Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse

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John Tully, 80, had a history of an unsteady gait. He was living at a nursing home owned and managed by the California Department of Veteran Affairs. Tully had fallen twice within a 10-day period and, as a result of his last fall, he fractured his spine. Complications from that fall included the loss of use of his legs; he now requires a catheter to urinate and must undergo a fecal removal procedure three times a week.

Aided by his attorneys, Stephen Garcia and William M. Artigliere, Tully filed a lawsuit against the Veterans Administration alleging that its nursing care was negligent in allowing him to walk without the assistance of a walker, which resulted in his first fall. They also alleged that the facility’s nursing assistant attempted to transfer Tully using a mechanical lift without proper knowledge on how to do so, which led to his second and most damaging fall.

The lawsuit also alleged that the defendant’s employees chose not to provide a proper medical evaluation after the first fall and did not timely inform Tully’s family about these two incidents. The defendant denied the allegations of the lawsuit; however, the case settled before trial for $1,250,000.

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A Georgia jury has awarded $43.5 million in damages related to the abuse and neglect of an 80-year-old man, Morris Ellison. Ellison was a resident of a nursing home where the ownership held title to a string of nursing facilities in and around the state of Georgia. Ellison eventually died in this nursing home.

Along with the neglect and possible abuse, Ellison was found to have been malnourished, dehydrated and lacking sufficient nursing and medical care, all of which was a contributing factor in hastening his death. But the background of this catastrophic case was that the nursing home owners had bilked Medicare and Medicaid out of tens of millions of dollars.

In this case, the nursing home’s individual owner and his wife ran three nursing facilities or long-term care facilities in Georgia. According to newspaper reports, this couple had a net worth of almost $100 million, relying almost exclusively on Medicaid and Medicare payments to operate their nursing home empire. According to the testimony in the case, one of the nursing home directors stated that the facilities were so lacking in funds that they were unable to pay for laundry, essential supplies and personnel wages for the nursing homes. The owners were systematically draining money out of the nursing homes, which resulted in a lack of food supplies, water, medicine, personnel and basic cleaning supplies.

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Sui Mee Chiu, 85, was admitted to the Arcadia Health Center for long-term care. A member of the Arcadia staff found a Stage I pressure sore on Chiu’s lower back. A care plan was then initiated by the nursing home staff. The plan included pressure-reducing measures, frequent bathing and wound care. However, the pressure sore progressed to Stage IV, necessitating 7 hospitalizations for wound care management. Chiu developed recurring urinary tract infections from her use of Foley catheters and required a year of antibiotic treatment.

Because of the antibiotic treatment, Chiu became antibiotic-resistant and died of pneumonia and respiratory failure about 15 months after the Stage I pressure sore was first discovered and diagnosed. She was survived by her two adult children.

Her family sued the nursing home and its licensee for negligence and for choosing not to implement the care plan in a timely fashion. It was claimed that had a proper treatment been implemented, Chiu’s pressure wound would have healed without a problem. The family also maintained that the nursing home chose not to keep adequate documentation regarding Chiu’s treatment at the nursing home.

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An appellate court in Ohio has ruled that a family’s motion to compel was wrongly granted because there had not been an in camera inspection of the requested documents under that state’s peer review laws.

In this case, the nursing home decedent was living at Manor Care of Mayfield Heights. Her health had deteriorated while living there. The family sued Manor Care and others claiming negligence, statutory violations under the laws of the nursing home care law of the state and other claims. During the course of the litigation, the family of the decedent moved to compel production of documents related to an alleged investigation into the nursing home resident’s death. The trial judge granted that motion.

The appellate court reversed the trial court noting that although 42 C.F.R. §483.10 provides nursing home residents with timely access to their own records, under 42 U.S.C. §13.96(r) disclosure of records from a quality assessment and assurance committee is limited.

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In a measure passed by the Florida State Senate, lawsuits that allege nursing home abuse could be subject to smaller awards.  The bill would shield many private equity firms that own nursing homes around the state of Florida.  The bill is directed to shield from financial exposure in lawsuits for those in ownership positions and take no active role in the management of the facilities.  It would limit actions against any ownership party who had no impact on the day-to-day activities in the nursing home facility. 

The proponents of the bills say its purpose is to allow for private equity firms and other private investors to take a more active role in investing in nursing home facilities in the state.

According to the report, this bill was targeted at Tampa attorney James Wilkes, who has a reputation for successfully representing plaintiffs in nursing home abuse cases. The bill has the support of the Florida Healthcare Association, AARP, the Florida Justice Association, which represents a host of Florida trial lawyers. 

