Articles Posted in Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse

Many different types of elder abuse can occur in nursing homes in the Boston area. While most people worry about physical and financial abuse as primary risks for seniors, sexual abuse is a real possibility that could have devastating effects for an older nursing home resident.

Victims of any type of nursing home abuse or neglect should consult with an experienced Boston nursing home abuse lawyer for help. Family members also need to be alert for signs of problems and inappropriate behavior, especially when nursing home residents are no longer able to communicate about the treatment that they are receiving.
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Increasingly, nursing homes and long-term care facilities are seeking ways to shield themselves from litigation stemming from neglect, abuse or negligence by shoving arbitration agreements in front of new patients.

Boston nursing home neglect lawyers know that in most cases, these agreements are not a mandatory element of acceptance into the facility, and they serve only to diminish the rights of those who have been injured as a result of the nursing home staff’s actions or inaction.

That doesn’t necessarily mean those whose disputes are handled by an arbitrator will be unsuccessful. However, the process tends to be skewed in favor of the facility, which is why we will often first assess whether there is evidence the arbitration agreement was unconscionable. In nursing home abuse cases, this usually is a result of the agreement being signed by someone too ill to make those kinds of decisions on their own, or by someone signing an agreement on the patient’s behalf when he or she did not have the legal authority to do so.
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Usually when we come across the issue of nursing home arbitration agreements, we are looking at it from the perspective of the patient and his representatives attempting to avoid an arbitrator and instead take the case to court.

The reason is because most of these forced nursing home arbitration clauses contain lots of fine print, and it essentially minimizes the facility’s risk of being held responsible for negligent action, which is typically better suited to determination by a judge and/or jury. Most people don’t realize these agreements often amount to forfeiture of many of the rights that would otherwise be afforded. Boston nursing home negligence lawyers have strategies for successfully striking down these agreements, including arguing that the agreement is unconscionable (inherently unfair) or that the party who signed it on behalf of the patient wasn’t legally authorized to do so.

The recent case of Walker v. Collyer, before the Massachusetts Court of Appeals, was different in that it involved an attending physician at a nursing home attempting to avoid being compelled to participate in arbitration with the widow of a deceased patient, per the terms of an agreement signed by the patient and the facility.
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Nursing home patients that require a number of treatments and care are at risk of serious injury or fatality when not properly attended. In any nursing home, patient care is critical to the health and well-being of patients. Medication errors, improper nutrition, dehydration, infection, or other harm related to treatment can be devastating. According to a February 2014 government report, 59% of injuries that occurred in nursing homes were preventable. This leaves patients vulnerable to errors and injuries that could ultimately be catastrophic or fatal.

The United States has a widespread problem involving the potential for patient injury. For-profit nursing homes nationwide are known to cut costs and corners that can cause serious accidents, injuries, and wrongful death. Our Boston nursing home injury attorneys are dedicated to protecting the rights of victims and their families. We are also committed to raising awareness to prevent future patient injuries and to improve nursing home care. Nursing home care injuries may involve medication errors, infection, failed treatments, or other issues involving neglect.
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Elderly patients, especially those who require nursing home care, are likely to depend on one or more drug prescriptions. Medication errors have been recognized as a common and growing problem in nursing home care that can result in serious injury or wrongful death. Nursing home facilities must have effective procedures and policies to ensure that every patient is given the proper medication and dosage.

Preventable medication errors are tragic and preventable. Responsible individuals or entities should be held accountable. Our Boston nursing home injury lawyers are committed to protecting the rights of our clients and in raising awareness to reduce the number of medication errors in Massachusetts and nationwide. In addition to helping victims report negligence and nursing home injury, we will provide strategic counsel and advocacy in any case involving medication error and injury or wrongful death.
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Arbitration agreements are increasingly common in nursing home contracts. Arbitration agreements stipulate that if there is a dispute between the nursing home resident and the nursing home facility, it must be handled via binding arbitration rather than in a court of law. This can make it difficult for plaintiffs to pursue legal action to obtain full compensation in cases where a nursing home has failed to live up to patient obligations.

Arbitration agreements can seriously curtail the rights of nursing home residents, and are part of an effort by nursing homes to reduce the potential risk of liability they face. In other words, instead of stepping up and making sure that the homes actually do right by patients, nursing homes are instead trying legal tricks to make it harder for plaintiffs to get damages after they are hurt.
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Alzheimer’s disease is cruel. It will steal a person’s memories, ability to speak, mobility and ultimately, their independence. In many cases, it will also cause patients to lose the ability to eat.

At this point, caregivers and loved ones need to decide whether it makes sense to have a gastric feeding tube inserted. This is usually an issue that arises toward the very end, when the disease has begun to chip away at the part of the brain that allows a person to perform basic functions, such as swallowing.

