Nursing Home Abuse

Investigations of Elder Abuse at State Veterans Home

April 21, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As Maryland Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys, we have been following a recent story from the Dallas Morning News, covering nursing home abuse incidents and allegations surrounding seven veterans nursing homes in Texas that are state-owned.

According to the article, regulators have repeatedly found abuse and neglect problems in the Texas homes, which are open to veterans and their spouses who are Texas residents, and did not receive dishonorable discharge.

One of the homes with nursing home abuse incidents was at the Lamun-Lusk-Sanchez State Home for veterans in Big Springs, where John Harris, a 97-year old World war II veteran lived before he died in 2007. A nurse aide reported that she witnessed a colleague grab the resident from his wheelchair and shove him so aggressively into the bed that he was hospitalized that night complaining of pain in his hip. In another incident from the same year, Albert Teague, a Marine who had once served at Iwo Jima reportedly experienced nursing home violence, when an employee allegedly punched and choked at the home.

The article states the criminal investigation into these two cases was drawn out because of a bureaucratic jumble over who should perform the investigation—home administrators, local police, or state officials. Last month, felony charges were finally filed against the former employees.

Physical Restraints in Maryland Nursing Homes

April 15, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In yesterday’s blog post, our lawyers from Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers, discussed the resent release of the annual state-by-state check-up of healthcare ratings, in the National Healthcare Quality Report from 2009, which includes Maryland’s ratings on nursing home care, and the use of physical restraint.

Nursing home restraint is a physical or pharmacologic restraint used to keep a resident or patient from moving freely, and is only allowed when medically necessary, as it can also cause patients to become weak or develop other health complications like pressure sores, isolation, loss of walking ability, incontinence, or injury from trying to escape the restraints, leading to possible injury or wrongful death.

Restraints have been used in nursing homes when impaired residents with mental conditions are prone to nursing home falls, wandering, or the potential for personal injury—but are controversial as they have been also been used for the purposes of discipline, or for the convenience of the nursing home—leading to nursing home abuse and neglect.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that the use of physical and chemical restraints has reduced substantially after the implementation the CMS restraint regulation in 1990, showing that physical restraints had serious negative effects including the risk of wrongful death, and nursing home abuse and neglect.

NY Nursing Home Hidden Cameras Capture Neglect—22 Health Care Workers Arrested

April 1, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In recent news that Maryland Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys have been following, Attorney General for the State of New York Andrew Cuomo announced this week that twenty-two health care employees, both former and current, have been arrested after hidden camera footage in two separate nursing homes revealed alleged abuse and neglect as well as other behavior that harmed the health and safety of residents.

Cuomo claimed that his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) is using hidden surveillance cameras in nursing homes all over the state of New York, with the consent of family members, to make sure that residents are receiving the nursing home care that they lawfully deserve. Cuomo and his team are reportedly setting a precedent in this country, for using surveillance cameras to investigate the possible nursing home abuse and neglect of patients in nursing homes. The MFCU has, to date, convicted 30 nursing home workers based on the results of the hidden cameras.

The first case announced this week involved the arrest of 14 health care workers at Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility, after six weeks of footage revealed that the workers failed to consistently turn residents who were immobile, neglected to check or care for bedsores, routinely failed to give patients necessary medications, or check residents for incontinence and change residents’ undergarments in a timely manner. The medical records were also allegedly falsified to reflect a level of care that was not being administered.

The second case involving incidents at Williamsville Suburban Nursing Home, lead to the arrest of 8 workers. The investigation took place over a seven-week period of time, and revealed that staff failed to use a mechanical lift assisted by two other caregivers to properly transfer residents to and from the bed—causing a great potential for nursing home falls and injury. The footage also showed that patients weren’t given insulin, weren’t treated for wounds on the skin, and weren’t checked for vital signs, or given range of motion exercises. The resident’s medical records were also falsified to conceal neglect.

Landmark Settlement Moves Mentally Ill Residents Out of Nursing Homes

March 15, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a previous blog, our Hartford, Maryland Nursing Home Attorneys discussed the ongoing and serious issue many nursing homes are facing today—how to keep elderly residents who share facilities with younger mentally ill patients and criminals, safe from nursing home abuse and violence.

The Chicago Tribune reported today after an historic Illinois court settlement, that thousands of mentally ill patients are likely to move out of nursing homes over the next five years and into settings that are more community-based, due to a new legal agreement that has been created to rework the long-term health care system in Illinois.

