These money-saving goals were met thanks in part to the work of the state’s Medicaid Task Force which was charged with finding ways to trim program expenses. Observers note that one important way this was achieved was by reducing expensive hospital admission rates and increasing usage of primary care. Our New York Medicaid attorneys appreciate that the state’s ability to meet this goals is good news for area seniors who rely on the program for their long-term care needs.

However, this one year cost curbing effort, while positive, does not mean that the all concerns about the program have been resolved. There are still many issues left to face to ensure local seniors who need it have access to this program. For one thing, the program’s expenses are still hitting local governments particularly hard. The Times Herald-Record discussed this issue in a story published this morning. County executives from Orange, Ulster, and Dutchess counties met yesterday to talk about a range of issues–Medicaid was by far the most pressing concern.

Ulster County executive Mike Hein explained how he believed that the funding systems of the program were a clear example “of the state dumping an expense on localities.” What is particularly frustrating to these executives is the fact that while local government pay essentially half of the state Medicaid costs, localities have no control over the program. Our New York Medicaid lawyers realize that these very concerns are what have

Article source: http://rss.justia.com/~r/NewYorkElderLawAttorneyBlogCom/~3/PdYJSdJ2A8g/county-executives-voice-concer.html

The Louisville Courier Jornal reported the jury’s verdict in a recent two week nursing home neglect trial against Treyton Oak Towers.  The jury awarded $8 million in damages to the estate of a retired surgeon whose legs were broken becuase of neglect.  Dr. David Griffin died less than two months after he was improperly transferred from a chair into his bed causing fractures.  The plaintiffs claimed Griffin was transferred without a lift and by only one nursing assistant, in violation of the nursing home’s care plan, which required two assistants.

The worse part is that Defendants tried to cover up what happened.  Employees were ordered to change medical records to cover the incident up.  This happens all the time in nursing homes. 

The verdict was returned after the jury deliberated for about two hours and included $2 million for pain and suffering, $1 million for violating the state nursing home statute and $5 million in punitive damages.
 

Tags: Verdicts/Settlements, bones, broken, cover, damages, fractures, improper, punitives, transfer, up, verdict

Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/Ws2cNMsjFKc/

Levin Perconti’s Illinois Nursing Home blog had a great article on the value and need for video cameras to prevent abuse and neglect in nursing homes.

“Our Chicago nursing home abuse lawyer John J. Perconti was quoted this week in a Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article on the role that video cameras are playing in the courtrooms. The article touched on the effect that the increased use of surveillance cameras might have on the strategies of both plaintiff and defense attorneys. As local residents are aware, Chicago’s use of camera technology to monitor its corners and streets is growing rapidly. It is hard to go anywhere without being recorded by some sort of video device. In fact, while our city has certainly taken advantage of the surveillance tools as of late, we are actually a bit behind the curve. Other large cities (particularly international ones) have been using video cameras in more intrusive ways for years.

Not only is the city itself using these cameras, but many private businesses similarly monitor their surroundings as a safety tool. The captured footage is often crucial evidence when it records the incidents that at the heart of injury lawsuits. For example, our Illinois injury attorney John Perconti discussed a nursing home neglect case of ours involving a resident who fell outside of a senior center, suffering severe injuries that ultimately killed him. Attorney Perconti explained how the video camera mounted by outside an adult day care center caught the entire event.

The recording shows the senior using a walker, walking down a ramp toward a bus. Perconti explained, “He caught the side slope of the ramp and this causes him to fall sideways, striking his head on the pavement.” Perconti went
 

Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/aBkzW0t7ihA/

Nursing home residents with dementia who use average doses of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are three times more likely to have an injurious fall than similar people who don’t use these drugs. The association can be seen in people who use low doses of SSRIs and the risk increases as people take higher doses. The results are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.  Falls are a major health problem in nursing home residents with dementia. In nursing homes one-third of all falls result in an injury.

