New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has announced the arrests of nursing home employees over charges of resident neglect and abuse, Business First of Buffalo is reporting.  According to Business First, three employees were arrested and charged and a fourth has been convicted for “abusing elderly and ill patients.”

Cuomo announced the arrests yesterday, following a New York state-wide investigation into institutional care abuse and neglect said Buffalo First.  A prepared release stated that the acts involved “physically attacking and using racial slurs against an 86-year-old Alzheimer’s patient, slapping a 100-year-old patient in the face, and tying an elderly patient with dementia to a chair for two consecutive nights.”  In the release, Cuomo said his “office remains committed to protecting the vulnerable and defenseless by uncovering and prosecuting alleged abuses at nursing homes across the state,” noting that elderly New Yorkers deserve better “than to endure suffering at the hands of those entrusted with their care.” More NY Nursing Home Abuse Investigation Yields Arrests

Four nursing home workers caught on tape mistreating a patient  were charged yesterday with falsifying records and endangering a resident at a Suffolk County facility familiar with such problems, according to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.  This case represents the fourth recent nursing home abuse case in the state, it is the first to originate out of the New York City area in which hidden camera technology was used to obtain evidence against nursing home employees, Cuomo says.

Cuomo said the hidden camera technology has been used upstate, producing 26 convictions and forcing one nursing home into receivership.  Cuomo also said that small cameras are installed at facilities across Long Island.  “We’re going to be using this technology aggressively,” he said.  “It gives us a whole new avenue for making these cases,” Cuomo added.  In the recent case, the tiny camera was placed in the room of an 84-year-old man at Long Island’s Medford Multicare Center for Living.  Investigators monitored the camera feed from January to March in 2007, officials said. More Nursing Home Workers Charged by Attorney General

SLS Residential, LLC, a private mental health facility located in Putnam County, NY, has been sanctioned for threatening former patients who are potential plaintiffs in a class actions lawsuit.  SLS runs two residential treatment centers in the town of Southeast, NY  for adolescents and young adults.  In addition to a class action lawsuit, SLS is facing revocation of its state operating licenses for the two facilities.

The class action lawsuit, filed by two former SLS Residential patients, alleges that they were subjected to physical and mental abuse.  The complaint, which was filed on behalf of all SLS patients, seeks  $75 million in compensatory damages, $150 million in punitive damages and an injunction that would bar SLS from further violating patients’ rights. More SLS Residential Defendants Sanctioned After Threatening Former Patients

Nursing home abuse and neglect continues to be a serious problem in the U.S.  According to a new report conducted by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, a whopping 94 percent of all for-profit nursing homes were cited last year for violations of federal health and safety standards. In total, 90 percent of all nursing homes – including those owned by non-profit groups and government agencies – were cited last year for violations of health and safety standards.

The violations cited by the inspector general’s report included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups, poor nutrition, and abuse and neglect of patients.  The inspector general also said on Monday that some nursing homes “have systematically failed to provide staff in sufficient numbers and with appropriate clinical expertise to serve their residents.”  In other cases, nursing homes billed Medicare and Medicaid for services that “were not provided, or were so wholly deficient that they amounted to no care at all,” the inspector general said. More Majority of Nursing Homes Cited For Safety and Health Violations

The Associated Press is reporting that the U.S. government’s largest ever alternative medicine study has stopped enrollment while “officials investigate whether participants were fully informed of the risks and are being adequately protected.”  Over 1,500 heart attack survivors are involved in the $30 million research, which is testing chelation therapy, a controversial treatment typically used in lead poisoning.  Those directing the research—conducted at 100 sites around the U.S. and Canada—voluntarily stopped patient enrollment when the investigation began. People already enrolled are still being treated, said a spokeswoman for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, study co-sponsor with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

While more than two people have died, the Miami doctor leading the study—Dr. Gervasio Lamas of the University of Miami—said the “deaths were not a direct result of the treatments,” according to the AP report.  Lamas also admitted that he is unclear precisely how many deaths have occurred and acknowledged that some doctors involved “have been disciplined by state boards or have criminal records and have been asked to drop out,” the AP says. More Major Chelation-Heart Disease Study Enrollment Halted Pending Investigation

A new University of Chicago study—the first such comprehensive review of elder mistreatment in the United States—has found that approximately 13 percent of elderly Americans are subject to abuse.  Worse, such elders are most commonly abused by a person who either verbally or financially abuses them.  “The population of the country is aging, and people now live with chronic diseases longer.  So it’s important to understand, from a health perspective, how people are being treated as they age,” said lead author Edward Laumann, the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor in Sociology at the University of Chicago.  While other studies have been conducted, they were based on small, non-representative samples of the population or on data gathered from the criminal justice system or welfare agencies. As such, those studies were not considered as comprehensive as this new study, which was conducted in response to a National Research Council report calling for scientific study of elder mistreatment.

