Six Arrested for Harmful Nursing Home Prank

Six former Northern California nursing home employees are under arrest on charges they covered several elderly patients with cream to make them slippery as part of a prank against their co-workers.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced the arrests on Tuesday, calling the alleged abuse “despicable behavior.”

All of the patients at Valley View Skilled Nursing Facility in Ukiah suffered from dementia, Brown said, and were unable to object to their treatment.

The six employees have been fired.

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<a href="
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/03/2028716/6-arrested-for-greasing-elderly.html”>6Arrested for Greasing Elderly at CA Nursing Home

Panel Imposes Corporate Liability Upon Nursing Homes

A unanimous Superior Court panel has ruled that a nursing home can be held corporately liable for its actions.

Writing that such liability is already imposed on hospitals, health maintenance organizations and medical professional corporations, a three-judge panel in Scampone v. Grane Healthcare Co. held that nursing homes were similar to those organizations in that they provide “comprehensive and continual physical care” for patients. They are not, Judge Mary Jane Bowes wrote for the panel, like a physician’s out-patient office, which is not susceptible to corporate liability claims.

“Except for the hiring of doctors, a nursing home provides comprehensive and continual physical care for its patients,” Bowes wrote.

She later continued: “Even though Highland did not have staff physicians, it was responsible for ensuring that all doctor-ordered testing was performed. Clearly, the degree of involvement in the care of patients of skilled nursing home facilities is markedly similar to that of a hospital and bears little resemblance to the sporadic care offered on an out-patient basis in a physician’s office.”

The plaintiff’s attorney in the case, Stephen Trzcinski of Wilkes & McHugh in Philadelphia, said the decision was a “big win” for nursing home residents.It had previously been difficult to bring suit against nursing homes, or the companies that run nursing homes, because the defendants would point to the fact that there was no appellate authority on the issue.

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Panel Imposes Corporation Liability Upon Nursing Homes

Nursing Home Chain Loses Class Action Lawsuit Big

I guess there’s probably a lot a screaming and yelling going on at the Skilled Healthcare Group (SKH) headquarters in California. Perhaps the anger derives from the miserable looking financial chart for the company showing a whopping 75% decline in price per share in one day!

Another portion of the companies anger is probably being misdirected at the lawyers who defended the company in a class action lawsuit brought against Skilled Healthcare based on systematic under-staffing at 22 nursing homes owned by the corporate giant. Really, the only people to blame are the managers in the company who intentionally chose to limit that staffing at their facilities.

After hearing months of evidence regarding staffing levels at the nursing homes operated by Skilled Healthcare, the jury awarded the maximum amount permissible under the California Health and Safety Code— a whopping $671 million to the members of the class.

The massive jury award is hardly an arbitrary number. Rather, the compensatory damages were awarded based on a statutory violation of $500 per-patient per-day at the 22 subject facilities for not providing that state minimum staffing of 3.2 hours for each patient living at the nursing homes on a daily basis.

In addition to the compensatory damages, the lawsuit also seeks punitive damages against Skilled Healthcare. Unlike compensatory damages, punitive damages are intended to punish the wrongdoer for their acts. The punitive aspect of the lawsuit will move forward in the coming weeks.

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Nursing Home Chain Hit With Landmark Verdict in Under-Staffing Class Action Lawsuit

Two Arrested During Peoria Nursing Home Check

Two people were arrested on outstanding warrants as part of a statewide check to see if nursing homes are complying with state regulations.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Sharon Health Care Willows, 3520 N. Rochelle Lane, appeared to be largely in compliance, but her team of local and state authorities did find five people who had warrants. Two of them were Frank Risavy, 54, who was wanted on a misdemeanor assault charge, and Melinda Wiegand, 52, who was wanted on a charge of retail theft, also a misdemeanor.

“When we are in the position of putting our grandparents into a nursing home, we want to know they will be safe,” Madigan said at a news conference in Peoria after the early morning check at the nursing home.

She said people must thoroughly check out a nursing home: “Do their research” before moving a loved one there by meeting with the staff, touring the facility and go online to see if there are any reports about the nursing home.

Three others found to have warrants weren’t arrested either because of bad health or because their warrants were issued in a county that was too far away for them to be taken there. The charges against those people weren’t known.

Nursing homes, Madigan said, are required to get background check on their residents as well as their staff members, but warrants often don’t show up on such a check or a person could pick up a warrant after moving in. That wasn’t case in Peoria, as the two people arrested were picked up on warrants from 2008 and 2007, respectively. Statewide, 19 people, including the two in Peoria, were arrested.

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Two Arrested During Peoria Nursing Home Check

Caregiver Burnout

The number of Americans needing nursing home care is expected to increase to 27 million people in the next 30 years. Now that the average cost of a nursing home stay is nearly $85,000 a year, more families are caring for loved ones at home. Caregivers are putting their own health at risk, in order to help others.

