Hospice Care May Not Be As Sincere as Families Believe

What is Hospice Care?

Hospice care refers to the provision of medical and emotional support to people who are in the last stages of a serious illness, or those who are thought to have six months left due to a particular illness. Such patients agree to shift from the exhausting treatments for illnesses such as cancer or heart failure, to… more »

Alzheimer’s Patients Victims of Nursing Home Abuse

Sending your loved ones to a nursing home might be a growing concern for you, especially if you are aware of the number of Alzheimer’s patients who have been victims of nursing home abuse each year. Nursing homes cater for almost 75 percent of Alzheimer’s patients every year. These Alzheimer’s patients are 80 years of age or more. Dementia, whose… more »

Lack of Care Choices Results in Many Young People Relying On Nursing Homes for Their Medical Care

Nursing homes are generally defined as public homes where those people live who do not require hospital care but at the same time, cannot live at home because an injury or disability makes them unable to care for themselves. In the past few decades of advancing medical care, there have been more turnarounds in serious health injuries than it could… more »

Nursing Home Employee’s Whistleblower Lawsuit Moves Forward

There were over 16,000 nursing homes in the U.S. by the year 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 1.7 million beds, of which 86 percent had been occupied. An elderly lives in a nursing home for an average of 2.5 years before eventually dying or leaving the home due to lack of funds given by… more »

Illinois Nursing Home Administrator Faces Criminal Charges Stemming From Theft of Patient Funds

Employees at nursing homes widely abuse the elderly. However, the financial abuse is rarely ever talked about. There are not many statistical reports that give insight into the amount of financial abuse Americans aged 65 or older face at nursing homes. These elderly are the people admitted to nursing homes by family members because the elderly cannot take of themselves… more »

Are Fines Enough To Incentivise Nursing Homes To Improve Care?

Why are Financial Penalties Imposed?

Penalties are usually imposed on a nursing home when a serious deficiency is uncovered or if a known deficiency is not addressed for extended periods of time. If found to withhold correctional measures, the nursing home in question may be fined or may be denied payments due from government health programs such as Medicaid or… more »

Medications Used to Control Pain in Elderly Nursing Home Patients Can Be Fatal If Not Properly Monitored

People nowadays are tentative to send their dear ones to a nursing home for treatment and care. A major reason behind this hesitancy is the prevalence of careless attitudes and poor services that exist in the nursing homes nowadays. One of the commonly experienced issues is not giving the right medications to patients or not monitoring those medications.

This results… more »

Poor Communication Alleged in Nursing Home Patient’s Death

Nursing home care is often adversely affected due to poor communication. Open communication channels between hospitals, nursing assistants, nurses in charge, directors and administrators, and other staff is the key to keeping problems from becoming too serious.

Most nurses in nursing homes rely almost entirely upon discharge information provided by the hospital when transitioning patients in nursing home care. Multiple… more »

Bed Rail Entrapment Remains a Threat to Nursing Home Patients

Amongst a myriad of issues faced by patients in nursing homes, one that requires immediate and serious concern is the entrapment of patients in the bed rails. Bed rail entrapment refers to patients being trapped in the rails of their bed, which causes obstruction in their movement and makes them unable to get out of their bed. Being stuck in… more »

Nursing Home Scrutinized Over the Way They Handle Post-Fall Care of Patient

Nursing homes were considered a safe haven for the elderly and people did not hesitate in sending their loved ones to nursing homes in the past. However, the scenario has changed to a great extent. What was once a safe and secure haven has now become a dangerous place. Nursing homes have been severely criticized for their patient care and… more »

Nursing Home Slapped With Huge Verdict After They Fail To Summon Medical Care for Patient

Elderly people who have succumbed to a disease or illness are vulnerable and frail. They are in a very precarious state, where the slightest aggravation to their body can cause severe health damage. Family members are usually not equipped with the expertise and resources to care for their ill loved ones, so they decide to admit their elderly family members … more »

Recent Nursing Home Fines Suggest General Lack of Patient Oversight

Nursing homes are increasingly becoming a place of distrust and oversight, rather than what they were created to be, a safe and comfortable home for the elderly.