Many nursing home residents with dementia are treated with antidepressants. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are generally considered the treatment of choice. “Our study also discovered that the risk of an injurious fall increased even more if the residents were also given hypnotic or sedative drugs as sleeping pills,” said lead author Carolyn Shanty Sterke, who works in the Section of Geriatric Medicine at Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. ”Physicians should be cautious in prescribing SSRIs to older people with dementia, even at low doses,” says Sterke.

The incident reports showed that 152 of the 248 residents (61.5%) sustained 683 falls. This corresponds to a fall incidence of 2.9 falls per person-year. Thirty-eight residents had a single fall, but 114 fell frequently. Two hundred twenty falls resulted in injury or death. Of these 10 were hip fractures, 11 were other fractures and 198 were injuries such as grazes, open wounds, sprains, bruises, and swellings. One person died after falling.

“Staff in residential homes are always concerned about reducing the chance of people falling and I think we should consider developing new treatment protocols that take into account the increased risk of falling that occurs when you give people SSRIs,” says Sterke.

See also story at USAToday.

More information: Dose-response relationship between Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Injurious falls: A study in Nursing Home Residents with Dementia. Carolyn S Sterke, Gijsbertus Ziere, Ed F. van Beeck, Caspar W. N. Looman Tischa

Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/jajeg26p9OM/

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Article source: http://rss.justia.com/~r/PennsylvaniaNursingHomeAbuseLawyerBlogCom/~3/DCJQpJdjClY/find-heart-disease-early-let-m.html

Depression is not usually associated with the older generations. Yet elderly folks have the highest suicide rate in comparison to younger age groups. Every 90 minutes one elderly individual commits suicide. The reasons of suicide among the elderly vary. Loneliness, deteriorating health, loss of jobs or deaths of family members are just a few of the reasons why suicide rates are so high.

It is important to watch out for the signs even if you think your loved one is not at risk. If your family is aware, you can help prevent your family from suffering a devastating loss. Our senior family members often do not want to admit when they are struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide. The warning signs to look out for include: change in sleep patterns or eating habits, increased prescription drug use, stockpiling medications, social withdrawal, rushing to complete a will, elaborate goodbyes and declaring statements about hopelessness can all be warning signs.

Along with the warning signs, there can also be outside factors that can affect your loved one or make their depression worse. Your loved one can suffer from abuse, certain medications that can result in depression, suffering a conflict, substance abuse or other personal problems.

The older your loved one gets, the more likely they need someone to look in after them. If you are concerned that your loved one is suffering from depression, consulting a professional can possibly save their life.
 

Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/TheGuardianBlog/~3/ZAOLUkzbing/

This is often a major determining aspect. Even after all this is decided there must be other plans ready. What occurs when your old relative becomes too fragile or unwell for you to resume care? Then the care home option will have to be considered. There are numerous issues in selecting a retirement home for your old relative. Tell them that you lack enough visitors in the daytime and you would like somebody from the church or synogogue to just come and visit with you now and then. This could let your infirmary, surgery or retirement home know that you aren't alone and that there are more folk nervous about the treatment that you receive. Remember, when you're in nursing houses and in bad rehab and care centres, one of the very finest guarantees for your well-being reason and contentment is your capability to stay identifiable, stay heard and to have as many visitors as you may have in any specific day or week.

They are going to put a sensor in the shower so that they will know if mom has fallen down, there'll be one next to the can to make certain she is not having difficulty getting up. Keep up the pace, and attempt to always have visitors. There’ll be one on her bed to make certain she gets up at the correct time, and there'll be one on each door to the house to warn you when she is going out. What about the tablet taking program that each old person must have help with? That is where the Philips Medicine Dispensing Service comes in. You can stock it up with sixty batches of tablets, and the machine will talk out when it is time to take them.

If the tablets are not taken after a reminder, the device will get on the telephone and alert you. If you can plan in advance for the kind of senior care you would like and be conscious of the expenses, you'll make the method of finding care go much smoother. The service costs $75 a month. It depends. While you can be unable to forecast what health problems you'll experience as you start to age, you can at least ensure the process of finding and stumping up for care goes smoothly, if the requirement appear. If you have got some monetary assets, you'll be secretly paying up for long term senior care.

