Elderly people who want to avoid nursing homes often employ in-home aids to help meet their day-to-day needs.  However, in many cases, the in-home aid industry is unregulated, and advocates for the elderly say that this situation has led to a growing number of cases of elder abuse, neglect or fraud in which home caregivers take advantage of the elderly.

A district attorney in San Diego County, Calif. told The Wall Street Journal that  he prosecuted at least 25 home caregivers in the past year, mostly for stealing from elderly clients.  Another, from Lake County, Calif., told the Journal that about 80 percent of his office’s 74 prosecutions of elder abuse in the past year involved home aides. More Elder Abuse by In-Home Aids a Growing Problem

A recent Cornell University study reports aggression among nursing home residents—verbal and physical abuse–is more common than once believed.  In an online report with McKnight’s Long Term Care News, the study claims that many observations made at a city-based nursing home found at least 35 different types of abuse, with screaming being the most popular.  Physical violence included pushing, punching, and fighting.

The report also discussed another two-week study wherein researchers found that 2.4 percent of nursing home residents claimed to have been victims of physical aggression; 7.3 percent claimed they were verbally abused.  A third report discussed an investigation in which 12 nurse observers found 30 incidents of aggression between residents in one eight-hour shift.  Victims were most commonly male and often had “wandering cognitive processing problems.” More Aggression Among Nursing Home Residents Not That Uncommon

A new nursing home rating system should be up and running on the Medicare Website by the end of this year.  The new site will employ a 5-star system to rate nursing homes based on government inspection results, staffing data and quality measures.  It is hoped that the new ratings systems will act as an incentive to encourage nursing homes to improve quality, and to stem the high rate of nursing home abuse and neglect that endangers so many residents.

There are 16,400 nursing homes with over 1.5 million residents nationwide.  Unfortunately, the quality of many nursing homes is questionable -  according to a recent report by the General Accounting Office, approximately one-fifth of all nursing homes were cited for serious deficiencies last year.  The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates at least one in 20 nursing home patients has been the victim of negligence and or abuse, though it concedes that the number is probably higher. According to the National Center’s study, 57% of nurses’ aides in long-term care facilities admitted to having witnessed, and even participating in, acts of negligence and abuse. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that nursing home neglect played role in the deaths of nearly 14,000 nursing home patients between 1999 and 2002. Even when the consequences are not fatal, nursing home negligence robs victims of a sense of security and their dignity. More Nursing Home Ratings System to be Online By Year’s End

Nursing home abuse and neglect has reached epidemic levels. Unfortunately, many nursing home patients and their family are signing away one of the most important tools in the fight against abuse and neglect – their right to sue.

The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates at least one in 20 nursing home patients has been the victim of negligence and or abuse, though it concedes that the number is probably higher. According to the National Center’s study, 57% of nurses’ aides in long-term care facilities admitted to having witnessed, and even participating in, acts of negligence and abuse. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that nursing home neglect played role in the deaths of nearly 14,000 nursing home patients between 1999 and 2002. Even when the consequences are not fatal, nursing home negligence robs victims of a sense of security and their dignity. More Nursing Home Arbitration Agreements Unfair to Residents

In a report scheduled for release today, the Congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals a widespread “understatement of deficiencies,” that include malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of prescription medications, and nursing home resident abuse in the nation’s nursing home inspection reports.  The report states that nursing home inspectors routinely ignore or minimize problems that pose serious, immediate patient threats.

Facilities are generally inspected once yearly by state employees who work under contract with the federal government.  Federal officials attempt to validate state inspector work by joining them on visits or conducting follow-ups.  It was in a follow-up that the GAO discovered the state missed at least one serious deficiency in 15 percent of all inspections.  Worse, in nine states—Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming—inspectors missed serious problems in over 25 percent from 2002 to 2007. More Nursing Home Problems Missed in Inspections, GAO Says

A recent study has shed new light on the frequency of depression among nursing home patients.  The study – which involved 272 elderly patients with an average age of 81— looked at how often those patients reported feeling depressed and were prescribed antidepressants at both a long-term care facility and through a home-care agency.  The research revealed that patients in a nursing home setting are more likely to be prescribed antidepressants and to self-report depression as compared to those patients being treated in a home-health care setting.  Jodi Shapuras and Lindsay Egan, undergraduate students in the social work program at ISU, conducted the research at their internships as part of a senior-level field practicum class.  Shapuras and Egan said they weren’t surprised by their findings.

