the collapsed patient the most minimal CPR to keep her breathing until an ambulance could arrive at Glenwood Gardens. The dispatcher asked the nurse, "Is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?"

The nurse's answer was hard to believe. She said, "Not at this time." The nurse refused to give her name. She claimed that the nursing facility's patient policy prevented her from either giving the CPR herself or even finding another nurse or bystander to do it. The dispatcher tried to get the nurse to summon paramedics at the nursing home to administer the CPR to the patient who had collapsed in the dining room. The dispatcher even asked the nurse to find another resident, a gardener or even a bystander who did not work at the home to help the stricken patient. Halvorson could be heard asking "Can we flag someone down in the street and get them to help this lady? Can we flag a stranger down? I bet a stranger would help her."

After the ambulance arrived, the patient was transferred to Mercy Southwest Hospital, where she was later declared dead. As a medical malpractice attorney, it's hard for me to believe that a retirement home had a permanent policy denying treatment to residents who are suffering an emergency and are struggling to stay alive. Nursing homes are meant to be secure places for the elderly and infirm to spend their golden years in comfort and safety. But when their very policies prevent administering the most basic type of CPR resuscitation, it makes me wonder whom the nurse was protecting--the nursing home or the patient. It's clear her loyalties were not divided.

Jeffrey Toomer, the executive director of Glenwood Gardens, said the nurse followed the home's policy and did nothing wrong. In a written statement, Toomer said, "In the event of a health emergency at this independent living community our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives. That is the protocol we followed." Toomer did say that the retirement home would conduct an internal review of the incident. For what it's worth, he also apologized to the victim's family.

Toomer said all residents of the retirement home are advised of the policy before they move into the home. He said that the adjacent assisted living and skilled nursing facility does not follow the same guidelines.

As a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer, I was pleased to see that a Western Pennsylvania family has settled its Pennsylvania nursing home abuse lawsuit with a nursing home. According to the Altoona Mirror, Affinity Health Services Inc. settled claims that a worker there assaulted a 77-year-old woman two weeks before her death. Christine Welshans was left with bruises and blood on her face after the alleged assault on Aug. 16 or 17 of 2009. The aide accused of hurting Welshans was also accused of assaulting another patient, but the case involving Welshans was closed after her death two weeks later was ruled heart-related. The family's lawsuit noted that the aide, not named in the article, had a history of abusing patients at another home.

Welshans had physical problems, but was pleasant and able to interact with staff until the night of Aug. 16 or the early morning of Aug. 17. That's when the lawsuit alleges she was battered around the face by the aide. A city police report the next day said Welshans had bruising around her eye, her cheek and her chin, and dried blood on her cheek. After the incident, she was agitated and claimed someone had hit her. There was no witness to the attack, but a witness did see the other attack that night, in which the aide pinned a woman's arms to her body using the belt on a robe. Though that incident led to charges, they were dismissed at a preliminary hearing. The lawsuit claimed Affinity was negligent in hiring the aide with the history of violence.

As a Philadelphia injury lawyer, I'd like to know what happened to the aide--who, let us remember, assaulted the other patient in front of witnesses. The article didn't mention whether the aide was disciplined by the state or the company for the assault on the other patient, or for the allegations involving Welshans. It does mention that the law enforcement officer who gave the aide a voice stress test after the incident thought he or she was lying, which was probably important in court. If the aide was not fired after these incidents, Affinity will have a lot of questions to answer--especially if he or she assaults more patients. For-profit nursing homes don't like to lose staff because replacing them costs money, but keeping this kind of employee puts patients in danger. As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, I hope Affinity did the right thing with this aide.

