California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

The California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) has launched a comprehensive website that addresses the growing problem of drug misuse in California nursing homes. Every day, approximately 25,000 California nursing home patients are given an antipsychotic drug. Half of all dementia patients are administered these drugs despite FDA warnings these drugs can kill a dementia patient.

Because of this CANHR has launched a campaign to help end the drugging of California nursing home residents. CANHR states its goal this way:

The goal of the campaign is to stop nursing homes and doctors from misusing dangerous antipsychotic drugs and other types of psychoactive drugs to chemically restrain residents and to replace drugging with individualized care. Through education, advocacy and political action, we seek to bring Californians together to end this harmful practice.

The website is a great resource for families and professionals, and invites people to get involved in the campaign.

VISIT THE WEBSITE HERE

Also on the new website you'll have access to CANHR’s guide, Toxic Medicine: What You Should Know to Fight the Misuse of Psychoactive Drugs in Nursing Homes. This comprehensive booklet addresses all of the uses of psychoactive drugs in skilled nursing facilities, and provides guidance for residents and their families to avoid becoming a victim of these drugs.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD TOXIC MEDICINE: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW TO FIGHT THE MISUSE OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS IN NURSING FACILITIES [.pdf]

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

A resident of St. Edna skilled nursing facility in Santa Ana (a Covenant Care facility) was awarded $3.1 million by an Orange County after the jury found that the nursing home failed to recognize that the resident was overdosing on morphine. The jury also found that the nursing home acted with malice or oppression, and will award punitive damages at a hearing next Tuesday.

St. Edna's was among the many California nursing homes who received $880 million in Medi-Cal compensation from the state in a program that began in 2004, and was designed to promote care and avoid staffing deficiencies. Many homes that received the additional money still reduced staffing, despite profiting from the additional funds. Apparently St. Ednas was one of those homes.

In this case, Barbara Lefforge was admitted to St. Edna on Sept. 17, 2007, to rehabilitate from tendon repair surgery. Her surgeon mistakenly recommended 50 mg of morphine for pain instead of 50 mg of Demerol. That is a huge dose of morphine, which Lefforge's attorney argued should have been promptly caught by the nursing home staff. According to reports, a nurse at the facility could not get the full does, so took 30 mg from an office emergency kit and gave it to Lefforge, who suffered an overdose, which itself went unnoticed by the staff. She suffered a major brain injury.

“I feel this is a just result and fair based upon the conduct that St. Edna’s staff engaged in,” attorney Ted Wacker told the Orange County Register.

After deliberating for two days, the jury found St. Edna 90 percent at fault for the damages, and the surgeon who wrote the wrong prescription only 10 percent at fault. Jurors awarded $2 million for pain and suffering and $1.1 million in medical costs.

Source: Orange County Register

The Southern California nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abused or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential case evaluation.

The family of a man who was found dead in a ditch near a freeway overpass is blaming a Long Beach hospital for his death. Joseph Castillo, 63, had apparently been dead for several days when his body was found near the 405 Freeway near the 710 Freeway off-ramp.

According to family, Castillo suffered from advanced cancer, dementia, and diabetes, and had a trachea tube in his throat when he was released from Pacific Hospital in Long Beach at 2:00 a.m. on the 4th of July. He had been taken there when he collapsed at home the day before. After spending several hours in the hospital, he was released from the hospital, where it appears he just walked away.

When Castillo didn't return home, the hospital called the police to report him missing. Castillo's daughter said her family was unaware that her father was going to be released from the hospital, and expected that she, or someone else from her family, would have received a call to take the dementia suffering Castillo home. She believes her father was released prematurely because he was a Medi-Cal patient, and that he would be alive today had the family been contacted.

Source: KTLA.com

The San Diego accident and injury lawyers at Walton Law Firm represent individuals who have been injured in all types of incidents, including auto accidents, worksite injuries, nursing home neglect, food poisoning, pedestrian injuries, construction accidents, property injuries, and malpractice matters. Call (760) 571-5500 for a free and confidential consultation.