There’ll be one on her bed to make certain she gets up at the proper time, and there'll be one on each door to the house to warn you when she is going out. What about the tablet taking regime that each aged person wants to have help with? There are generally 12 types of medication, how will they ever remember all of that without private help from you? You can stock it up with sixty batches of tablets, and the machine will talk out when it is time to take them. The service costs $75 a month. If the tablets are not taken after a reminder, the device will get on the telephone and alert you. How much does senior care cost? If you have got some assets, you'll be secretly stumping up for long term senior care. If you've got no assets and qualify for Medicaid care, as a terribly lower income senior, you may receive long term care paid for by the government’s Medicaid insurance at a retirement home which accepts Medicaid as payment. Some do only if you first entered the facility as a non-public pay customer. Some simply do not accept Medicaid patients.

To effectively plan for senior care costs, research the price of care in each state, comparing senior home care to care home costs. A couple of other may still find it complicated that they can not cope and considers taking the step into moving to a home care. For those that can't, the local officials can help them in the transition. This should be a home care home providing meals and private care or maybe even a care home having qualified nurses on the area. Choosing a care home The 1st move to make when thinking about a move to a care home is to contact your local social care team.

Meet with management and workers and get info that's vital to you. It's also significant the nursing home’s visiting hours aren't too constrained. Look at the residents in the facility, do they look well taken care of and how do the workers address them? It is critical that you're feeling the residents are respected by the retirement home staff. This will permit you to go to when it suits you. As a rule there should be some visiting hours available in the morning and afternoon of every day.

WLBT out of Jackson, Mississippi had a disturbing story of a former employee’s admission of abuse and neglect she witnessed at Brandon Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, a for profit nursing home.   Several people contacted WLBT sharing similar stories.

“Brandon Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center employee who we’ll call “Ann” worked as a certified nursing assistant at the facility for about six weeks.  “While I worked there I reported several cases of abuse,” said Ann.  She resigned after repeatedly seeing elderly patients neglected, left for hours in their waste and treated cruelly.  The 30 year old wife and mother said she told her supervisors about the abuses but nothing was ever done.

“I witnessed a gentleman fall out of his wheelchair and I witnessed one of the other aides that I was shadowing pull his shirt up over his head and when she did that his head bounced and hit the floor,” said the certified nursing assistant.

Why isn’t this place getting investigated or shut down–the regulatory enforcement is lacking.

Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/n_ru8IgyIx0/

The Rome News Tribune reported on the ongoing trial of George Houser.   The linked article summarizes another administrator testifying about deficiencies cited by state regulators and bills for food and other items that were not being paid.   Greenway testified that lab work could often not be done, garbage sometimes piled up and she and other staff members paid for food because the bills had not been paid on the items.  The former administrator at the facility testified about “tags,” which are deficiencies noted by the state. Once nursing homes are tagged with deficiencies, they must submit a correction plan and a follow-up visit is scheduled to make sure the plan has been followed. Greenway also testified that the Mount Berry facility was tagged twice for a violation involving the Residents’ Trust Fund, which comes from the resident’ Social Security benefits and sometimes from family members. The funds are supposed to be available to residents to use for expenditures.

Houser, the former owner of Forum Healthcare Group, which owned two facilities in Rome and one in Brunswick, is on trial in U.S. District Court in Rome, accused of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare out of $30 million between 2004 and 2007 and willfully failing to pay taxes. 

According to the federal indictment, residents of the Housers’ nursing homes lived in substandard conditions, with broken air-conditioners and leaky roofs, while the couple raked in millions of dollars, purchasing homes, property and expensive cars.  According to the indictment, Houser submitted false or fraudulent claims to Medicare and Georgia Medicaid that were “worthless.”

Article source: http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/SouthCarolinaNursingHomeBlog/~3/wND94NNgG_g/