Continue reading "Western Pennsylvania Nursing Home Settles Lawsuit Alleging Worker Attacked Patient" »

As a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer, I was disappointed to see another case of a hidden camera turning up serious Pennsylvania nursing home abuse. NBC10 Philadelphia reported on an abuse case that was uncovered at a nursing home in Bucks County. Two former employees at the Arbors at Buck Run were caught on camera dumping a wheelchair-bound woman onto a bed, singing and yelling directly into her face. Regina Battles, 20, and Irene Rodriguez, 22, have since been fired and are in county jail on charges of neglect of a care-dependent person, reckless endangerment, harassment and assault. The home has been issued a shutdown order by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, but it's appealing that order and will remain open for 30 days.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the victim's daughter planted a hidden camera in the room because she suspected mistreatment of her 83-year-old mother, an Alzheimer's patient. On three consecutive days in October, the camera caught Battles and Rodriguez handling the victim roughly as they helped her into and out of bed. For example, the videos show Battles grabbing and pulling or pushing the woman's legs roughly; and both workers placing her on the floor before shoving her into bed. Another video shows the victim falling out of bed with no help coming and no preventive measures. The woman can clearly be seen crying in some videos and was caught another time covering her face in fear. The victim was taken to the hospital in November with minor wounds to her legs and feet, and is now living at another home.

The Arbors at Bucks Run, a private for-profit home, immediately fired both employees after the family complained to the state. However, the complaints triggered a state inspection Dec. 3 and revoked the home's operating license Dec. 7. The Inquirer said the action was a penalty for hiring Rodriguez and Battles before finishing background checks; PhillyBurbs.com cited gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct. The home may continue operating while it appeals.

As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, I look forward to hearing more about this case. It has several similarities with the 2011 case involving the Quadrangle nursing home, in which a dementia patient's daughter confirmed suspicions of abuse with a hidden camera. That family went on to file a lawsuit against the home, and the employees caught on camera were criminally charged for their part. The employees in this case have a defense attorney who believes their actions were misinterpreted, but as a Philadelphia injury lawyer, I suspect the videos will speak for themselves when it's time to go before a jury. But more importantly, I hope the regulatory action taken against this home results in long-term improvements in patient safety.

Continue reading "Nursing Home Workers Caught on Camera Manhandling and Taunting Disabled Patient" »

The Pennsylvania nursing home neglect and abuse attorneys here at Rosenbaum & Associates often hear about some awful and depraved acts. These horror stories strengthen our resolve to ensure justice and maximize safety for our clients. Unfortunately, many nursing home abuse victims lack perspective about just how pernicious and disgusting these crimes can be; as a result, they may fail to take swift and effective action to stop them.

Consider, for instance, recent accusations against employees at a nursing home called Envoy of Staunton. The situation at this nursing home is, to put it mildly, disgraceful.

Consider these points:

• One employee, 47-year-old Anthony Johnson, faces both criminal and civil charges in connection with accusations that he groped a 53-year-old patient and compelled a 43-year-old patient to have oral sex with him. One of the family members of the victims finally reported Johnson's actions to the police. Envoy finally fired the nurse's aide, but that punitive action obviously cannot undo the damage done to the assaulted patients.
• Meanwhile, Diane Renee Kline, a 41-year-old administrator and RN, stands accused of failing to report exploitation/abuse to Adult Protective Services. This may not seem to be as "serious" as the crimes that Johnson allegedly committed, but when nursing home watch dogs fail, the system basically collapses;
• 69-year-old Charles Williams, another Envoy employee, stands accused of penetrating a 71-year-old woman with an animate object. In that case, the nursing home immediately contacted police, but still... it does not speak well of a facility when multiple disgusting events occur.

An inspection of this nursing home exposed ten different deficiencies in areas as diverse as food safety, medication management, care and services, and infection control.

The crime of nursing home sexual assault in Philadelphia or elsewhere is grim and terrifying. Some victims may be too terrified to come forward to authorities or even to family members. Others may be too sick or cognitively impaired to report the abuse or even understand what's happening.

An aggressive, successful advocate for victims and their families

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Nursing Home Sex Abuse News: Sick Charges against Nursing Home Workers in Nearby Staunton" »

As a firm that's very active in Pennsylvania nursing home abuse and neglect law, Rosenbaum & Associates pays close attention to the relevant machinations going on in Harrisburg.

