Daughter Fights for Control of Mother

Marjorie Partch wants to regain the care and estate of her mother, Dorothy Partch, while she recuperates from a stroke at Wilton Meadows.

With a complaint now before the Superior Court in Stamford, Marjorie Partch is trying to make sense of how her life has spun so far out of control in a few short years.

“I’m trying to gain my mother’s money, which is three or four times what she owes Wilton Meadows,” Marjorie Partch said. “I wanted her to be taken care of while I got the house (at 20 Devil’s Garden Road in Norwalk) in order for a wheelchair and organized. Then everything turned upside down. I took time off from work and that’s when (Wilton Meadows) took their actions. I was thrown out of the house with nothing. They’ll say I’m a lunatic, and at this point I’d say who isn’t?”

The attorney for the rehabilitation and health care-center at 439 Danbury Road says the facility has done nothing wrong, and the court system is overseeing the elder Partch’s ongoing treatment.

“On July 27, 2010, Wilton Meadows brought an inaccurate application for an Involuntary Conservatorship for my mother to probate court, and a conservator was wrongly appointed, over my objections as her health care representative and pre-designated conservator,” Marjorie Partch said. “I am pursuing this illegality in superior court, and the facility is very unhappy that the matter has been brought beyond probate court, with whom they appear to have a very ‘cozy’ relationship. The superior court judge is reopening the case for re-argument in order to investigate fraud, a possibility (the judge) is clearly considering.”

Angelo Maragos, attorney for Wilton Meadows, has a different interpretation.

“I think of the bases of (Marjorie Partch’s) complaint is fraud, and Wilton Meadows is alleging Marjorie Partch is committing fraud to get at her mother’s estate,” Maragos said. “I think Wilton Meadows did everything correctly. At the original hearing before the Norwalk Probate Court, Marjorie Partch did not raise any issues about fraud, and she made no objection to the conservator. Wilton Meadows has been taking care of Mrs. Partch since before that date. Every step we’ve taken since then has been under the supervision of the court.”

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Daughter Seeks to Regain Control of Mother’s Care While at Wilton Meadows

Press Release: Nursing Home Complaint Center

The Nursing Home Complaint Center is calling its efforts to identify US nursing home patients, who needlessly get sepsis, septic shock, broken bones, and or victims of wrongful death, their number one priority in 2011.

The group is saying, “we believe needless sepsis infections, septic shock, broken bones, wrongful death, and elder abuse in our nation’s nursing homes are at epidemic levels, and we want to hear from family members who have proof the sick, or deceased family member was mistreated, or not treated at all-with the result being a wrongful death, or they are now in a ICU at a nearby hospital.”

The group says, “one of the biggest problems we see in the vast majority of our nation’s nursing homes is staffing levels, are not high enough to meet Medicare, or Medicaid standards, with the result being dead patients, or patients suffering from sepsis, or septic shock, due to medical malpractice, or broken bones.”

If a family member, or loved one has died in a US nursing home from provable wrongful death, or now has sepsis, is in septic shock, or has broken bones, please call the Nursing Home Complaint Center at 866-714-6466, or contact the group via its web site at http://NursingHomeComplaintCenter.Com

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Nursing Home Complaint Center Makes Discovering Victims Of Sepsis Septic Shock Broken Bones & Wrongful Death Its Number One Priority For US Nursing Home Patients

4th Nurse Admits Patient Abuse

Another nurse admitted to charges that she did not provide proper care for an incapacitated patient at the Northwoods Rehabilitation Center in Schaghticoke two years ago.

Licensed practical nurse Lisa Sousie of Troy appeared before Rensselaer County Judge Andrew Ceresia and pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted first-degree falsification of business records, a misdemeanor.

Sousie will be sentenced Oct. 12 to three years of probation, suspension of her nursing license, and she must cooperate and provide testimony in any potential upcoming trial in the case, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.

Sousie was one of nine nurses and aides at the facility named in a 175-count indictment charging them with neglecting a 53-year-old patient identified as “SB” during six weeks in March and April 2009.

Investigators set up a hidden camera in the patient’s room. What they saw led to the March 31, 2010, charges of not properly caring for the patient and faking records to make it appear they did.