Loved ones who reach this difficult juncture believe they are essentially deciding whether to buy their aging relative more time or allowing them to slowly die.
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Families for Better Care has given Massachusetts a grade of “B” on the first ever state-by-state nursing home report card. Massachusetts was the 19th best state in terms of the quality of nursing homes on a state-by-state comparison, but unfortunately around one in four nursing homes in Massachusetts was cited for severe deficiencies.

Our Massachusetts nursing home abuse lawyers know that many nursing homes fail to live up to obligations to provide patients with quality care. It is important for those looking for a nursing home for themselves or for family members to do careful research in order to identify an appropriate nursing home environment.
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A new report published in The Journal of General Internal Medicine indicates that doctors in the U.S. are far too frequently prescribing drug that are potentially harmful to geriatric patients.

Our Boston nursing home negligence attorneys understand that the problem may be especially pronounced in nursing home facilities.

The study, conducted by medical doctors at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School in Rhode Island, found that one out of every five senior citizens receiving Medicare received prescriptions for drug that had been singled out by doctors as important for older folks to avoid, precisely because of the high risk of severe adverse side affects.

Factors such as socioeconomic status, access to quality care and education seemed to play a role in whether a person might be vulnerable to this type of negligence.

Researchers referenced the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s list of drugs for the elderly to avoid. It’s a sizable compilation, but some of the more common drugs included are:

• Antianxiety medications like Equanil and Equagesic;
• Antihistamines, such as Ephedrine, Diphenhydramine and Hydroxyzine;
• Amphetamines, like Adderall, Dexedrine and Dosoxyn;
• Barbituates, such as Amytal, Mephobarbital and Phenobarbital;
• Benzodiazepines, such as Valium, Libriumand Limbitrol;
• Skeletal muscle relaxants, such as Soma, Paraflex and Norflex;
• Oral estrogen;
• Narcotics like Meperidine, Pentazocine and Propoxyphene;
• Vasodilators, such as Ergot mesyloid and Isoxsuprine.

A lot of these drugs are widely prescribed to the general population, and usually without any major issues. The problem is that specifically for these substances, negative side effects are known to be amplified for older patients.

For example, Valium is a common anti-anxiety drug, and many people take it and have no major issues. But in older folks, there are elements of it that can be tough for the body to metabolize. That means it will stay longer in their system. That long-lasting sedation has the potential to increase their risk for falls. It also has a high risk of addiction. Even in a controlled environment, that kind of physical stress is harder on the body of an elderly person.

Researchers looked at data from some 6 million Medicare patients across the country to reach the conclusion that these drugs are being over-prescribed to older people. Of those 6 million, about 1.3 million had been prescribed at least one of these risky drugs. A smaller amount, about 5 percent, had been prescribed more than one of these substances simultaneously.

The author of the study says it’s not quite clear why this is being done at such high volumes. There may be exceptions for appropriate use in certain cases, but the increasing numbers in recent years – even when adjusted for a national demographic that is rapidly getting older – is a troubling indication that a lot of our elderly loved ones may be at serious risk of illness, injury or worse.
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A recent report by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services indicates that Medicare has been paying billions of dollars in taxpayer money to nursing homes in Massachusetts and across the country that aren’t even meeting basic needs requirements.

Our Boston nursing home negligence attorneys know that while many elder care facilities lament the fact that they often don’t have the money to provide for the intense demand, this report reveals that in 2009, $5.1 billion worth of Medicare funds went to nursing homes that did not meet federal quality of care rules. In a number of these cases, those failures exhibited neglectful and dangerous conditions, sometimes resulting in serious injury and even death.

To give you an idea of how common this problem is, investigators were able to break it down like this: Every third patient who landed in a nursing home that year was placed in a facility where basic standards of care were not met.

We’re not talking about luxuries here. We’re talking about the bare minimum.

By law, facilities that are reimbursed by the government for the care they provide to patients are required to formulate – in writing – a specialized care plan for every single patient. The goal is for all the doctors, therapists, nurses, aides and other caregivers to be on the same page about what that patient needs so that the person can receive the best care possible.

In too many cases, these plans aren’t being followed or sometimes not even properly developed.

For example, one-fifth of all care plans don’t address the patient’s specific health problems. In one example cited, an elderly patient was being given one medication for depression and two for psychosis. These are drugs that could have serious side effects, especially when used in combination and especially with an elderly person. And yet, the facility had made no plan to monitor the patient’s use of these drugs.

In other situations noted, patients were receiving therapy and treatments they didn’t actually need. These facilities apparently did not care that such action could in fact be harmful to patients or that it was a waste of money. It seems all they cared about were profits.

Ultimately, what this comes down to is that we as taxpayers are spending our hard-earned dollars to subsidize operations that are potentially putting our most vulnerable citizens at risk.

Still, this report should be just the beginning. While the inspector general did advise Medicare to improve regulations and oversight, it didn’t name any individual homes or estimate the number of patients believed to have suffered mistreatment.

Medicare officials responded that legislators should consider aligning federal reimbursements to nursing homes, based on their record for good care.
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