As readers of this blog might remember, last fall, the Pennsylvania House passed a bill supported by associations like Pennsylvania Health Care Association/Center for Assisted Living Management. The bill aimed to limit punitive damages that liable nursing homes would have to pay in certain cases. Damages would be limited to double compensatory damages (at best), with an exception for situations in which intentional misconduct occurred.

The bill would also compel plaintiffs to file in the county in which the abuse/negligence happened -- as opposed to in counties that have a reputation for being more favorable to plaintiffs.

The Nursing Home Associations' push may have stalled out for now, but analysts believe that the effort could be kick started again in the fall.

Advocates of the legislation cite the fact that Pennsylvania's malpractice insurers paid out nearly $320 million in 2011, according to National Practitioner Data Bank research. That would make Pennsylvania the second biggest medical malpractice payout state - ahead of New Jersey and Illinois, but significantly short of New York's numbers (a $680 million payout!)

The Nursing Home Association has also complained that nursing facilities often operate on small margins; and these fragile businesses could lose everything in a single massive lawsuit. Advocates of the bill also point to massive, almost cartoon-like judgments in places like Florida, where two state facilities last year got hit with judgments of $200 million and $900 million, respectively.

What advocates of this Pennsylvania Nursing Home legislation are not paying attention to...

It's true that abuse/neglect lawsuits and settlements can place a burden on facilities. But isn't that burden a good thing? If you or someone you love got hurt in a PA nursing home due to a prescription medication foul-up, bedsore metastasizing into life threatening sepsis, or other horrific scenario, wouldn't you want to be able to leverage a full suite of legal tools to get compensated and to take care of your loved one?

Is our current system always totally fair? No.

But it's more unfair to victims of abuse or neglect than it is to owners of negligent facilities - by a long shot.

Perhaps if advocacy groups like the Pennsylvania Health Care Association/Center for Assisted Living Management spent more time identifying best practices for senior care -- and punishing facilities for straying from a high standard -- there would be less need for law firms and less need for the kind of legal actions that these groups rail against.

The horror stories that we've personally heard - and have helped to abate - along with compelling statistics at both the national and state levels suggest that the onus is on delinquent nursing facilities. These facilities need to do a better job of taking care of people: of fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities not only to their patients but also to our communities.

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Nursing Home Abuse Law, Designed to Limit Punitive Damages, Stalls in the PA Legislature" »

As a Pennsylvania nursing home abuse attorney, I was shocked and saddened to read about the tragedy of Rachel Holliday, an 84 year old patient at a Chapel Hill nursing home, who passed away after being horribly abused. She allegedly got sick after being doped with morphine by a nurse who apparently didn't want to be bothered to care for her patients.

Nurse Angela Almore was sentenced last Monday to five months behind bars and two and a half years of probation as part of a plea deal she made with prosecutors. The allegations against Almore were all too familiar to anyone who has studied the nursing home abuse case literature. Nurse Almore had been on duty at Britthaven Nursing Home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on February 13 and February 14, 2010. On Valentine's Day evening, Holliday started suffering respiratory distress; and she had to be rushed to UNC Hospitals for treatment.

Doctors at first couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. They eventually realized that there were opiates in her system. This was confusing, since she had not been prescribed opiates.

As her medical crisis deepened, other patients in the Alzheimer's unit began to exhibit lethargy and signs of health problems. Many of them needed to be rushed to hospital as well. All told, 14 patients in the unit tested positive for opiates - and only one had been prescribed opiates.

Sadly, Rachel Holliday passed away from morphine toxicity. The other affected patients fortunately survived their overdoses. Investigators with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation found circumstantial evidence pegging Almore as the responsible party. The local district attorney, Lamar Proctor Jr., told the judge in the case that "[Almore] made some statements that she didn't want to see patients that night...[so] she knocked all their a**es out."

After reflecting on the gravity and sadness of the situation, we'd be in remiss if we did not try to extract useful lessons. Here's one key takeaway: when caregivers shirk their duties - even innocuously -- the effects on patients can be profound, damaging, and perhaps even fatal.