According to the Chicago Tribune, more than any other state, Illinois uses nursing home facilities to house younger mentally ill adults, and this includes thousands of residents with felony records. The Tribune spearheaded a massive investigation recently, reporting a long list of nursing home violence, sexual assault, substandard care, and drug abuse in nursing home facilities, where psychiatric patients weren’t adequately supervised or monitored to maintain their safety as well as the health and safety of the elderly residents of the nursing home, to prevent resident injury or harm.

The agreement reportedly plans for state officials to offer around 4,500 nursing home residents who are mentally ill a choice between staying in the 24 large facilities that are known as IMDs, or “institutions for mental diseases,” or to move into smaller environments that are better suited for their disabilities and reportedly less expensive. The settlement reportedly only covers residents of the IMDs, which will still leave nearly 10,000 mentally ill residents living in nursing home facilities without the IMD classification among elderly and disabled residents.

94-Year Old Sexual Assault Victim in Nursing Home Receives $12.5 Million

March 5, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As Washington D.C. area nursing home lawyers, we have been following a recent lawsuit settlement, where a 94-year resident who lived in a convalescent home in Santa Clarita, California was awarded 12.5 million by a jury in punitive and compensatory damages for enduring nursing home abuse and sexual assault.

According to the lawsuit, Sophie Schwartz, a resident at Oakdale Heights facility who has dementia, was sexually assaulted by Jose Vazquez in her room on December 16, 2007. Vazquez was a dietary aid working at the facility, and was hired by Oakdale Heights Management Corporation, although he was allegedly an illegal immigrant.

The jury ruled that the corporation falsified certain documents relating to employment when hiring Vazquez, and also violated many California state laws that govern the quality of care for dementia residents in nursing homes that can lead to resident neglect, poor supervision, negligent in hiring practices and understaffing.

Vazquez allegedly had keys that gave him access to all of the resident’s room. According to the suit, his background check was not valid before being hired, and he had no training on how to deal with residents who were elderly. Vazquez was admittedly drunk at the time, and he claimed that he and other workers often drank on the job.

State Investigates Nursing Home for Possible Negligence and Chemical Restraint

February 26, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As nursing home attorneys in the state of Maryland and the Washington D.C. area, we have been following the recent Britthaven of Chapel Hill Nursing Home investigation where Alzheimer’s patients have tested positive for serious pain-management prescription drugs that weren’t prescribed for them, and that they weren’t supposed to be receiving.

According to a recent news article, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Unit have launched a criminal investigation of the nursing home to determine if the patients were being over-medicated, abused or neglected, or being subjected to chemical restraint.

The investigation began after three Alzheimer’s patients from the nursing home were taken to local hospitals after nursing home staff claimed the patients were acting in an unusual manner. The hospital officials contacted the police, and the state Department of Health and Human Services, and officials from Britthaven after their blood tests showed strong drugs in their system that were not prescribed to them as patients.

The nursing home officials then reportedly tested all of the nearly 25 residents in the Alzheimer’s unit for drugs. Six of these patients tested positively for opiates, the drugs often used for pain management. Three of the patients were subsequently hospitalized, one of which died two days later.

Former Nursing Home Assistants and Good Samaritan Home Sued for Abuse and Negligence

February 9, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In national news, our Maryland-based nursing home abuse lawyers have been reading about a recent lawsuit filed against the operators and four former aides of the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society Home in Albert Lea, Minnesota, where nursing home residents were reportedly subjected to a five month pattern of nursing home abuse that involved verbal, sexual and emotional abuse.

According to the Star Tribune, the four former nursing assistants are facing criminal charges for the alleged nursing home abuse of up to fifteen Alzheimer’s and dementia patients in 2008. This lawsuit comes in addition to criminal charges that have already been filed in the case in Freeborn County Court. The incidents reportedly surfaced in May of 2008, and became public after the release of a report from the Minnesota Department of Health that concluded that the four nursing aides who were teenagers at the time were involved in nursing home abuse and neglect.

The former nursing aides, Ashton Larson and Brianna Broitzman, Alicia Heilmann and Kaylee Nash are being accused of abusing residents, by entering their rooms and locking the doors in order to sexually grope and poke at the breasts, genitals and rectums of the residents, spit in residents’ mouths, and simulate sexual activity with residents, among other charges. The suit also accuses the former nursing assistants of video taping the sexual acts and battery and laughing while the frail and vulnerable adults are screaming from the abuse. Broitzman and Larson are scheduled for trial later this year on a total of 21 criminal charges.

