News Archive

Nursing Home Abuse & Mistreatment News

Care Home Resident Charged with Assault
An 18-year-old man is accused of sexually assaulting a resident of a personal care home that was closed by the state. The state Department of Public Welfare shut down Brunnet's Personal Care Home, citing the assault among numerous incidents there. The former patient has been charged with seven counts related to the attack on a 66-year-old mentally challenged man. Police had been called immediately after the attack, and the former patient was charged with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, two counts of aggravated assault, harassment, simple assault and disorderly conduct. After executing an emergency relocation of 15 residents and shutting the home, state officials said facility operators ignored the declining health of the assault victim, which included incontinence and limping. The facility also failed to obtain psychiatric help for him, as instructed by the hospital.  

UPMC Alters Safety System in Wake of Death on Roof
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center executives announced a system-wide safety reform spurred by the case of a dementia patient who wandered away from her room and was found dead 14 hours later on the hospital rooftop. The new system, called "Condition L," will improve hospital searches the way Amber Alerts have in cases of missing children. UPMC revamped its search policies after the death of a patient, who walked away from her room on the 12th floor at 5:00 pm and was found on the roof of the hospital at 8:00 am the next day. The patient was found in her hospital gown and slippers after a night in which temperatures fell to the 20s. UPMC employees insist that they checked her room two other times during their search but found no sign of her. They claim she may have wandered through other parts of the hospital before going outside. 

State Shuts Care Home
Officials with the state Department of Public Welfare closed a Summerhill Township personal care home and immediately removed 15 elderly and mentally challenged residents and placed them in other facilities in the area. Welfare officials accompanied by police officers executed an emergency relocation order and move the residents out of the Brunnet Personal Care Home. The closing followed an investigation that revealed a pattern of neglect, including one incident of sexual abuse with an unidentified instrument by one resident on another. A total of 227 violations were documented, and the DPW alleges that the home's operators failed to develop a plan to protect residents from a known sexual offender residing at the facility. They are also accused of being lax in getting the victim medical and psychiatric help following the incident, which left the victim with a fractured pelvis, septicemia and an abscess so severe he was unable to urinate. Help was only summoned to the home three days after the incident when the victim's family visited him and requested medical attention. The facility's owners are also the former owners of another care home that was shut down due to neglect and abuse in 2007. 

Suspect in Nursing Home Abuse Charged with Harassment Once Before
One of the five employees charged with abusing an elderly woman at the Kane Regional Center in Allegheny County previously pleaded guilty to two harassment charges from separate incidents while she worked for the county. Kane officials did not know about the incidents and are expediting a plan to do periodic background checks on employees. Administrators do background checks on job applicants, but might not be alerted if an employee is arrested. The employee was charged with misdemeanor simple assault in 2003 and felony aggravated assault in 2005. Both times she pleaded to lesser harassment charges. The employee is currently accused of elbowing and swearing at a 94-year-old Alzheimer's patient. Police allege that she cursed at the patient and then put her elbow into the patient's chest and pushed hard for as long as a minute, repeating this once more. 

Workers Fired from Nursing Home Dispute Abuse Allegations
Lawyers representing nursing aides accused of abusing a 94-year-old Alzheimer's patient at the Allegheny County-owned Kane Regional Center disputed the allegations and said their clients performed their best in difficult jobs. Allegheny County officials recently revealed that the nursing home workers had been charged with offenses such as assault and neglect of a care-dependent person after other staff members witnessed alleged abuse. The nursing aides have been accused of punching the patient in the face and chest, throwing oranges at her, stomping on her foot, pouring lotion on her head and repeatedly cursing at her. Lawyers for the aides argued that the patient was unusually combative, unable or unwilling to listen to instructions.  

Nurse Supervisor Among 5 Charged with Abuse
Five caretakers accused of abusing or harassing a 94-year-old Alzheimer's patient at an Allegheny County nursing home worked together on the overnight shift, and their activities apparently escaped notice for a time because a supervisor was among their ranks. The nursing supervisor, who has been charged with a summary count of harassment, worked as a licensed practical nurse overseeing the four nursing assistants charged in the case of more serious crimes. Affidavits in the case described the victim as being cursed at, told to "shut up," elbowed, stomped on, punched, pelted with oranges in the face and doused with lotion.   

DPW Seeking Closure of Care Home
The state Department of Public Welfare has taken legal action to force the closing of a personal care home in Washington County because it has been operating without a license. DPW claims that the most recent license held by the home was issued for six months from January to July. During that time, DPW conducted inspections and complaint investigations at the home on more than four separate days, resulting in citations for violations of multiple personal care regulations. Though a notice of non-renewal was issued in July, the home continued to operate, with at least 24 residents still on the premises.   