At her trial, Almore openly sobbed and expressed contrition. But what she did cannot be undone. Unfortunately, the slight errors of omission - or acts of disrespect - that often constitute Pennsylvania nursing home abuse/neglect can easily create havoc and pain for elderly residents and their families.

That said, building a compelling case against a nursing home or a nursing home employee can be surprisingly difficult. At Rosenbaum & Associates, we have nearly two and a half decades of experience helping hurt elderly patients and their relatives obtain compensation and justice.

If you're confused or frustrated about what's happened to your loved one, our Pennsylvania personal injury team can empower you and help you develop a complete, aggressive strategy to get you results.

I've written here many times as a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer about the dangers of overusing antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes. Sometimes called "chemical restraints" because the practice effectively prevents patients from being physically or mentally active, antipsychotics were once commonly used off-label in dementia patients. Their use has been curbed somewhat since 2005, when the FDA issued its strongest possible warning that studies have associated atypical antipsychotic use in the elderly with increased risk of death; the agency extended that warning in 2008 to all types of antipsychotics. Nonetheless, a federal report last year found the drugs are still used more widely in nursing homes than they should be, with numerous Medicare recipients getting the drugs for no medically accepted reason or in a way that violates federal standards.

Now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced a campaign to stop unnecessary use of antipsychotics. According to McKnight's Long-Term Care News, CMS will promote alternatives to medication to control behaviors among dementia patients that are violent or otherwise difficult for caregivers to handle. These can include intervening in patients' behavior, better communication with patients when possible, and treating any problem that might be the real cause of an outburst, such as undiagnosed pain. Nursing home industry observers also called for homes to recheck whether there was ever a valid indication for the medication, and whether it's still valid today. McKnight's reported that this issue has been front and center partly because of interest from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, who may have driven the CMS initiative. That initiative will kick off March 29 with educational programs as well as increased regulatory oversight.

As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, I applaud Grassley and the no doubt many others who have been working to keep this issue front and center. Because of their illness, nursing home patients with dementia can rarely speak for themselves, so it's vital that we speak for them. That's particularly true for patients who are receiving antipsychotics unnecessarily, because a side effect of those drugs is sedation. (Indeed, it's possible that sedation is the goal of homes that overuse the drugs.) Like other powerful prescription drugs, however, antipsychotics carry even more serious side effects, including large weight gain, diabetes, sudden cardiac death, stroke and more. That's why knowingly misusing the drugs in elderly people, just to avoid taking the expensive staff time necessary to intervene in their behavior, is a form of Pennsylvania nursing home abuse.

Continue reading "CMS Announces Campaign to Reduce Unnecessary Use of Antipsychotics in Nursing Homes" »

As a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer, I was interested to see a record-setting verdict in a Florida case involving serious neglect of a 92-year-old woman. According to the Tampa Bay Times, a jury in Tampa Bay has awarded $200 million to Richard Nunziata, the adult son of Elvira Nunziata, who died in 2004 when she fell down a staircase while strapped into a wheelchair. Nunziata was in the early stages of dementia and prone to wandering; the nursing home was supposed to have alarms on the door, her clothing and the wheelchair. But the employees at the home reportedly disabled the alarm so they could take frequent smoking breaks, according to the newspaper. Unusually, the nursing home company did not defend itself, in part because its several related business entities had gone out of business.

Nunziata was a resident at Pinellas Park Care and Rehab Center in St. Petersburg. One afternoon, she disappeared from a group of residents, and an hour passed before staff members noticed. When they checked the emergency exit door, they found her at the bottom of a staircase, her bloody body still strapped to the wheelchair. She died just after paramedics arrived. The Pinellas Park nursing home had a history of deficiency citations and abuse complaints, according to the newspaper. At trial, former employees testified that the home was frequently understaffed and that the door alarm was routinely disabled by smokers. They also told the jury that Nunziata had fallen before and was known to wander. The jury award for $60 million in compensatory damages and $140 million in punitive damages is believed among the largest in the state of Florida.

