Articles Posted in Nursing Home/ALF Negligence

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Providers could see an automatic shift in their federal star ratings all because of several new changes to the system, including the controversial addition of a warning icon next to certain cited facilities and the removal of two pain quality measures.

The Centers for Medicaid & Medicaid Services announced last week that it is removing from the Nursing Home Compare website and the Five-Star Quality Rating System quality measures related to residents’ reported experiences with pain. 

The measures being removed are: percentage of short-stay residents who report moderate to severe pain and percentage of long-stay residents who report moderate to severe pain. 

CMS also announced last week that it will soon place a bright red “stop” hand icon next to facilities that have received recent abuse, neglect or exploitation citations. 

Nursing homes with an alert icon will have their highest-possible health inspection rating capped at two stars and their overall possible rating capped at four stars, said Amy Stewart, MSN, RN, DNS-MT, QCP-MT, RAC-MT, RAC-MTA, vice president of curriculum development for the American Association of Post-Acute Care Nursing.

Stewart added that providers could see a shift under the quality measures domain following the removal of the two measures. She strongly suggested that providers, especially those cited for abuse within the last 24 months, check their Five-Star Ratings once the changes go into effect on Oct. 23. 

She joined other providers in calling for CMS to address inconsistencies with surveys between states and to consider adding other determinants of quality instead of pursuing the “alert” icon, which some have pointed out actually conveys a much more foreboding “Do not proceed” message.

“Abuse is never OK,” Stewart said. “Abuse and neglect to the resident is never to be tolerated. We all agree on that, but the real issue is how surveyors determine whether abuse and neglect has occurred. We’re all one incident from potentially getting cited for abuse and then this icon being put up there.”

Quality measure thresholds will also be increasing under CMS’ latest efforts. The change could result in nursing homes seeing a decline in their ratings until improvements are made. 

CMS will begin increasing quality measure thresholds by 50% of the average rate of improvement in QM score, and will do this every six months. The agency hopes the change will “drive continuous quality improvement by raising standards for all facilities to achieve certain ratings,” documents stated. 

“As CMS changes the QM thresholds, some nursing homes will see a decline in their rating in these areas until they make further improvements. Also, because the QM ratings are also used as part of the overall rating, some nursing homes will see a decline in their overall five star rating,” CMS wrote.

Nursing home negligence can present itself as physical abuse, financial abuse, emotional abuse or any other types of abuse or neglect. Every year an estimated 2.5 million Americans are victims of elderly abuse through negligent nursing home care and assisted living facility care.  

Due to the fact that nursing home and assisted living facility residents are a very vulnerable population, family members and friends rely upon the chosen facility to ensure that their loved one receives the high quality of care and dignity they are entitled. Unfortunately, nursing homes and assisted living facilities don’t always do this. Nursing home negligence embodies anything that fails to protect residents from health and safety hazards. Negligence can result in severe injuries such as broken bones, bedsores or pressure ulcers, dehydration, malnutrition, and other medical conditions which cause harm and even death.

Our Tampa Bay Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers at Whittel & Melton will fight to recover all that you and your loved one deserve. We have extensive experience in nursing home negligence matters, and we are thorough in our investigations of each individual case. We know that no two cases are exactly alike, which is why we prepare each case for either settlement or trial in order to obtain financial compensation for injuries, medical expenses, and pain and suffering. Our ultimate goal is to help victims and their families hold these negligent facilities accountable.

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Yes, you can and our Tampa Bay Wrongful Death Attorneys at Whittel & Melton can help you. Unfortunately, what comes along with being the No. 1 destination for retirement migration in the United States is a Florida Nursing Home and Elderly Care business community that has a history of being labeled as broken, dirty, criminal, grossly negligent, reckless, and careless. Generally speaking, the financial and human demand of the senior citizens in our state has never been adequately met by a business community with satisfactory staffed facilities that operate with policies and procedures to allow the elderly the dignity of quality medical and human care in the later years of their life.

As has been done so many times in the past, this week another personal representative has filed a lawsuit in Pinellas County, this time against a Treasure Island nursing home facility, alleging negligence led to the death of a resident.

As reported, a personal representative of the deceased filed a complaint Nov. 13 in Pinellas Circuit Court against Cross Terrace Rehabilitation Center, alleging violation of a resident’s rights.

According to the complaint, during the deceased woman’s residency at Cross Terrace Rehabilitation Center, she suffered from physical abuse and neglect, leading to her death Sept. 20, 2015.

The personal representative alleges Cross Terrace Rehabilitation Center failed to timely and appropriately protect the deceased from abuse and/or neglect and failed to timely and appropriately document the mental and physical abuse and/or neglect she suffered.

