Latest Nursing Home Abuse News
Lawmakers propose allowing private cameras in Ohio nursing homes to reduce elder abuse
By Chris Anderson | December 19, 2019 at 2:38 PM EST – Updated December 20 at 1:57 AM
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Two Democratic legislators proposed a bill that would allow families to place video recording devices in nursing home rooms to help eliminate elder abuse.
“There are approximately 16,000 cases of elder abuse reported every year in Ohio,” said Rep. Juanita Brent.
Elder abuse is defined as knowing and intentional neglect or abuse from a caregiver to a vulnerable adult.
If passed, residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, as well as their families, could provide consent to install private cameras in their rooms.
Nursing Home Aide Charged with Abusing Resident
POSTED 9:42 PM, DECEMBER 16, 2019, BY PEGGY LEE, UPDATED AT 11:07PM, DECEMBER 16, 2019
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A nursing home aide is accused of assaulting a woman in her care in Wilkes-Barre.
Police arrested Berianne Smith, 24, from Wilkes-Barre on charges that she attacked that resident.
Wilkes-Barre police say it was inside the Allied Services Meade Street Skilled Nursing facility on South Meade Street that a nursing home aide attacked a resident living here.
Officers were called to former Little Flower Manor Saturday evening after another aide told them he witnessed Smith assault that resident around 2:15 p.m. that afternoon.
Inside Washington’s Latest Nursing Home Regulatory Push: Forensic Abuse Analysis, Potential Ownership Scrutiny
By Maggie Flynn | December 12, 2019
If Sen. Chuck Grassley has his way, a new oversight bill for nursing homes will be introduced this month — one that reauthorizes the Elder Justice Act and sets up new funding for various programs in the 2010 law, passed as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Elder abuse is a long-standing issue for Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who, with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, held a series of hearings related to elder abuse and issues in nursing homes this year.
In his prepared opening remarks to the July 23 hearing on elder justice, he stressed the importance of revisiting some of the programs in the act. And in a recent interview with Skilled Nursing News in his Washington office, the Iowa senator re-emphasized the need to include key provisions for oversight — specifically those he believes have been overlooked in the past
‘Worse For Care’: Elder Abuse And Neglect Is A Well-Kept Secret In Vermont
By EMILY CORWIN • DEC 11, 2019
Vermont families who rely on eldercare homes often know little about their track records, despite state inspections that document problem after problem. Families make crucial care decisions in the dark.
Sherry Boudreau, a professional home-care provider, thought she was well qualified to make choices on behalf of her mother-in-law, Theresa Boudreau. The octogenarian agreed: As dementia was taking hold, she granted Sherry medical power of attorney.
Theresa, a resident of the Meadows at East Mountain in Rutland, began falling in 2015. She often tumbled from her wheelchair to the floor. In April 2018, the 87-year-old suffered a brain hemorrhage and broke facial bones in a fall that knocked her unconscious.
Crane, Mo. man pleads guilty to sexual abuse against nursing home residents
By Kadee Brosseau | Posted: Wed 5:14 PM, Dec 11, 2019 | Updated: Wed 5:34 PM, Dec 11, 2019
CRANE, Mo. — A Stone County man has been sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to first degree sexual abuse.
Paul Christianson, 44, of Crane was originally accused of raping two mentally handicapped women at Ozark Mountain Regional Healthcare in Crane.
According to online court records, Christianson accepted a plea deal on December 2, 2019. In addition to being sentenced to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for the sexual abuse conviction, Christianson will also undergo the 120 day Sex Offender Assessment Unit (SOAU) program. Under state law, if Christianson successfully completes the program, he could be released on probation after serving 120 days.
Alleged Verbal Abuse Caught On Camera At Albert Lea Nursing Home
December 10, 2019 at 2:10 pm
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — An investigation at St. Johns on Fountain Lake nursing home in Albert Lea has revealed alleged verbal abuse of a patient, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
Management at the facility was notified that a caregiver reportedly taunted a resident with “disparaging, derogatory and humiliating” language — and tapped the resident’s face face “in a slapping-type motion.”
The resident involved was admitted with a diagnosis of stroke, loss of ability to understand or express speech, left-sided muscle weakness or partial paralysis, diabetes, major depression disorder and generalized anxiety. The victim does not have any memory of the incident, documents say.
Syracuse nursing home aide slaps, bruises 90-year-old patient’s face, police say
Updated 4:56 PM;Today 6:00 AM
By James T. Mulder | jmulder@syracuse.com
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A Syracuse nursing home employee slapped a 90-year-old resident in the face with a wet cloth, bruising the elderly woman, according to police.
Syracuse police arrested a certified nurse aide Nov. 25 after conducting a lengthy investigation of the incident that occurred Oct. 19 at Bishop Rehabilitation & Nursing Center at 918 James St.
Cania Williams, 29, of Syracuse, was charged with endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor, and harassment in the second degree, a violation. The injuries were not severe enough to charge Williams with assault, said Officer Joe Commisso, a department spokesman.
5 Ga. nursing homes get abuse label
Federal website flags homes charged with neglect
ANDY MILLER | Georgia Health News | Updated: Nov. 29, 2019, 8:52 p.m.
Five Georgia nursing homes have a small red icon attached to their listing on a website that rates quality of care.
That mark is a new tool on the federal Nursing Home Compare site to warn consumers about facilities recently flagged for abuse or neglect.
The red symbol has been attached to listings of about 5 percent of the nursing homes listed nationally, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Opposition to Nursing Home Abuse Icon Grows as Group Warns of ‘Unintended Consequences’
By Alex Spanko | November 25, 2019
The long-term and post-acute care industry’s reaction to a new federal abuse warning icon for nursing homes was swift and negative when the plan was first announced last month — and now another voice has entered the fray to claim that the icons may actually do more harm than good.
Leaders from AMDA, the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, late last week characterized the icon as a misguided approach toward improving nursing home safety.
“We truly believe that this approach will have unintended consequences, and in fact be counterproductive to achieving the high-quality patient outcomes for which we strive,” AMDA president Arif Nazir and executive director Christopher Laxton wrote in a Friday letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma. “It will also be clearly detrimental to the motivation and engagement of thousands of very hard-working front-line staff members.”
Red Icon Warns Consumers Of Nursing Homes With Abuse Records
ANDY MILLER, GEORGIA HEALTH NEWS
NOV 25, 2019
Nursing home abuse citations, issued by state agencies after they have investigated complaints, remain rare, The Wall Street Journal reported. But the Government Accountability Office, a federal fact-finding agency, said in a June report that violations of federal standards more than doubled between 2013 and 2017 to 875.
Five Georgia nursing homes have a small red icon attached to their listing on a website that rates quality of care.
That mark is a new tool on the federal Nursing Home Compare site to warn consumers about facilities recently flagged for abuse or neglect.
The red symbol has been attached to listings of about 5% of the nursing homes listed nationally, according to The Wall Street Journal.