Many families are doing everything they can to keep loved ones out of nursing homes, and in their own homes

“If anything can help a person stay in their own familiar surroundings, it’s well worth it,” 91-year-old Helen Coplan told Ivanhoe.

There are 44 million adults in the United States caring for an elderly or disabled person without pay.

“It’s very stressful,” Sara Czaja, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, explained. “Caregivers may neglect their own health because they’re devoting all their time caring for their loved one.”

Studies show up to 70 percent of caregivers have clinically significant symptoms of depression. Caregivers are twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack, diabetes and arthritis compared to non-caregivers the same age. And women who spend nine or more hours a week caring for a sick or disabled spouse double their risk of heart disease.

Studies estimate if we had to pay for the care many relatives are giving at home it would add up to $257 billion a year.

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Caregiver Burnout

Class Action Lawsuit Filed in California

In order to assure that nursing home patients are adequately cared for, some states such as California have legislated minimum hours of care provided to patients on a daily basis. While the number is of course somewhat arbitrary and varies substantially from patient to patient, the patient care requirements do provide somewhat of a floor with respect to minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes.

In other words, the minimum daily time requirements really translate to the number of staff nursing home owners must hire to legally operate their facilities.

A class action lawsuit filed in California against Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc., alleges that corporation failed to provide patients at their facilities with the minimum staffing levels set forth in California law.

According to Michael Thamer, a lawyer representing the nursing home patients in this case, “The message from he top is simple: state beneath the budget.” Thamer goes on to say, “This corporate greed is what has kept the defendant from adequately staffing their facilities.”

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Class Action Lawsuit Against Skilled Healthcare Seeks Damages For Chronic Understaffing Of Nursing Homes

Former Caregiver Gets Life in Prison for Torture

A former caregiver convicted of torturing, taunting and body-slamming frail and elderly patients at an upscale California retirement home was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

Cesar Ulloa, 21, was convicted in April of one count of torture and seven counts of elder abuse. He was sentenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Van Nuys to life on the torture conviction and six additional years for the elder abuse.

“I wish you suffer forever,” Rita Kittower, 86, told Ulloa before sentencing. She condemned him as a “cruel, evil caretaker” who inflicted “sadistic animal-like torture” on her late husband.

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Ex-Worker Sentenced to Life for Torture, Abuse

Former Nursing Home CEO Sentenced to Prison

The former CEO of a Milwaukee nursing home who stole from her nursing home while patients were neglected is going to prison for tax evasion. The CEO is alleged to have stolen over $1 million from her nursing home while patients were denied baths and clean sheets and one resident jumped to his death after the staff ignored his threats of suicide.

Karen Mason was the CEO of Havenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Milwaukee. The facility was closed in 2005 after a state raid that uncovered severe neglect. While the patients suffered, authorities say that Mason stole more than $1 million and used the money to buy furniture, jewelry, new cars, and concert and sporting event tickets. She also spent money on vacations, wedding and honeymoon expenses, and payments to her yacht club.

In 2008, Mason pleaded guilty to theft and abuse of patients and was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay back more than $80,000 to the nursing home. In this separate tax evasion case, Mason was found to have collected more than $600,000 in income in 2004 without filing a tax return. She was sentenced to two years in prison.

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Former Nursing Home CEO Sentenced to Prison

Texas Nursing Home Operator Indicted

Beverly Rasberry Stone, the operator of Stonecrest Senior Care in Sweetwater, Texas, was indicted on May 11, 2010 on two counts of injury to an elderly person after a resident under her care developed severe bedsores.

The abuse allegations arose after Stone’s facility “failed to seek appropriate attention, and (the bedsores) became untreatable”. The resident eventually died of unrelated causes and the death is not at issue in the injury charges lodged against the nursing home operator.

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Texas Nursing Home Operator Indicted After Senior Suffers Injury

Fmr. Nursing Home Office Manager Pleads Guilty

A former Rock Hill nursing home office manager is finally answering to charges that she improperly used more than $60,000 belonging to the home’s residents.

Melissa Rice Kelly, 39, of Chester was charged in January 2009 with elder exploitation and forgery. Kelly was a business manager for two years for Magnolia Manor at 127 Murrah Drivve.

Kelly pleaded guilty in a York County courtroom to 12 counts of exploitation of a vulnerable adult and one count of breach of trust with fraud intent. Kelly faced a maximum of 70 years in prison on all 13 felony charges.

The judge ordered Kelly to repay Magnolia Manor and placed her on probation for five years and 30 days of public service employment.

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Rock Hill Nursing Home Manager Guilty of Exploiting Elderly