Laumann and his research team found nine percent of adults reported verbal, 3.5 percent reported financial, and 0.2 percent reported physical mistreatment.  The study also found physical impairment plays a role in mistreatment.  “Older people with any physical vulnerability are about 13 percent more likely than those without one to report verbal mistreatment but are not more likely to report financial mistreatment,” said co-author Linda Waite, the Lucy Flower Professor in Sociology at the University.  The study revealed adults in their late 50s-60s are more likely to report verbal or financial mistreatment than older patients. “Perhaps the respondents are including fairly routine arguments, perhaps about money, with their spouse, sibling or child in their reports or perhaps older adults are more reticent to report negative behavior,” Laumann said.  The findings found wide variations in mistreatment depending on age and ethnicity and were reported in “Elder Mistreatment in the U.S.: Prevalence Estimates from a Nationally-Representative Study,” published in the current issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. More Study: Over 10 Percent Of Older Americans Suffer Abuse

We have long been reporting on the horrendous conditions in some of this country’s nursing homes as well as some of the abuses suffered by nursing home residents.  In one such case, 54-year-old resident Karen Preston left the Roscoe Manor Adult Home in uptate New York; stumbled into the woods about a mile away; fell repeatedly; wandered in circles; curled up under a tree; and was found by police, two days later, frozen.  Her socks were nearby and she was not wearing shoes.  The medical examiner ruled that she died of hypothermia.  Preston suffered from severe schizophrenia and lived in Roscoe Manor because she needed help with daily activities and self-care.

In many of this country’s worst adult homes, residents are routinely subjected to neglect, filth, and indifference according to a Times Herald-Record investigation found.  A year after the Preston disappearance, another Roscoe Manor resident—Ella Maye—left the home.  Maye, 78, suffered from dementia and heart disease and state police believe she suffered a fatal heart arrhythmia as she was trying to crawl back to Roscoe Manor when she collapsed on a neighbor’s front lawn and died.  Roscoe Manor is supposed to conduct hourly bed checks; however, owner Charles Benson said an employee had failed to do so.  No one noticed Ella Maye was missing. More Shameful Conditions Continue in Adult Homes

In an attempt to save money, nursing homes all over the country are evicting their most vulnerable residents.  According to The Wall Street Journal, formal complaints about nursing-home discharge practices have doubled over the past decade, making it the second biggest category of nursing home abuse complaints after those concerning unanswered calls for help.

Federal law does allow nursing homes to evict residents in some circumstances, but many elderly advocates say that the homes take advantage, and use evictions to get rid of their most expensive patients.  For that reason, residents with dementia, those who have demanding families, and especially those whose bills are paid by Medicaid are most likely to be turned out of nursing homes. According to The Wall Street Journal, patients on Medicaid  bring in only half the revenue of those utilizing private insurance or Medicare. More Improper Nursing Home Evictions Put Elderly at Risk

A 58-time sexual offender was placed in a Florida nursing home in 2002 at the order of a district court judge.  Ivy Edwards, 83, sexually assaulted a 77-year-old female resident suffering from dementia.  Exactly six years ago tonight, Edwards wheeled himself into the patient’s unlocked room, used his cane to block the door, and assaulted Virginia Thurston.  Staff making rounds found Thurston’s door locked.  They found Edwards in the patient’s bed.

Thurston’s daughter, Sandy Banning, was told nothing occurred; however, a social worker told Banning her mother had been sexually assaulted.  Edwards was arrested for the 59th time.  “She didn’t remember,” Banning said, “I had to take her to be examined and watch her cry.”  Meanwhile, Banning has been waiting six years for Florida lawmakers to protect vulnerable nursing home residents from sexual abuse by known predators. More Laws Still Not in Place to Protect Nursing Home Residents from Sexual Assaults

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial Law and Administrative Law just approved the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2008, moving the Act one step closer to becoming law. The Act prohibits the signing of an arbitration agreement as a prerequisite to nursing home admission. Critics of such agreements say they only help shield the owners of long-term care facilities from the consequences of allowing nursing home abuse and neglect to occur on their premises.

This means that a pre-dispute arbitration agreement between a long-term care facility and a resident—or those acting on a resident’s behalf—are not valid nor are these pre-dispute agreements specifically enforceable. Republicans on the subcommittee voted against the measure and some members tried to add amendments to make the Act easier on nursing homes, for example, Representative Chris Cannon (Republican-Utah) tried to add language to exclude nursing home physicians and providers and ensure the bill would not be retroactive, to name a couple. These amendments were shouted down in voice votes. More Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act Approved