Over the last six years, complaints against Ventura County nursing homes are up almost twentyfold despite a California law that pumped nearly $900 million of Medi-Cal money into nursing homes throughout California. Remarkably, just prior to receiving the additional funds, Ventura County ombudsmen filed only 10 complaints against local nursing facilities, yet over a the period of July 2009 to May 2010 the same ombudsmen filed 194 complaints.

“The numbers show that (the law) did not do what it was supposed to do: increase the quality of care for residents in nursing homes,” Sylvia Taylor Stein, executive director of the Long Term Care Services of Ventura County ombudsman program, told the Ventura County Star. “They were given a checkbook with no oversight.”

By way of example, Oxnard's Shoreline Care Center received $877,356.00 in additional Medi-Cal funding from 2004 to 2008, but records show that the facility actually provided less nursing hours per patient per day than it did prior to the funding increase. It's not surprising that the nursing home took in $4.1 million in profits after the law was passed.

This news alarms, but does not surprise nursing home advocates. Mike Connors of the CANHR says it basically proves what he has known all along, that many nursing homes put profits ahead of people, “Staffing levels, using money for profits instead of care are all indicators of facilities that are putting money before care for residents,” Connors said.

Staffing is the single largest expense of any nursing home, and inadequate staffing is the source of may allegations of nursing home neglect. For example, Shoreline is being sued right now by experienced nursing home attorney Greg Johnson in a case where two CNAs attempted to move a paralyzed woman from her shower chair to her bed, opting to forego the use of a mechanical that was ordered by a physician. During the transfer, the resident's shoulder snapped with a loud crack, causing very serious medical problems.

“We’re talking about the difference between a 20-second transfer versus a five-minute transfer, and that adds up,” Johnson said, laying blame at the feet of the institution for failing to fund additional staffing when it's warranted. “I do not believe that these people who work in these facilities and work their butts off are uncaring because if they were, they wouldn’t work there. I’ve had CNAs cry when I say ‘How do you feel when you go home at the end of your shift?’”

Source: Ventura County Star

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abused or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting. Cases are accepted in all Southern California counties, including San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura County. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

In an ongoing investigation, journalists Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein of ProPublica have a startling article out that says that more than 3,500 registered nurses with "clean" nursing licenses from the State of California have been punished for misconduct in other states. According to the article, approximately 2,000 of these nurses will now face discipline in California.

The article states that California officials won't disclose the names of nurses who were discovered to have disciplinary records until charges are filed, but will be filing emergency petitions with the board for nurses who are viewed as a threat to public safety.

Weber and Ornstein easily uncovered cases involving current California nurses. Here's a sampling:

• Marci Nablo surrendered her Florida nursing license in 2007 after she admitted stealing painkillers from patient pain pumps.

• Karen Vivian had her Nebraska license suspended in 2008 after she made nine medication errors, including, unbelievably, putting ear drops into a patient's eye.

• Gregory Ashmore had is Tennessee nursing license revoked in 2002 when he engaged in sexual intercourse with a patient at a mental health facility.

All of these nurses currently maintain clean licenses in California. What's most startling is that California did not require nursing applicants to state whether they have disciplined in another state until 2008 (probably after ProPublica started its investigation). And as you would expect, ProPublica turned up several instances of nurses who were disciplined in other states, who later were accused of misconduct in California.

Click here to read the entire ProPublica article.

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abused or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential case evaluation.

SmartMoney.com has an article out entitled 10 Things Nursing Homes Won't Tell You. Which has been adapted from the book "1,001 Things They Won't Tell You: An Insider's Guide to Spending, Saving, and Living Wisely," by Jonathan Dahl.

Walton Law Firm thought you might like to see the list:

1. “We’re careless about the drugs we give out.”

The use of antipsychotic medications inside the nursing home has exploded in recent years, and has been discussed at length here. In California, nearly 60% of all California nursing home residents are given psychoactive drugs, a 30% increase since 2000, according to California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. It's become a real problem.