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Fourth Nurse Admits Patient Abuse

3rd Nurse Pleads Guilty

A third health care worker has admitted she did not properly care for an incapacitated patient at the Northwoods Rehabilitation Center in Schaghticoke in 2009.

Licensed practical nurse Leslie Mayo, 54, of Watervliet pleaded guilty before Judge Andrew Ceresia to one felony count of first-degree falsifying business records in March 2009. “I was working the overnight shift and did not check on the patient but signed a record that I did, and I did not put ointment on the patient,” Mayo admitted.

“The ointment had not been applied, even though the records show that it was?” Ceresia asked.

“Yes,” Mayo said.

Mayo will be sentenced Oct. 12 to five years’ probation and must surrender her nursing license.

Mayo was one of nine nurses and aides at the facility named in a 175-count state attorney general’s indictment charging them with neglecting a 53-year-old patient identified as “SB” during six weeks in March and April 2009.

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LPN Makes Guilty Plea

MN: State Law Has Huge Gap in Punishing Elder Neglect

For years, prosecutors and advocates for the elderly have tried to provide vulnerable adults legal protection similar to children in Minnesota. But those efforts have been opposed by some influential health care providers and lawmakers concerned that workers or family caregivers would be unfairly punished.

Iris Freeman, associate director at the Center for Elder Justice and Policy at William Mitchell College of Law, said it’s difficult to find common ground on the issue. But she said it’s important to provide justice “for vulnerable adults that have been victimized by this kind of very serious neglect.”

The Star Tribune reviewed about 50 cases filed statewide since 2004 in which someone was convicted of misdemeanor charges for neglecting a vulnerable adult. In six cases, the victim died. Other victims were locked in hot cars while their caregivers went shopping or they ended up in the hospital because of maltreatment. Last year, doctors had to amputate the leg of a disabled man after his mother failed to get him treatment for a badly infected foot.

“We’re missing crime here,” said Amy Sweasy, an assistant Hennepin County attorney who specializes in elder rights cases. “There’s conduct that’s worse than misdemeanor conduct that we don’t have the statute to use.”

Some opponents fear a tougher law would create criminals out of well-intentioned workers in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and other regulated settings.

“Our members, they would not have any problem if you exempted people that work in facilities and applied it out in the community, where people are much more at risk where you don’t have the kinds of checks and balances and eyes and ears,” said Darrell Shreve, vice president of health policy with Aging Services of Minnesota, a trade group that represents nursing homes and other senior housing providers.

Shreve noted that doctors and other caregivers who make mistakes are already subject to punishment, both by regulators and the civil courts.

“If a physician commits malpractice you don’t put the doc in jail. They get sued,” Shreve said. “Why would this be any different?”

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State Law Has Huge Gap in Punishing Elder Neglect

Abuse Alleged Again

For the second time in less than three weeks, a Highlands County resident has been charged with abusing an elderly or disabled person.

Susan Morales was charged with four counts of abuse, court documents show. The charges are third-degree felonies.

Morales, 51, of Ponce De Leon Boulevard in Sebring is accused of hurting a man four times from April 1 to May 24 at the Cluster of Avon Park, “a care facility for physically and mentally disabled adults who require around-the-clock care.”

That’s according to a warrant signed by Assistant State Attorney Christine Pletcher and a warrant affidavit from Detective Robert Livesay of the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit.

The Cluster website describes the facility as serving those “with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation and developmental disabilities)” and emphasizing “community integration and choice while recognizing the specialized and often complex needs of the individuals we serve.”

Morales’ arrest came 17 days after sheriff’s investigators arrested 53-year-old Rebekah Marie Ramsey on July 27.

Ramsey is charged with six counts of domestic violence-related abuse of an elderly or disabled adult without great harm and one count of domestic violence-related neglect of an elderly or disabled adult without great harm.

She is accused of abusing an elderly woman who police said reeked of urine and was locked in her bedroom for three days.

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Abuse Again Alleged

Disturbing Case of Elder Abuse Leads to Death

Recent developments in a disturbing case of elder abuse that led to death have focused particular scrutiny on the perpetrators not only because of the grisly details of the case, but also because the two caregivers had been approved by the state as adult caretakers for the 90-year old victim.

The two caregivers were the victim’s grandson and daughter. The two are charged with elder abuse and neglect for allegedly leaving the senior unattended for weeks. A paramedic found Gray lying in her own feces. She also had grade 4 bed sores and was surrounded by flies.

