California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

A few times a year we hear news stories of Alzheimer's sufferers wandering away from their homes and becoming lost. Those stories end one of two ways, and unfortunately, too often the ending is not a happy one.

These sad stories have created a cottage industry for nursing home providers. We have all now heard of nursing homes advertising themselves with "special neighborhoods for the memory impaired." Or providing "safe and secure" housing for the Alzheimer's patient. But what happens when the victim wanders away from those facilities?

A few years ago, such a thing happened in Escondido. Then a 94-year-old woman walked out of Palomar Heights Care Center in Escondido and into the path of a car, killing her instantly. Caregivers told the media that they didn't know what happened, but a subsequent lawsuit revealed some serious neglect on the part of the home.

It happened again yesterday in Castro Valley. An 89-year-old Alzheimer's sufferer was killed by a car after wandering away from an "Alzheimer's & Dementia Care Facility." It's unclear how this incident occurred, but you can bet that the primary reason the family of the victim placed him in the facility was to prevent the very thing that took his life. An investigation into the accident is ongoing.

Source: Mercury News

The nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults who have been victims of physical abuse in the nursing home, and those who have been neglected or received substandard care. Call (866) 607-1325 or complete on online for for a free and confidential consultation.

USA Today has analyzed nursing home rankings under Medicare criteria and found that lowest scoring nursing homes tend to stay that way, year after year. Sadly, many of these poor performing nursing homes are the only nursing facilities for miles.

According to this article, twenty percent of the country's 15,700 nursing homes receive consistently poor ratings for the care they provide. With over 250,000 Americans living in skilled nursing facilities, that represents a huge number of vulnerable nursing home patients who are exposed to abuse or neglect every day.

"We want to see improvements, but we don't expect a nursing home will jump to a five-star rating within a one-year time period," said Medicare's Thomas Hamilton.

The USA Today analysis found an average of 14 annual deficiencies per facility.

Source: USA Today

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults throughout California who have been abused or neglected in the nursing home and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

Nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers in California often lament the state's weak enforcement of bad nursing homes. The California Department of Public Health, due primarily to inadequate funding, rarely provides the strong oversight of California's 1,200 or so licensed skilled nursing facilities. As a result, bad nursing homes operate with relative impunity, and those who screw up rarely suffer the consequences.

Apparently California is not alone. In Connecticut, the director of the state's Department of Public Health said his unit is dangerously understaffed. He has only four investigators to oversee the state's 231 certified nursing facilities, and told the Norwich Bulletin that if he had 10 more, he would have a lot more cases.

State Sen. Edith Prague has apparently had enough. She is set to re-introduce a bill that would make it easier to hold the owners of nursing homes criminally responsible for abuse and neglect of patients in their facilities. Under Prague’s bill, the state's DPH would be required to include a notice in nursing home applications telling owners they could be held criminally liable for patient neglect by employees, including for things such as inadequate staffing. “You can’t sue the state, but the nursing home owners who cut back on staffing I feel should be held responsible,” Prague said.

The bill was partly motivated by the story of Robert Wininger, a Connecticut man who died after developing gangrene in both legs while residing in a nursing home. The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and named as a defendant the state's public health commissioner.

Do we need such a bill in California? At Walton Law Firm, we have seen many deplorable acts of neglect and abuse, many of which have been investigated by the state, only to result in a small slap on the wrist. Maybe the threat of criminal prosecution would force the repeat offenders to either sell to competent owners or get out of the business.

Source: Norwich Bulletin

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults throughout California who have been abused or neglected in the nursing home and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

If you considering using the services of a residential care facility for the elderly or an assisted living facility, you may be wondering how to select a good one. Unfortunately, there is no rating system like you might find in hospitals, and now nursing homes, but there are actions you can take that will help ensure you make the right choice.

The California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) have created a checklist to use when researching care facilities for the elderly. First and foremost, evaluate the most recent inspection report from the California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing (DSS). Your local DSS office will have a complete inspection file on every facility within its jurisdiction, and you have a right to review. Simply contact the office and make an appointment to go review the file. (Click here to find your local DSS office).

When reviewing the file, you want to make sure to examine:

● The inspection report. How did the facility do? Were there deficiencies, and, if so,did they involve resident care?
● Any complaints made against the facility in recent years, and how those complaints were addressed.
● Request to see the "Advisory Notes," form of written consultation provided by the licensing evaluator to the facility.

In addition, use the CANHR checklist to get a good idea about the day-to-day life in the facility, and to determine which home is best for you:

● Visit each facility several times.
● Pay special attention to how residents are being treated by staff and the quality and responsiveness of the services. Don't be sold only on the attractiveness of the facility.
● Narrow the options down to two or three facilities.
● In making visits, walk through the whole facility and visit at different times.
● Drop by unannounced and visit at night and/or on the weekend.
● Make sure that you visit during a mealtime.
● Obtain a copy of the admission agreement. Read it carefully. Understand the services, costs and conditions for transfer.

Click here to see the entire CANHR checklist.

Before making the decision, do your homework. You may be preventing a major headache down the road.