2. “We’re woefully understaffed.”

Staffing is the biggest problem in nursing homes today. According to Donna Wagner, a professor at Towson University, it is a "crisis." While it is optimal to have one caregiver for three to five residents, some nursing homes have one registered nurse for 50 to 60 residents.

3. “Mr. and Mrs. Smith, meet Sticky Fingers Louie.”

Nursing home charges can be ridiculously expensive. In 2009, a year of nursing home care cost over $70,000 for a semi-private room according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

4. “What you don’t know about your checkbook can hurt you.”

There are too many thefts in nursing homes (frequently by the employees).

5. “If it’s not in the care-plan, we’re not gonna do it.”

California nursing homes must prepare a "plan of care" for every resident, and then update it on a regular basis. The failure to provide a comprehensive care plan was the primary source of deficiencies issued against California nursing homes last year. It is supposed to be detailed, and address the specific needs of the patient, but too frequently is a generic plan that fails to address (and provide) for the residents’ special needs.

6. “‘Neglect’ is our middle name.”

In January of this year, the California Department of Public Health issued a citation to an Orange County nursing home, along with an $85,000 fine. The citation alleged that a resident died after falling and suffering a fatal head injury. The resident of falls, but the nursing home failed to take adequate precautions.

The neglect of a nursing home resident can be revealed in a variety of ailments, including pressure sores / ulcers, dehydration, infections, weight loss, fractures, etc.

7. “We use physical restraints on your loved ones.”

While it is not illegal to use physical restraints, they are supposed to be used only as a last resort, and only with a physician's authorization. In 2008, 10.97% of California facilities that received deficiencies did so for use of illegal restraints.

8. “Take our report cards with a grain of salt.”

Survey reports and nursing home ratings systems rarely tell the true story. It is well known that nursing facilities and tipped off and prepare for their annual visit from state inspectors. The never look or operate as well as they do for the week they are being evaluated.

9. “Fines? Go ahead— give us your best shot.”

Does a citation and a fine sting? Not really. In California, only $1.2 million of the $4.6 million assessed in fines was actually collected. Most homes appeal the citations as far as they can, they agree to a settlement where they pay much less.

10. “We can kick a resident out anytime we want.”

When the resident is too difficult, or requires too much care, the nursing home can always just evict them. This was the No. 1 complaint received by the State Long Term Care Ombudsman for New York in 2009, and is also an issue in California. Facilities must follow strict state guidelines, but beyond that there is no problem discharging residents to different facilities.

Source: SmartMoney.com by Lisa Scherzer and David Stires

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults throughout Southern 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.

The California legislature has called for an investigation into why only one-third of the fines assessed against nursing homes for negligent care are being collected. The audit that was approved in February is expected to look how the funds are collected and how they're spent.

Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles told California Watch, “The whole point of having citation accounts and the penalty system is to deter nursing homes from doing anything but provide the highest quality care to residents. If the fines coming in are less than a third of (those) issued, it leaves one to wonder if the state is being as effective as it could be in protecting nursing home residents.”

Records obtained by California Watch reveal that in 2008 state regulators collected only $1.5 million of the $5 million that had been assessed against California skilled nursing facilities. In comparison, the same regulators have collected nearly 80 percent of the fines levied against hospitals. Kathleen Billingsley, the deputy director of the Department of Public Health Center for Healthcare Quality, said nursing homes who appeal fines do not have to pay until the process is completed.

And while nursing homes continue to appeal more and more citations, they also appear to be getting steep discounts. Take the case of Casa Bonita Convalescent Hospital. The facility had been warned about turning off ventilator alarms, but ignored those warnings and allowed a 90-year-old resident died after her ventilator became disconnected and the alarm did not engage. The facility was assessed a $320,000 fine, but after appeals was only required to pay $20,000.

To read California Watch's full nursing home story package, which includes graphics, click here.