Recently, many nursing homes have been fined for their oversight of patients and the lack of care of patients. Elderly individuals are admitted to nursing homes in the hopes that they will be… more »

Behind Closed Doors: Sexual Abuse Alleged At Nursing Home

Nursing homes are supposed to be a comfortable and safe haven for elderly individuals who are suffering from illnesses and require special medical attention. Families of the elderly people who reside in nursing homes want to be satisfied with the care their loved one is receiving and want the best for their elderly family members.

When a family member makes… more »

Nursing Home Patients Remain The Real Victims In The War On Quality Nursing Home Care

Someone once told me that a society should be judged on how well it takes care of its poor, its veterans and its elderly. We are currently failing when it comes to the overall regard that we have for the elderly in our society. After making severe cuts to the Medicare/Medicaid system and other cuts that have specifically targeted nursing… more »

Alzheimer’s Patient’s Family Sues Caregivers

December 11, 2012—The family of a woman who was living in an assisted-care facility has filed a lawsuit against the home claiming that, among other things, the woman had maggots growing in her ear from lack of hygiene and personal care.

The Lutheran Home, located in Arlington Heights outside of Chicago, is charged with failing to provide a reasonable standard… more »

If This Nursing Home is in the Right, Why are its Operators Afraid of the Judicial System?

A Canadian nursing home chain, Extendicare, has decided to do business anywhere but in Kentucky, where it just leased all 21 of its facilities to another company. The decision was made after the company failed to sway the Kentucky legislature to pass a measure into law that would make it more difficult to sue nursing homes for negligence and … more »

Are Nursing Home Owners Putting Their Own Interests First?

The FBI apprehended a man and his wife in Atlanta this month for Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The man, George Houser, owned three nursing homes which were all in disrepair and providing a substandard of living to the patients they served. While we would like to believe that this is an isolated incident, recent studies and data have all… more »

Woman’s Death Highlights Risk of Financial Fraud for Elderly

The death of a woman last fall at Park Pointe Village retirement community in the Rock Hill area could have been prevented, representatives of the woman’s estate say in a lawsuit. The suit charges that the death of Pauline Cook, 82, could have been avoided if employees and staff at the OakBridge Terrace assisted living facility, which is in Park

… more »

Stage Four Pressure Sores: A Clear Indication Of Inattentive Care By Medical Facilities

Despite the perception that pressure sores, also known as bedsores, shouldn’t be a common problem in urban areas, pressure sore lawsuit filings in large, modern cities– such as Chicago– are more common than you may think. Do not allow yourself to be misled if a facility or caregiver insists that the development of pressure sores is just an inevitable fact… more »

Munchhausen’s Syndrome by Proxy: Exploitation and Injury

Most workers in nursing homes and care facilities go into that line of work out of a genuine desire to nurture and support others. Those individuals who tirelessly perform thankless, menial tasks of the health care industry deserve our respect and thanks for their service to those who cannot help themselves or who require assistance in performing simple tasks. However,… more »

Large For-Profit Nursing Home Chains, Declining Levels of Care, Increases In Patient Injury

The entire purpose of any for-profit corporation is to make money and to continuously implement new strategies that will increase profit and reduce expenses. How far is too far though when a company puts its own needs above those of the people it serves? The ten largest for-profit nursing care companies were put to the test last year in a… more »

Many Wrongful Death Cases Go Unnoticed at Skilled Nursing Facilities

By legal definition, wrongful death is any incident in which a person dies either due to an intentional act or negligence, which is classified as carelessness or inaction that has caused harm. Unfortunately, poor care in nursing homes is responsible for many premature deaths in elderly patients. However, many of these premature deaths are never investigated because the attending physicians… more »

Chicago Nursing Home Lawyer Reminds Family Members to be Vigilant About Care Of Elderly