The for-profit nursing home's management company, Trans Health Management Inc., did not defend itself in court; its parent company is in a receivership in Maryland. An attorney representing Trans Health filed unsuccessfully to stop the trial three days before it was scheduled to begin. However, the Tampa Bay Times noted Feb. 5 that collecting on the judgment may be difficult. That's because the assets and liabilities of the nursing home have been separated into a set of companies -- many using the same phone number and office building as Trans Health -- whose legal relationships will have to be sorted out in court. In fact, the company that inherited the liabilities has disappeared without filing tax returns, the newspaper said. The nursing home abuse attorneys for Nunziata's estate said these companies existed only to strip away assets and protect the defendants from liability, and the real owners are a series of private investors.

This kind of corporate shell game is not unknown to Philadelphia injury lawyers like me. For-profit nursing homes are increasingly using corporate law to shield themselves from the consequences of their own negligence. To collect on a Pennsylvania nursing home abuse verdict, plaintiffs frequently must do some detective work -- the Nunzata case involved testimony from a forensic accountant -- and pursue entities that may be far away from the home in question. As the newspaper noted, even the federal General Accounting Office could not determine which of the corporate entities attached to the six biggest nursing home chains were in charge of what. As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, I oppose this because it prevents injured families like Nunziata's from collecting on debts they are legally owed -- debts ordered by a court after a fair trial.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $200 Million in Death of Florida Woman From Nursing Home Neglect" »

As a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer, I was very interested in a bill that recently became law in Harrisburg. The Long-Term Care Nursing Facility Independent Informal Dispute Resolution Act will establish a new process for Pennsylvania nursing homes facing regulatory penalties after state regulators' inspections or responses to complaints. A press release from State Rep. Mauree Gingrich of Lebanon said the process will give long-term care facilities the option of using the current regulatory process through the state Department of Health, or choosing an outside reviewer at their own expense. The bill was hailed by state legislators including Gingrich for its potential to save money for nursing homes. It was passed in the state House Dec. 16 and signed Dec. 22, with an effective date of April 1, 2012.

Under the act, nursing homes now have the option of bypassing the current review process when they are found out of compliance with a state safety regulation. They may still use that process, but they may also hire a private Quality Improvement Organization at their own expense. Legislators said this would permit nursing homes with compliance problems to dispute inspectors' findings before those findings are entered into federal systems that collect nursing home quality data. This, in turn, would permit homes to avoid litigation and thus save money. Proponents emphasized that the new system would still ensure quality of care for nursing home residents. Opponents of the bill, including organizations that advocate for the elderly, asked legislators to add provisions allowing patients and their families to have a voice during this process.

Cutting off patient access to the review process is concerning -- but as a Philadelphia injury lawyer, I am concerned about other aspects of this bill as well. Allowing nursing homes with safety problems to choose an outside inspector creates an opportunity for nursing homes to essentially buy the regulation they prefer, by choosing QIOs that are willing to provide whatever answer the nursing homes like. It will slow down the process of fixing any underlying problems, because it permits homes to delay their response while they go through the QIO process. The references to keeping homes' violations out of federal records are also disturbing. Using correct and current federal records is a great way for patients to avoid homes with a record of Pennsylvania nursing home abuse, so it's better to include every violation on record. As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, I hope patient advocates are following this law closely.

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Governor Signs Bill Establishing Informal Review of Nursing Home Violations" »

As a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer, I was saddened but not surprised to read a new report detailing how many cases of elder abuse and Pennsylvania nursing home abuse often fall through the cracks. The investigative journalism organization ProPublica published a report Dec. 21 on the rarity of investigations into suspicious deaths of elderly Americans. According to the article, part of the problem is that older people's deaths are not unusual, and therefore not given the scrutiny that would be given to a younger person's death. Coroners may assume that older people died of natural causes without looking into it, especially with nursing home patients. However, the investigators found that coroners are under-funded and rely too heavily on doctors' reports on death certificates. In many states, doctors may sign death certificates without viewing the body, allowing nursing homes to cover up the true reason for a death even when a casual glance at the body reveals it.