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The internal documentation that is recorded and housed by the owners and/or management companies responsible for operation of a nursing home is vitally important in litigating against a nursing home. This internal documentation may be the framework of a successful prosecution of the case.  Nursing home documentation varies from nursing home to nursing home. Most nursing homes record data in three major categories:

  • Staffing/payroll
  • Clinical issues
  • Financial analysis

One of the most common causes of nursing home resident injury or abuse is the lack of staffing or a shortfall in competent staffing. Internal documentation of the nursing home can be revealing about staffing and payroll information. The largest expense of operating a nursing home is the cost of its labor force. Therefore, to be more profitable, nursing homes will reduce labor in an effort to increase its profit margins. Accordingly, there is detailed information stored by the nursing homes showing labor costs in comparison to other years.

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Jesse Harvey Sr. reached the age of 99. While hospitalized he underwent a pharyngogram. This is essentially a radiographic procedure of the pharynx.  Mr. Harvey was a resident of Arcadian Rehabilitation & Nursing Center. The pharyngogram test showed that he had an inability to swallow. His doctor ordered a nasogastric tube and directed the nursing home not to feed him anything by mouth.

However, two days after Mr. Harvey returned to Arcadian Rehab & Nursing Center, he pulled out the nasogastric tube. A staff member at the nursing facility told the nurse practitioner investigating that there was no pharyngogram in his chart. Assuming that the tube was present because of inadequate nutrition, the nurse practitioner ordered the staff to feed Mr. Harvey grits. 

After the feeding, Mr. Harvey developed breathing difficulties. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was diagnosed with aspirational pneumonia. Unfortunately, Mr. Harvey died several days later. He is survived by his five adult children. 

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An epidemic of sorts has been uncovered in nursing homes around the country. It has become apparent that nursing home residents stricken with dementia or other mental and physical deficiencies are unable to take care of their daily toothbrush chore.  What that means is that residents are not brushing their teeth regularly. Nursing home residents’ teeth may become increasingly decayed with plaque or cavities, which often leads to gum disease, cracked teeth and other hygiene-related diseases.

Nursing homes have long overlooked the need to care for disabled residents’ dental hygiene. Late this past summer, the New York Times disclosed that many nursing home residents across the country were stricken by cavities, gum disease and cracked teeth, in part because their teeth were not kept clean. 

Nursing homes most often focus on resident health and safety issues at their facilities, but many overlook dental hygiene. 

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The state of California recently reported that long-term facilities across that state were the subject of elder abuse, but the resolutions of those cases were incomplete. These nursing home facilities have been the site of resident injuries and deaths. A state investigation found that the Department of Public Health chose not to investigate accusations of abuse of nursing assistants in many of those facilities across the state or there were open and unresolved cases.

In one instance, a resident at an assisted living facility in southern California believed that she would be safe there. Instead, the 95-year-old died from injuries she sustained while at the assisted living facility. Seven years after her untimely death, the family is still waiting for answers from investigators at the California Department of Public Health. This apparently is not an uncommon occurrence.

The nursing home facility claimed that the resident, Elsie, had died from injuries that she sustained when she fell. However, it was stated by a former nursing director at the same facility that Elsie’s injuries came as a result of being punched by a nursing home assistant.

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Two former employees of Momence Meadow Nursing Center, Vanessa Absher and Lynda Mitchell, asserted that Momence Meadows and its owner, Jacob Graff, consistently chose not to provide nursing home residents with the adequate care. It was alleged that the nursing home staff allowed patients to suffer neglect, lack of medical care and food, lying in urine- and feces- soaked beds, not receiving required prescribed medications and suffering ongoing outbreaks of skin disorders and infections, including bed sores and at least 6 deaths attributable to defendants’ failure of care.

The plaintiffs, the individual whistleblowers and the United States contended that the defendants chose not to meet the Illinois Department of Public Health’s minimum staffing requirements. It was claimed that the defendants were guilty of grossly inadequate staffing levels and knowingly submitted thousands of false claims for payment to Medicare and Medicaid, forged and destroyed medical documents and staffing logs to conceal the inadequate care, instructed the nursing staff not to log negative information related to patient care such as falls and missed meals and medication, and routinely ripped out pages from medical records that would have shown lapses in care. The defendants were alleged to have then replaced medical records with more favorable entries and even forged nurses’ signatures. 

During the employment of Absher and Mitchell, they  repeatedly complained to the nursing homes’ management and reported several incidents to the Illinois Department of Public Health nursing home hotline. 

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