After a lifetime of providing for the needs of their families, giving love and making sacrifice for those who they have cared about, our elderly really do deserve much better care than they have been receiving at many facilities. Nursing home abuse is a topic that few people like to talk about and most people would prefer to believe that… more »

Why Sexual Abuse Happens In Nursing Homes

When we think about nursing home abuse, the first things that come to mind are incidents of neglect that lead to complications such as malnourishment, dehydration and bed sores. We don’t want to imagine the possibility that our loved ones could be the victims of assault or sexual abuse. The amount of incidents that are being reported that related… more »

Patients Who Wander Require Special Care From Facilities

Elderly patients who have conditions such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or other mental disorders that cause confusion and memory loss have the tendency to wander aimlessly. The act of wandering has been known to contribute to some cases of elderly persons walking aimlessly outside of the facility and disappearing without a trace. Generally, wandering results in patients putting themselves unknowingly… more »

What Must Be Proven To Win A Nursing Home Neglect Lawsuit?

Nursing home neglect cases are considered medical malpractice lawsuits. Medical malpractice lawsuits are among the most difficult a lawyer will ever handle. A nursing home negligence case requires the patient, the “plaintiff,” to prove that his or her nursing home, residential care facility, or caretaker, the “defendant,”, deviated so far from what is accepted as “standard” care and treatment… more »

The Cost Of Medication Errors In Nursing Homes

It is startling to think of the number of medication errors in nursing homes that occur repeatedly and go unnoticed. These errors can result in complications such as suppressed appetite, incontinence, dementia, confusion, fractures and falls. Errors in the delivery of medications have become too common and the incidence of repeated errors is most concerning. Patients who are subject to… more »

Bed Sores: The Reason For Nursing Home Lawsuit

The family of an 88 year old man in La Junta, Colorado won a $3.2 million settlement after suing Pioneer Healthcare Center, a Rocky Ford nursing home and the nursing home the man was being cared for in when he died due to complications from a bed sore the size of a baseball. After the man developed the bedsore, it… more »

Is your loved one being adequately hydrated in the nursing home?

Next to oxygen, water is the most important building block for sustainable life makes up most of our bodies. Our blood is comprised mostly of water and our brain and muscles are made up of a high concentration of it as well. When we get older, however, we lose much of our water weight and are much more prone to… more »

Nursing Home Falls Can Be Reduced By Implementing Basic Precations

Falls among the elderly contribute to roughly 1,800 deaths each year and statistics are showing that the problem is greater in nursing homes than anywhere else. Only 5% of the population above the age of 65 lives in nursing homes, but falls in nursing homes account for 20% of the falls that occur nationwide, regardless of location.

Many of the… more »

Tips For Preventing Nursing Home Abuse

When a family makes the difficult decision to place their loved one in the care of a nursing home, they hope the provided caregivers will be as loving and responsible as possible. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Many elders are abused in nursing homes due to their age and physical frailty. Often, this abuse is in the form… more »

5 Steps For Caregivers To Reduce The Risk of a Patient Developing Pressure Sores

Pressure sores can occur when a person has been laying in one position for too long. They are common for the elderly who are bedridden or sit in a wheelchair most of the day. They usually form where the bone sits close to the skin, such as ankles, back, heels, and hips. Pressure sores can become infected, which can be… more »

Decubitus Ulcer Complications: Septic Shock

In the United States, there are over 934,000 occurrences of septic shock each year. Sepsis is an advanced form of infection that is caused by bacteria or fungus and, if not treated quickly, has an extremely high rate of mortality. Elderly people are already at a much higher risk than any other age group and many patients develop sepsis from… more »

Illinois Nursing Homes Continue To Accumulate Fines For Providing Inferior Care

It seems like a broken record, but the problems with patient care in Illinois nursing homes persist. One need look only to the recently published listing of quarterly nursing home violations from the first quarter of 2012 published by the Illinois Department Of Public Health (IDPH) to see that there are pervasive problems in nursing homes within the state. From… more »