That was the case in the death of William Neff, who died at 83 while he was in an assisted living home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When he died, the home told its doctor that "failure to thrive" due to dementia was the cause, and that's what the doctor put on the death certificate. But when Neff's relatives moved his body to a funeral home, the director preparing Neff's body for burial noticed broken ribs and a 16-inch bruise on one side. Rather than continuing preparations, the director contacted the Bucks County coroner's office, which determined that Neff died of a lung puncture caused by one of five broken ribs, caused by some kind of violent impact. A criminal investigation of the home eventually revealed that Neff was beaten to death by home employee Heidi Tenzer, who was later convicted of third-degree murder. Three other employees were convicted of related crimes. In other cases profiled in the article, homes used natural causes to cover up the effects of neglect, including deep, severe bedsores; misuse of antipsychotic drugs; dehydration; infections; and disease.

As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, I know any of those conditions would raise serious questions about the nursing home's quality of care and safety. Pressure sores in particular (also known as bedsores) are a serious issue because they require frequent attention and go unattended far more often than they should. The abuse described at the Bucks County nursing home is even more troubling because there's no way that Neff's abuse could be attributed to mistakes or overwork; he was literally beaten to death. To make matters worse, the article reports that Neff had speech problems because of his Alzheimer's, meaning he likely couldn't speak up about any previous abuse. The case resulted in several criminal prosecutions. As a Philadelphia injury lawyer, I hope it also sparked a state investigation into the quality of that home's care, in order to protect other vulnerable residents -- and close scrutiny by the families of other residents.

Continue reading "Report Reveals Coroners Often Miss Deaths Attributable to Nursing Home Abuse" »

I've written here many times about the overuse of antipsychotic medications among nursing home patients. These are typically prescribed for control of dementia patients with unpleasant behaviors like aggression, which is an off-label use not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The practice has long been under fire by Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers because of the drugs' tendency to sedate the patients into insensibility. The drugs also sometimes carry dangerous side effects; eight atypical antipsychotics recently got a warning that they may actually raise the risk of death in elderly patients. So I was interested to read an article suggesting that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, a federal agency that oversees those two programs, has proposed penalizing homes that overuse the drugs.

The proposal came in testimony from the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CMS. The Inspector General, Daniel Levinson, authored a companion study that found a very high rate of erroneous Medicare claims for antipsychotics to treat dementia, that most antipsychotics are used for that purpose in nursing homes and that 14 percent of all Medicare patients in nursing homes had antipsychotic claims. Levinson has publicly argued that this is too high, especially considering the risk of death for elderly people taking atypical antipsychotics. In testimony before Congress Nov. 30, Levinson suggested that HHS penalize facilities that use Medicare to fund improper use of antipsychotics; one penalty could be withholding Medicare payments. The report by the Inspector General's office examined why Medicare Part D insurers don't refuse to reimburse for this off-label use.

As a Philadelphia injury lawyer, I'm pleased that this issue is getting the attention it deserves. Nursing home attorneys have argued for years that the use of drugs as "chemical restraints" is a misuse of medication, which robs patients of their ability to enjoy life and carries financial costs and potentially damaging medical side effects. Indeed, someone else testified at that hearing that antipsychotics are now essentially replacing physical restraints, which have fallen out of favor in nursing homes. Both of these are a form of Pennsylvania nursing home abuse that patients and their families should not allow, given the considerable risks. Families that suffer injury, illness or abuse because of off-label antipsychotic use should consider whether they want to get in touch with a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer.

Continue reading "Federal Inspector General Calls for Penalties for Nursing Homes That Overuse Antipsychotics" »

Here in greater Philadelphia, we recently saw a case of Pennsylvania nursing home abuse exposed only because of a hidden camera. That patient is now living with her daughter's family, and the family has filed a lawsuit against the home even as prosecutors pursue charges against the three employees involved. As a Philadelphia injury lawyer, I was interested to see a recent article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about a similar hidden-camera situation uncovered abuse in an Ohio nursing home. According to the article, a former aide at the Prentiss Center for Skilled Nursing Care pleaded guilty this week to seven counts of abusing or neglecting a patient. Virgen Caraballo and other aides are accused of abusing and mocking Esther Piskor, 78, after they were caught on a hidden camera installed by her son. Caraballo and three others were fired, and the Piskor family is now suing the home.

