Nursing homes that care for the elderly have an affirmative duty to provide for the basic needs of the residents for whom the home is charged with caring. This duty goes beyond a moral one, and it is actually legally imposed and enforceable by the courts. In fact, if a…
A recent study adds to the growing body of research regarding overuse of antipsychotic medications in nursing home patients and the associated risks of severe medical complications and death, with a specific focus on residents of nursing homes run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The American Public…
An unusually high number of cases of nursing home residents choking to death in Connecticut has led to calls for improved training for staff members. The state has fined three nursing homes in three unrelated choking deaths, all occurring within a period of three months. In each incident, nursing home…
Antipsychotic medications treat serious psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. That was their original intention, anyway. In some nursing homes and hospitals, antipsychotics have found a new use in patients suffering from dementia. In an effort to keep difficult dementia patients calm, some nursing homes use these medications as…
A new study suggests that previous beliefs regarding certain dementia patients’ use of feeding tubes are incorrect. Feeding tubes, the belief went, could rectify nutritional imbalances and therefore aid in the healing of pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores. Research has generally been inconclusive, but this new study appears to…
The Alzheimer’s Association, an organization established to promote both care for Alzheimer’s patients and research into eradicating the disease, recently published a report outlining the prevalence and cost of the disease in Maryland and the rest of the country. In addition to its conclusion that the cost of caring for…
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid , has launched an initiative to promote reducing the use of antipsychotic medication in nursing home patients. The goal of the initiative is to spotlight the misuse of these medications in nursing homes, improve…
Antipsychotic medications are typically used to treat patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, helping reduce and control delusional thinking and hallucinations. In nursing homes around the United States, staff also use antipsychotics for patients suffering from dementia as a way of controlling paranoia and aggression. These medications can be useful…
Recently, our Baltimore nursing home abuse blog discussed the financial abuse of elders–a hugely under reported problem affecting around 3.5 million seniors around the country every year. In recent nursing home abuse lawsuit news, a 68-year-old retired preschool teacher has sued a Seal Beach nursing home for elder abuse, alleging…
As our Baltimore, Maryland accident lawyer blog recently reported, the family of an elderly nursing home resident whose wrongful death lead to a nursing home abuse and negligence lawsuit, was awarded $91.5 million earlier this month, after a Charleston, West Virginia jury found Heartland of Charleston nursing home and its…