In the lawsuit, the nurses are being accused of civil assault and battery, causing emotional distress, and failure to report the unlawful treatment of the residents. Good Samaritan is being accused of failing to protect the elderly residents from abuse and negligence in management and supervision of the nursing aides. The suit states that Good Samaritan owed a duty to the residents to protect them from abuse and neglect, to ensure that the nursing staff were properly supervised and train to care for the needs of vulnerable adults and residents in the nursing home.

Nursing Home Residents Allegedly Drugged for Pharmacy Gain

January 22, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In yesterday’s blog, our Maryland Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys discussed the complaint filed last week by the U.S. Justice Department against Johnson & Johnson, for allegedly paying millions of dollars in kickback payments Omnicare, the largest pharmacy in the country, to increase sales of antipsychotic prescription drugs given to nursing home patients. According to the complaint, Omnicare was allegedly persuading physicians to prescribe drugs like the antipsychotic Risperdal for patients with dementia, even though the Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drug for dementia treatment.

In 1987, Congress passed landmark laws protecting patients from unnecessary drugs, and, according to these regulations, nursing home residents have the right to be protected from chemical restraints and medication for the sake of convenience or discipline to nursing home staff or doctors. It is illegal for facilities to give strong psychotropic drugs to patients without a doctor’s orders, patient’s consent and treatment justification, as patients may experience dangerous side effects like tremors, severe lethargy, nursing home falls, and wrongful death.

The Department of Health and Human Services states that nursing homes are required to have an outside pharmacist consult and review a patient’s medication schedule at least once a month. Once the outside pharmacist checks with the patient, they are obligated to report any oddities in the prescription drug schedule with the physician, and are able to make recommendations on how they would alter the medicine plan. But according to the complaint by the government, Johnson & Johnson used the consultant pharmacists as a tool to increase market share—dissolving the trust and integrity that should be a cornerstone for the health and safety of nursing home residents.

The New York Times reported this is not the first time that a drug company has been charged for using antipsychotic prescriptions to drug elderly residents. Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor last January in a nearly $1.5 billion settlement of criminal and civil charges that the pharmaceutical company had marketed Zyprexa, the antipsychotic drug for the treatment of dementia with elderly people. Omnicare and Johnson & Johnson were reportedly trying to compete against AstraZenica’s antipsychotics, by increasing market share for Risperdal.

Johnson & Johnson Accused of Pharmacy Kickbacks

January 21, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In a recent nursing home injury blog, our Maryland-based attorneys discussed the epidemic of unnecessary drugging and chemical restraints going on in nursing homes, that can cause nursing home injury and threaten the lives of elderly residents.

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil False Claims Act complaint against the drug giant Johnson & Johnson, for allegedly paying millions of dollars in kickback payments to a pharmacy company, in order to boost sales of antipsychotic prescription drugs for nursing home patients—drugs that can be used as chemical restraints with residents, that patients may or may not need.

The complaint alleges that from 1999—2004, pharmacists from Omnicare, the nation’s largest pharmacy, worked intensively to persuade physicians to prescribe Johnson & Johnson drugs in nursing homes, including the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, in exchange for kickback payments. The kickbacks were reportedly delivered to Omnicare in the form of rebates, grants, or educational funding.

Johnson & Johnson reportedly turned to Omnicare to increase the building of market share, knowing that physicians accepted advice on drugs from Omnicare pharmacists more than 80% of the time, and they were seen as an extension of the Johnson & Johnson workforce. The nursing home residents allegedly included people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Maryland Lawmaker Supports Nursing Home Video Monitoring Legislation

January 19, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Maryland Lawmakers headed to Annapolis last week for the annual 90-day session of the Maryland General Assembly, and Delegate Sue Hecht from Frederick County, a Democrat, has returned to support one of her bills that would allow families to use video cameras to monitor the treatment of elderly residents in a nursing home or assisted living facility.

Hecht is reportedly reintroducing Vera’s Law, HB557—Video Monitoring Legislation, a longtime bill she has worked on, to allow elderly residents to have video monitoring in their rooms for protection against nursing home abuse, negligence and violence.

Delegate Hecht originally introduced the bill after she witnessed her grandmother experience nursing home abuse by a nurse’s aid while residing in a home, over ten years ago. Vera’s Law is named after her Grandmother.

Hecht also reintroduced this legislative proposal in 2009—to give assisted nursing home and assisted living facility residents and their families the right to install video cameras or monitoring devices in the resident’s room, with consent of the roommate. The bill from 2009 did not require that the monitoring was paid for by the facility—the cost would be covered by the resident or resident’s family, as would the mounting device for the camera.