According to two recent articles in the Kern Valley Sun, four different agencies investigated the adequacy of the victim’s care for several weeks in February 2011. A representative from Aging and Adult Services (AAS) ultimately concluded that she had been being neglected. Although the 90-year old was taken from her caregiver’s custody, she subsequently passed away.

Both of the abuser had applied to the woman’s primary caretakers in 1999 and were designated as In House Supportive Services (IHSS) providers. The IHSS program is overseen by the Adult Programs Division of the state’s Department of Social Services. In order to become an IHSS primary caretaker, McCoy and Green had to undergo an extensive criminal background check. They also had to agree to report any suspected abuse, injury, neglect, or potential hazards to a social worker assigned to the victim.

What is not clear, however, is how frequently the caregivers were reviewed in the twelve years following their initial approval to be caretakers. For example, at the time of the various agency investigations, one of the criminals was facing several pending criminal charges, including spousal abuse.

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Disturbing Case of Elder Abuse Leads to Death

Two Convicted in Cruel “Practical Joke”

Two women convicted of coating patients at a California nursing home with ointment for a practical joke on colleagues have been sentenced to 20 days in jail.

Monica Rose Smith, 52, and Jennifer Louise Burton, 34, must also serve two years probation, The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat reported. They were convicted of misdemeanor elder abuse at the Valley View Skilled Nursing Home in Ukiah.

Three other employees at the nursing home have received non-custodial sentences for elder abuse or failure to report it. The state has revoked the California nursing assistant licenses for all five, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office said.

Seven elderly patients were entirely covered with ointment, an action Gov. Jerry Brown, at the time state attorney general, described as “cruel and shocking.”

Investigators said it was done so the next shift of employees would have to deal with slippery patients.

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Two Convicted for Coating Seniors in Ointment

Elder Care Workers With a Checkered Past Get a Pass

After she was caught, Lisa M. Blair told police that her criminal behavior at a South St. Paul assisted-living facility “just got out of hand.”

For months, the Cerenity Residence worker stole thousands of dollars from elderly residents who relied on her for day-to-day help, including paying their bills. At least two residents were bilked for nearly $63,000 in a scheme that ended when an 88-year-old raised suspicions in December about Blair, police records show.

State health investigators found no fault with Cerenity Residence for the breakdown, which lasted for more than 18 months. Blair pleaded guilty this month to four felony counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. “I maybe took advantage,” she told police. “I knew it was the wrong thing to do.”

The case is part of a broad problem of elder abuse in Minnesota that raises questions about the state’s oversight of a rapidly growing industry.

In at least a handful of cases, state records show, breakdowns left vulnerable adults exposed to abuse. Either facilities missed warning signs or applicants with known criminal histories were approved to work because regulators granted exceptions to rules aimed at protecting vulnerable people.

Since 2005, state investigators have reviewed 171 cases of alleged financial abuse or exploitation in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and in-home care settings. In 77 percent of those cases, investigators substantiated those charges, almost all of which involved staff members stealing from residents, according to a Star Tribune review of state investigative files.

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Elder Care Workers With a Checkered Past Get a Pass

KY Lawyers Support Bill Requiring Pre-Employment Screening of Nursing Home Workers

All nursing home employees may be subject to background checks if a prefiled bill in the Kentucky legislature passes in the 2012 session, according to a recent news article in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Existing laws only require background checks on employees who provide direct elder care in nursing homes. The new bill broadens the scope to include anyone who works in facilities, regardless of how closely they interact with residents.

“Expanding the statute can provide more protection for an elderly population who may not be able to speak up for themselves when they are abused,” says Bowling Green personal injury attorney J. Marshall Hughes, whose law firm has extensive experience handling cases involving nursing home abuse and elder neglect in Bowling Green, Louisville and parts of Tennessee.

“Any employee – not just those who provide direct care for nursing-home residents – still has many opportunities to exploit them just because they are in such close proximity,” he added.

The new bill comes on the heels of another move by Kentucky to address cases of nursing home abuse. In June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded the state a $3 million grant to upgrade its background-check system from one that searches only by name to one that screens potential employees by digital fingerprinting.

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Kentucky Attorneys Support Bill That Would Require Pre-Employment Screening of Nursing Home Workers