Court Date Set for Care Home's Owner
The owner of a troubled Upper Moreland personal care facility is appealing the state emergency order that sent about 50 residents to other homes. The owner of Willow Crest Manor is going to court to protest the state Department of Public Welfare relocation order and an earlier notice that the facility's license would not be renewed. Officials moved about 50 people out of the home after an administrative order from the DPW said problems inside posed an "immediate and serious danger to the health and safety of the residents." Inspectors had reported staff mistakes in connection with the deaths of two residents. The DPW also said it would not renew the home's provisional license after multiple violations were found during inspections. One of the violations was for an allegation that the owner choked a resident with Parkinson's disease. 

Nearly a Dozen Valley Nursing Homes Under Fire
At least 11 area nursing homes rated below average in the new five-star ranking system that is coming under a bit of fire from administrators. About 22 percent of the nation's nearly 16,000 nursing homes received the lowest rating in the system, while 12 percent received the highest ranking possible. The ratings reflect three major criteria based on self-reporting: state inspections, staffing levels and quality measures, such as the percentage of residents with bed sores. The nursing homes will receive stars for each of those categories as well as for their overall quality. 

Hospital May Face Lawsuit Over Woman's Death
The family of the 89-year-old woman who died on the roof of a Pittsburgh hospital has asked Common Please Court to give it access to reports from authorities regarding the woman's death. A writ of summons would allow the family to gather information to prepare a wrongful death lawsuit. The family is currently seeking subpoena power for investigative reports on the death prepared by the Allegheny County medical examiner, the district attorney's office, Pittsburgh police and the Department of Health. The woman, who suffered from dementia and heart problems and had a history of wandering, left her room through a fire exit. Her body was found the next morning by a maintenance worker with injures that suggested a fall. She was wearing only a hospital gown. 

Nursing Home Industry Worries About New Ratings
Ratings systems help people decide which restaurants to go to or hotels to stay at. So why not something similar from the federal government for the nation's 16,000 nursing homes? Such a simply rating for so complex a task as caring for the elderly is leading to much anxiety in the nursing home industry. Home operators worry about the ramifications for their business is they get one or two stars, when five is considered the best. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was to let everyone know how many stars each home is getting. However, the industry is already questioning the validity of the rankings, claiming that the system is poorly planned, prematurely implemented and hamhandedly rolled out.  

Florida Adopts Silver Alerts for Mentally Impaired Elderly Who Wander Off
Similar to the Amber Alert, which is declared when a child is abducted, a Silver Alert is circulated when a person 60 or older who suffers from dementia or another cognitive impairment like Alzheimer's disease goes missing. About a dozen other states, including neighboring Georgia, have adopted similar programs, and legislation creating a national program is pending in Congress. In Florida, where the elderly are so large a share of the population which accounts for half a million Alzheimer's, the Silver Alert has had an immediate impact. All of the 19 people for whom the state has issued bulletins since adopting the program have been found.

Money Blocking Pennsylvania Adult Abuse Act
Currently, Pennsylvania is one of only five states that does not have an adult protective services law. Unless abused adults file a protection from abuse order, which many elderly are physically incapable of doing, authorities have no standing to step in and end or prevent the abuse. Currently, Senate Bill 1049, which has languished in committee, will be reintroduced when the Pennsylvania Legislature returns to session in January. The bill would create an Adult Protection Services branch within the Department of Public Welfare that could investigate claims of abuse and neglect of dependable adults. The bill would also authorize existing groups to be more aggressive in pursuing the allegations, the same way the system operates for children and seniors. However, the Legislature refuses to act on a program that would cost about $6 million annually during the state's budget crisis.   

Nursing Home Shut Down
Residents were ordered out of the Willow Crest Manor assisted living facility in Montgomery County after state inspectors identified perilous staff mistakes, including some connected with the deaths of two residents. The order comes on the heels of the deaths of two residents since Thanksgiving. Willow Crest staff took three days to give one of the residents a recently prescribed respiratory medicine and didn't take the other the hospital even though a person designated to help with medical decisions asked them to do so. Police has been dispatched to the home 81 times this year, and the owner is currently standing accused of choking a resident with Parkinson's disease.  

Minnesota Nursing Home Hit Hard by Abuse Allegations
When an elderly woman with dementia drooled while under the care of two teenage nursing home assistants, one of the young women spit into her mouth. When residents screamed or hit, the two would clamp a hand over their mouths or poke them in the back or genitals. At one point, one of the assistants crawled into bed with a resident and simulated having sex with her. Each face up to a year in jail and $3,000 fine if convicted of all the charges against them, which include inflicted humiliatingly physical, emotional and sexual abuse on 15 residents of the Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home in Minnesota. The abused patients suffer from Alzheimer's disease, dementia or both.  