No one should ever lose a loved one because of negligence or abusive treatment in a nursing home. Sadly, this happens across the country and especially our state every single day.

If you have concerns about the level of care and treatment of your loved one, speak up.  Each day is a blessing, especially for our elderly.

In addition to the legal accountability for a wrongful death (which could translate equally in both civil and criminal court), there are financial consequences that the nursing home owners, management and/or staff members may be responsible for.  In a wrongful death caused by negligence and/or abuse, surviving family members may be eligible to recover financial compensation for their loss as survivors pursuant to the Wrongful Death Statute in Florida.

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A Pinellas County resident is suing a nursing home, alleging insufficient measures were taken to prevent injuries and loss of consortium.

A personal representative of an elderly man who passed away filed a complaint July 10 in Pinellas County Circuit Court against FI-Highland Pines, LLC doing business as Highland Pines Rehabilitation Center, alleging failure to provide adequate and appropriate health care and protective and support services resulting in wrongful death.

According to the complaint, the senior suffering from the infirmities of aging, was a resident at Highland Pines Rehabilitation Center. The suit says he developed pressure sores and infections during his stay in the facility, which resulted in pain, suffering, disability, humiliation, mental anguish, health deterioration, malnutrition and wrongful death on April 2.

His heirs say they also suffered the loss of support, love, companionship and incurred substantial expenses in hospitalization, medical care and treatment and funeral expenses.

The suit alleges that Highland Pines Rehabilitation Center failed to provide adequate and appropriate health care and protective and support services resulting in wrongful death.

When you leave a loved one in a nursing home, you expect that they will be safe and well-cared for. You are paying the staff to care for your family member and look after their needs. However, it is all too common for seniors left in nursing homes to suffer from neglect and abuse at the hands of the staff in charge of their care. In the worst cases, incidents of abuse and neglect end up causing death. If the nursing home resident’s death was caused by abuse and neglect, their family members may be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home to recover compensation for the loss of their loved one.

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Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a Certified Nursing Assistant accused of sexually assaulting an 85-year-old man.

The 35-year-old is charged with one count of sexual battery.

Deputies say that through June 6 and June 9, the man sexually assaulted the man.

The man was allegedly working as a CNA at a senior living home, where the 85-year-old man lived.

The man is currently being held at Orient Road Jail.

Sexual assault in a nursing home or assisted living facility does happen. This can be the result of the facility not conducting proper background checks on every potential employee. When the facility fails to provide proper screening on any employee with a sexual abuse history, they can be held liable for any sexual abuse and/or negligence.

The facility can also be held liable for the sexual abuse because of improper employee supervision. This is often the result of poor training or understaffing. The nursing facility is required to properly train and supervise all employees on the best methods of spotting sexual abuse. When this does not happen, the facility can be held responsible for failing to take proper security measures to protect residents.

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After a dozen elders overheated and died in a Hollywood nursing home during Hurricane Irma last year, Florida has passed new rules requiring health facilities to install backup generators capable of keeping the air conditioning blowing if the power goes out.

The state healthcare agency in charge of regulating institutions like nursing homes and assisted living facilities has not been able to inspect all the generators before the start of hurricane season, which was June 1.

The Agency for Healthcare Administration sees facilities inspected once every two years, and apparently has no plans to change that. This means that some generators won’t be inspected by AHCA this storm season or possibly even before the season after that. There are nearly 3,800 nursing homes and ALFs around the state.

Local fire departments also inspect nursing homes annually for life and safety, so the generators could be checked then.

The rules passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott require healthcare facilities to submit a safety plan verifying they have installed a working generator or alternate power source that can supply electricity for a maximum of 96 hours.

AHCA is tasked with reviewing the new emergency power plans for the required generators, but the rules set few requirements for how the agency will ensure the plans are being followed.

The new rules also state that AHCA “may request cooperation” from Florida’s fire marshal to inspect the generators.

Penalties for not following the rules include but are “not limited to, license revocation, license suspension, and the imposition of administrative fines.” AHCA may also grant extensions until January 2019 for generator installation.

Pinellas County has 70 nursing homes and nearly 200 ALFs.

When a nursing home or ALF is not prepared to manage residents in the midst of a tropical storm or hurricane, it can cause residents to suffer from various personal injuries and even wrongful death. For those who suffer injuries while in a nursing home environment, our  Pinellas County Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys at Whittel & Melton can investigate whether the nursing home should be held responsible for their actions.

We can help injured nursing home residents recover financial compensation to cover medical expenses, therapy, rehabilitative care, as well as wrongful death expenses. We will look into nursing home and ALF policies and practices to determine if negligence contributed to, or caused a resident to suffer harm.

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