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults throughout California who have been abused or neglected in the skilled nursing facility, residential care facility for the elderly, and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

U.S. News and World Report, famous for its "best" lists, is out with a ranking of the country's best nursing homes. There are approximately 16,000 individuals living in U.S. nursing homes, and approximately 3.2 million will spend time in one each year. Here at Walton Law Firm we get asked all the time to recommend nursing homes, but rarely can provide a good answer. In our experience, the best guarantor of good care is an attentive family who visits frequently.

Here is a list of the top 25 Southern California nursing homes as ranked as the U.S. News and World Report ranks as the best:

1. Rady Children's Hospital Bernardo Center, San Diego
2. Community Care Center, Duarte
3. Green Acres Lodge, Rosemead
4. Harbor View Center, Long Beach
5. Hillcrest Manor Sanitarium, National City
6. Parkside Special Care Center, El Cajon
7. Providence St. Elizabeth Care, North Hollywood
8. Whittier Hospital Medical Center, Whittier
9. Windsor Manor, Glendale
10. All Saints Healthcare Sub-acute, North Hollywood
11. Artesia Christian Home, Inc., Artesia
12. Bear Valley Community Hospital, Big Bear Lake
13. Brotman Medical Center, Culver City
14. California Convalescent Center, Los Angeles
15. Cherrylee Lodge, El Monte
16. Clear View Sanitarium, Gardena
17. Community Convalescent Center of San Bernardino, San Bernardino
18. Country Villa Broadway Healthcare Center, San Gabriel
19. Country Villa Glendale Healthcare Center, Glendale
20. Dunlap Sanitarium, Los Angeles
21. Glenbrook at La Costa Glen, Carlsbad
22. Kearny Mesa Convalescent, San Diego
23. Lanterman Developmental Center, Pomona
24. Marguerite Gardens, Alhambra
25. Monterey Care, Rosemead

To read the complete list click here.

The list was compiled by a variety of measurements, including state inspections, nursing home staffing, and other quality measures under Medicare and Medicaid guidelines. As mentioned in U.S. News, the "grade" is just that, a grade. It doesn't mean that your experience at this home will be of the quality suggested. There is no substitute for an in-depth visit to the nursing home you choose, which should include speaking with other residents and their families.

Source: U.S. News and World Report

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults who have been abused or neglected in the nursing home and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

This story is flat-out disturbing, and started with a concern we have heard many times from the families of our nursing home abuse clients. It began with Phyllis Peters could not wake up her 97-year-old mother, who was residing in Kern Valley Nursing Home. When she complained to Gwen Hughes, the nursing home's director, Hughes would "chemically restrain" the patient by giving her powerful anti-psychotic drugs to shut her up. Hughes did this to other residents in the nursing home, and three of them died.

In a report from the California Attorney General, Hughes ordered one patient drugged because she "glared" at her. Another was given high doses of an anti-psychotic drug for throwing a carton of milk. Several residents became severely malnourished, and were left in bed drooling and emaciated.

"In a couple cases, elderly people were actually held down, restrained against their will, and given excessive amounts of medicine to keep them quiet," said AG Jerry Brown.

But here's the stunner. Hughes had been fired from a previous nursing home for over-drugging there. When the previous employer was called as a reference for the job at Kern Valley, they failed to explain why Hughes was terminated out of fear of lawsuits (ironically, since now they will become a part of a huge lawsuit). As a result of the deaths, Hughes, administrator Pamela Ott, and physician Hoshang Pormir have been charged with criminal elder abuse, all facing up to 11 years in jail. Lawsuits by the surviving family members, and probably others, are certain to follow. The FDA estimates that unnecessary anti-psychotics kill 15,000 nursing home patients each year.

Source: ABC News

The elder abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults throughout California who have been abused or neglected in the nursing home and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

According to new research from Brown University, elderly Hispanics are more likely to live in inferior nursing homes than their white counterparts.

In an article out in the January 10 edition of Health Affairs, a team of researchers takes the first comprehensive look at the types of nursing facilities Hispanic elderly live in, and how the care at those homes compares to homes that house a primarily white patient population. According to the study, the disparity is sharp.

"The most shocking finding is the pervasiveness of disparities in nursing home care that are primarily white, compared to nursing homes that are a mix of whites and Hispanic residences," said Mary Fennell, professor of sociology and community health at Brown.

According to Fennell, the study reflects a change in elder care among Hispanic families, which traditionally has used nursing homes less than white or black families. In Hispanic households, care of the elderly is usually provided by adult daughters. But the economic realities of 21st Century America are changing that. Fennell said that the loss of in-home caregivers is occurring as the growth of elderly Hispanics is rising dramatically.

The study found that nursing home residents are increasingly coming from the lower end of the socio-economic scale, and lacking resources for better quality care in assisted living facilities or elsewhere. "People with resources can get into very good places or alternatives for nursing home care," Fennell said. "Everyone else is left with not-very-good facilities that are not performing well."

Source: Brown University

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults who have been abused or neglected in the nursing home and assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.