State Probes Deaths at Home
The Montgomery County coroner is currently investigating what caused the deaths of two patients who died at a local assisted living facility. Since Thanksgiving, two people with mental and physical illnesses have died at Willow Crest Manor, a private care facility catering largely to the mentally ill. The deaths come in the wake of criminal charges filed against the home's owner for allegedly choking a resident. The home was informed last month that its provisional license would not be renewed because of the incidents.  

Hospitals Face a New Epidemic: Bedsores
The number of hospital patients with bedsores has risen dramatically over a 14-year period, leading to longer, more expensive hospital stays. Some 503,300 patients admitted to U.S. hospitals in 2006 suffered from a bedsore that developed either before or during their stay. That figure is an increase from 281,300 in 1993, or 78.9 percent. By contrast, overall hospital admissions increased by just 15 percent between 1993 and 2006. Most of the patients who had bedsores were ages 65 and older. 

Nursing Home Pays $27,000 Fine
Laurel Crest, a Cambria County-run nursing home, has paid a $27,560 civil fine by a federal agency for deficiencies found in a state inspection. The deficiencies were cited when the nursing home was dealing with a virus similar to the type that hits cruise ships. Because of the virus, the state imposed an 18-day ban on admissions. But it took the nursing home about a month until operations were back to normal. The 53 days the home was fined for represent the time between when the state inspectors reported the deficiencies and when its corrections plan was completed. 

Death on Roof Prompts Hospital Probes
The death of an 89-year-old woman on the roof of a Pittsburgh hospital is prompting several investigations, and the hospital could face fines, a change in its accreditation status and a lawsuit from the woman's family. Pittsburgh police, the state Health Department and the hospital itself will examine how the woman, who suffered from dementia and heart problems, was able to wander unnoticed from her room on the 12th floor to the roof. Her body was found there by a maintenance worker the next morning. She was wearing only a hospital gown and slippers in overnight temperatures that dipped to 23 degrees. 

Dementia Patient Found Dead on Hospital Roof
An 89-year-old dementia patient, wearing just a gown and slippers, wandered out onto the roof of a hospital and died in the freezing overnight temperatures. A hospital worker found the woman early Wednesday morning after she had been missing since Tuesday evening. Overnight temperatures in Pittsburgh dipped into the 20s. While there were no signs of foul play, the district attorney is pondering charges of neglect against the hospital for not noticing the woman's disappearance. 

Death of 48-Pound Woman in Home Spurs Probe
Prosecutors and a state agency are investigating the death of a 28-year-old woman who had dwindled to 48 pounds in a New Jersey licensed home for developmentally disabled adults. The Division of Developmental Disabilities caseworker responsible for keeping tabs on the woman has been suspended, the home's license has been revoked and state workers are checking on the well-being of all 1,255 residents of similar homes.

County Shells Out $1 Million to Settle Fatal Fall Suit
An Illinois county has paid $1 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging a county-owned nursing home failed to prevent an Alzheimer's patient's fatal fall even after she had fallen several other times. The settlement is the largest ever in the county in a nursing home negligence case. The patient's daughter filed the suit in 2005. Her mother had Alzheimer's, an unsteady gait and poor balance. The nursing home failed to update the patient's care plan to address her risk for falls or to follow several interventions the plan required. Between March and October, the woman fell six times at the facility. After a particularly terrible fall, alarms were installed on the patient's bed and wheelchair; however, during her final, fatal fall, none of the alarm systems were in place or functioning properly. 

Seattle Settles Suit with MS Patient
Seattle and a home health care agency wrote a check for $600,000 to a woman with multiple sclerosis after she nearly died in their care. The money is to settle a lawsuit alleging the woman was neglected in her wheelchair, left for so long that she developed life-threatening bedsores. The woman was a patient in a city-run program that pays contracted caregivers to take care of her at home. In 2005, while Seattle was paying more than $3,000 a month for an agency to care for her, the caregiver at the time says she wasn't moving her client much at all because her agency had not trained her to treat pressure sores. 

New Laws Would Change Senior Care
Pennsylvania is one of only a handful of states that doesn't have specific regulations for assisted-living facilities; however, state lawmakers passed a bill in 2007 to mandate licensing standards for these facilities. Consumer groups and assisted-living operators argue that the regulations will be too weak and won't help residents, while operators are concerned the regulations will force them to completely renovate their buildings or stop providing care to people.

Violations Reported at 94 Percent of Nursing Homes
More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other type of nursing homes. About 17 percent of nursing homes had deficiencies that caused "actual harm or immediate jeopardy" to patients. Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups, poor nutrition and abuse and neglect of patient.  

Former Pennsylvania Nursing Home Operator Guilty of Theft
The former head of a defunct western Pennsylvania nursing home has been convicted of stealing $51,500 in payroll funds. The former head is currently serving more than seven years in prison for convictions related to the nursing home, including defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of more than $7 million.