“We are both interested in working with the elderly population in our careers, so we conducted this research to get a better feel for the prevalence of depression in those who need some level of outside care,” said Shapuras of Mitchell, Indiana.  “As social workers, it is important to understand the mental health issues, such as depression, within the different care settings.  We actually hypothesized that the long-term care patients would utilize antidepressants more and would self-report depression more,” said Egan of Terre Haute, Indiana. “When an individual moves to a long-term care facility, they undergo a tremendous amount of changes.  They are no longer able to live independently and are relying on others for care and this greatly affects how they feel about themselves and the world around them.” More Elderly in Nursing Homes More Likely to be Depressed Than Those Living at Home

Nursing home abuse, though despicable, is hardly uncommon. Although laws vary by state, most states do have laws—which include criminal penalties—in place to protect senior citizens from elder abuse; nursing homes are not exempt from these laws.

Unfortunately, nursing home abuse tends to be underreported because individual homes do not take elder abuse seriously and residents fear embarrassment, injury, even incapacitation for speaking up.  As with any abuse, the only way to prevent more instances is to stop it immediately as soon as abuse is suspected. More Reporting Suspected Nursing Home Abuse

Families in need of nursing care for a loved one will now have easier access to a list of the most troubled nursing homes in the country, thanks new information being added to a nursing home website developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.   Consumer groups are cheering the move, and say that the site – Nursing Home Compare – is now the most complete national site available for finding specifics on nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Nursing home abuse is one of the most serious problems facing this country’s elderly.  Though it concedes that the true number is probably much higher, The National Center on Elder Abuse estimates at least one in 20 nursing home patients has been the victim of abuse. According to the National Center’s study, 57% of nurses’ aides working in long-term care facilities admitted to having witnessed, and even participating in, acts of abuse. The report sites systemic problems within the nursing home industry, like inadequate pay for workers and chronic understaffing, as contributing to the epidemic of abuse. There are nearly 1.4 million Americans living in nursing homes right now, and that number is expected to more than double in the next decade. As it does, advocates for the elderly and disabled fear that incidences of abuse will continue to climb as well. More Worst Nursing Homes Named on Federal Website

Nursing home negligence by Connecticut’s largest nursing home chain was the result of fraud committed by a Haven Healthcare official.  Those claims are made in a wrong death lawsuit filed by the family of Robert Wininger, a resident of one of Haven Healthcare’s nursing homes who the lawsuit claims died as a result of the nursing home negligence.  The suit claims  misappropriation of Haven funds by Chief Executive Officer Raymond Termini contributed to “deplorable conditions” at Connecticut’s largest nursing home chain.

The family is also seeking permission to sue the state departments of public health and social services and Nancy Shaffer, the state’s long-term care ombudsman, for failing to investigate and act on complaints lodged by Wininger’s family.

Wininger was a patient at Haven homes for nearly 2 1/2 years when he was rushed from Haven Health Center of Norwich to Backus Hospital on June 5, 2007 after his wife found him in excruciating pain and his legs gangrenous and in early rigor mortis, allegedly due to an untreated and infected pressure sore on his hip and physical restraints that immobilized him. Wininger died two days later. The lawsuit names Termini; Dr. Cornelio Hong, former medical director at several Haven nursing homes; and Dr. Joselito Endaya, Wininger’s treating physician and a partner in Hong’s private medical practice as defendants. Endaya does not appear to have been on Haven’s payroll. More Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit Says Misappropriation of Funds for “Deplorable Conditions” at Haven Healthcare Facility

Nursing home abuse and nursing home negligence is a growing problem in the US, but now there is a new tool available to help families avoid the worst nursing homes.  The Bush administration finally published the names of 131 of the nation’s worst nursing homes.  The administration initially tried to protect the deficient nursing homes, claiming some of the facilities were already showing signs of improvement.  But that decision drew the ire of congress, elderly advocates and others who said consumers needed the list to protect loved ones from nursing home abuse and negligence. the list was ultimately released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and represents those troubled facilities that are cited as being a “special focus facility,” a designation used to identify facilities needing increased oversight.  For these nursing homes, states conduct inspections at six-month intervals rather than annually.

Last November, the government released only a partial list of 54 nursing homes that ranked among the worst in their states, however, a group of Democratic lawmakers pushed for full disclosure.  CMS said Tuesday it was publishing the names after cross checking information to ensure they released the most accurate data.  CMS will update its list of negligent nursing homes on a quarterly basis, with its next release scheduled for April. More “Worst Nursing Home List” Now Online