Steve Piskor moved his mother into the Prentiss Center in 2009. He became concerned about the quality of her care after his daily visits sometimes found her sitting in a soiled wheelchair. He also found marks on her face. He filed four complaints with the home that led to no action, he said, so he installed a camera in the room that was visible to employees. Nursing home administrators permitted the employees to put a towel over that camera, so Piskor installed a hidden camera disguised as an air freshener and posted a sign on a bulletin board in her room notifying visitors about the camera. Within two days, he says, he had footage of employees throwing Esther Piskor into a wheelchair, pushing a hand into her face, spraying something into her face and other inappropriate behavior. He and his attorney brought the videos to police and nursing home administrators -- though the administrators reportedly debated whether the behaviors constituted abuse. Esther Piskor has been moved to another home.

The family's attorney said he suspects Esther Piskor was not the only victim, and as a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer, I suspect he's right. Often, this kind of abuse or neglect is not targeted at one specific individual, but a result of failures throughout the system in place at the home. Sometimes, neglect grows from understaffing homes to save money -- staffers are simply too overwhelmed to give everyone the attention they need. As a result, they may start cutting corners or forgetting vital information about medication, feeding requirements and more. Cost-cutting measures can also lead to the hiring of workers with little training on the needs and legal rights of nursing home patients. As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, I believe patients deserve to be placed ahead of nursing home companies' profits.

Continue reading "Ohio Nursing Home Aide Pleads Guilty to Abuse of Dementia Patient Caught on Camera" »

As a Pennsylvania nursing home lawyer, I have watched with interest the progress of multiple lawsuits over the antipsychotic drug Risperdal (riperidone). The drug, made by Johnson & Johnson's Janssen subsidiaries, is the subject of a federal lawsuit based in Massachusetts and numerous state lawsuits, all alleging that Janssen paid kickbacks to medical providers to promote the drug, thus defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, and downplayed negative safety information. This is especially disturbing because post-approval studies have shown that Risperdal carries a high risk of stroke, weight gain and related metabolic problems like diabetes. For this reason, it is no longer widely used off-label in dementia patients -- one of the uses Janssen is alleged to have illegally promoted.

According to the Morristown, N.J., Daily Record, Pennsylvania Inspector General's investigator Allen Jones noticed in 2002 that a computer program used by the state seemed to recommend Risperdal even when a less expensive medication would be appropriate. Jones couldn't find any independent studies suggesting that Risperdal or other Janssen drugs were more effective than older generics, but the computer program, which doctors used to prescribe drugs, mandated them. Jones went public with his claims in 2004 and was fired. He is now an expert witness in a Texas state lawsuit alleging that the drug company defrauded the state's Medicaid program out of many millions of dollars, through a similar computer program and questionable payments to doctors. A similar Pennsylvania lawsuit is on appeal, and ten other states and the federal government are also pursuing claims.

By the time Risperdal's patent expired in 2007, it had generated $25 billion in profits for Janssen. It is approved for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and sometimes with autism. As a Philadelphia injury lawyer, I'm interested in the nursing home safety aspects of this story. The drug's use to control dementia symptoms is off-label to start with, which means the company may not promote it for that use but doctors are free to prescribe it. This means offlabel marketing, including but certainly not limited to the Omnicare kickbacks, is already a violation of the law. However, independent studies have shown that Risperdal may increase the risk of death when used in dementia patients. In most cases, the death was cardiovascular in nature, which means heart failure, stroke or another serious medical emergency. As a result, the FDA required a black box warning on Risperdal's label in early 2011. As a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer, I'm not sorry to see that the rate of new prescriptions for this purpose has plummeted since then. Not only is the risk too great, but the use to calm irritable dementia patients could be considered a form of Pennsylvania nursing home abuse -- chemical restraints.

Continue reading "Pennsylvania Watchdog Raised the Alarm on Unethical Promotions of Risperdal in Nursing Homes" »