Ban on Nursing Home Arbitration Agreements Takes Step Forward
A bill prohibiting nursing homes and other long-term care facilities from having prospective residents sign arbitration agreements before any disputes arise has received the approval of the U.S. Senator Judiciary Committee. The legislation seeks to end the fast-growing trend in the nursing home industry of requiring patients to agree to arbitration as the sole way to resolve disputes.  

Silver Alerts Help Track Wandering Seniors
With the elderly making up the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, police and caregivers will have to spend ever-increasing time and money in coming years to keep tabs on older Americans with Alzheimer's disease, lawmakers and advocates for the elderly warn. The number of Americans living with Alzheimer's is expected to triple by 2050, and about 60 percent of such patients wander away from their homes or care facilities; about half of those who are not found within 24 hours suffer serious injury or death. That is where Silver Alerts come in, which broadcast media bulletins and posts lookout information on highway signs for missing seniors. 

Duo Charged in Neglect Case
Lebanon County detectives have charged two officials of Phoenix Services Inc. with neglect  of a care-dependent person and conspiracy after an investigation into the case of a mentally retarded man who police said was found hours from death in 2006. The man, then 50-years-old, was found on the front lawn of a private home suffering from septic shock, acute renal failure, bruises, a urinary tract infection, profound malnutrition, dehydration and a blistering wound on his leg that extended from his knee to his ankle. He subsequently spent five months in the hospital. Investigations revealed that workers routinely left the victim unattended, were absent from the home for several days at a time, sometimes did not give him his medications or meals, and financially exploited him. 

Pennsylvania's Assisted Living Facilities Get New Regulations
The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare is developing new requirements and regulations for assisted living facilities in the state. The new regulations are meant to protect residents, but consumer advocates think the regulations don't go far enough.  

State Bid to Close Home Angers Some
Though some residents and staff of Windsor Place in Pittsburgh are trying to save it from shutdown, inspectors from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare have cited the nursing home for multiple recent incidents in which residents were hospitalized after alleged neglect or abuse. Officials contend there is a sufficient pattern of risk and that residents would be better off relocated.

Elderly's Trauma May Be Taken Less Seriously
A 10-year review of records for all transports of major trauma patients in Maryland found that people age 65 and older were less than half as likely to be taken to a designated trauma center than were those under 65. The study noted that current guidelines call for injured elderly patients to be treated just as aggressively as younger patients, and that studies have found the majority of them return home after a hospital stay.  

For Families of the Ailing, a Brief Chance to Relax
In an aging population, nine million people take care of someone with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, and for many it is a responsibility without a break. But as health professionals and the federal government have recognized the strain on these family members, a growing number of facilities now offer short-term respite stays. In its simplest form, respite might be a home aide a few hours a week or use of an adult day care service. To caregivers at the end of their rope, real respite means a short time away. 

Protestors Seek to Close Philadelphia Nursing Home
The group Philadelphia ADAPT, a disability rights group, is protesting to persuade Mayor Nutter to find homes for 50 or so disabled residents of the Philadelphia Nursing Home over the next six months and then get out of the nursing home business. The group claims that the city's nursing home has deplorable conditions, like feces on the floor and syringes left in beds.  

Assisted Living Rule Changes Upset Some
Last summer, the Pennsylvania Legislature voted to create a new assisted living category in Pennsylvania, and next summer, the first such housing settings will be licensed. Now is the hazy part in between, with the Department of Public Welfare unveiling new regulations that some provider groups contend are too costly and some consumer representatives criticize as inadequate to ensure safe, quality care.  

Personal Care Home Records Posted Online
If you are planning to place a loved one in the Sunrise of Allentown or Atria Bethlehem personal care homes, you'll want to know they bombed their recent inspections. State regulators yanked their full licenses and gave them only six-month provisional licenses. Now that the state Department of Public Welfare has launched a web site that published the records of every licenses personal care home in Pennsylvania, findings such as those above won't be a shock to those trying to find the right home for their loved one. 

Simulating Age 85 with Lessons on Offering Care
As the population in the developing world ages, simulation programs like Xtreme Aging have become a regular part of many nursing or medical school curriculums, and have crept into the corporate world, where knowing what it's like to be elderly increasingly means better understanding one's customers or even employees, how to design signs or instrument panels, how to make devices more usable.  

State Trying to Close Care Home for Second Time
For the second time this year, the state is attempting to shut down a personal care home in western Pennsylvania. Department of Public Welfare officials sent a notice to the home that they would not be able to renew their license following a series of inspections that showed "repeated violations and current violations." Among the most serious allegations was that a staff member pushed a resident to the floor in a shower, causing a broken hip. In another case, the care home is accused of neglecting a resident's failure to eat and drink so much that the person required hospitalization with signs of starvation and dehydration.   

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