The nursing home negligence lawyers at Walton Law Firm provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abused or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting. Cases are accepted in all Southern California counties. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation.

California Watch is out with a disturbing report alleging that California nursing homes that received more than $880 million in additional taxpayer funds under a law designed to boost care, took the money did the opposite by cutting staff and wages. ["Nursing homes received millions while cutting staff, wages"] In its investigation, California Watch found 232 California nursing homes that either cut staffing, or paid lower wages to workers after receiving money from the state.

It appears that many of the nursing homes investigated used the state money to improve their financial health, not the health of its residents, and those that cut the most staff had, not surprisingly, more deficiencies issued by state inspectors than those facilities that did not cut staff.

“There was an implicit good faith agreement that things would get better … and that was broken,” state Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, told California Watch. “It was broken for the people of California and for a very vulnerable population – those that need the greatest care and those that can’t advocate for themselves.”

Orange County nursing home company Covenant Care gets special attention. The Covenant Care-owned nursing facilities cut caregivers even though the company received $15 million in additional funding. The average profit a Covenant Care facility was more than $900,000 in 1998, which was three times higher than the other 632 nursing homes evaluated by California Watch.

In addition, the state money has apparently had no impact on the rate at which complaints are made about nursing home care. The California Department of Public Health documented approximately 1,000 deficiencies issued against California nursing homes in 1998, which was a 65 percent increase over 2005, when the additional funding began.

To read the entire California Watch article click here.

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

It took jurors only five hours to convict 21-year-old Cesar Ulloa of criminal elder abuse for his brutal treatment of residents at the Calabasas nursing home where he worked. According to prosecutors, Ulloa would laugh as he attacked his victims, many of whom were to demented to be able to call for help. He faces life in prison.

In one of the assaults, a fellow employee witnessed Ulloa jump on the chest of a non-verbal 78-year-old woman's chest, and throwing her on the bed as she struggled. To another elderly male resident, Ulloa jumped off a dresser and landed with both knees on the man's abdomen, seriously injuring the man. He apparently would laugh with delight while brutalizing the patients.

Suspicion over Ulloa actions was raised after the wife of a resident received an anonymous phone call the day after her husband's funeral. The call said that her husband had been abused, and that his death may have been related to the abuse, something the family suspected. The police were notified, and the victim's body exhumed for an autopsy that revealed more than 24 fractures. The man's death was determined to be caused by blunt force trauma.

According to the L.A. Times, when the widow testified at trial, jurors, and even the court reporter cried.

The case was especially shocking because the facility, Silverado Senior Living, was considered a high-end nursing home. But any nursing home neglect and abuse lawyer will tell you that the way the facility looks, or the price, is rarely an indicator of quality of care. In fact, prosecutors in the Ulloa cases argued that Silverado (like most facilities) are vulnerable to abuse because "caregivers there... generally take the floor with little more than a high school education and just a few days of training."

Source: Los Angeles Times

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults throughout Southern 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.

Heritage Rehabilitation Center in Long Beach has been sued for a sexual assault that occurred there just last month. According to the lawsuit, filed by James Morgan, the victim "Jane Doe" was suffered elder abuse and neglect when a man entered her room through an unlocked window and assaulted her. The suit also claims there may be other victims.

The suit alleges that the nursing facility was chronically understaffed. According to Morgan, "This was an active time of the day and there was nobody anywhere, which supports our theory they didn't have enough staff in there to look after residents or see people coming in from the outside."

Heritage Rehabilitation Center is a 161 bed facility that has been in operation for more than 35 years. It currently maintains a three star (out of five) on Medicare's "Nursing Home Compare" website.

Source: Contra Costa Times

The Los Angeles elder abuse and neglect lawyers at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults who have been abused or neglected in the skilled nursing facility, residential care facility for the elderly, and assisted living setting. Call (760) 571-5500 for a free and confidential consultation.

The healthcare reform bill signed by President Obama this week will have an impact on nursing homes and long-term care. The most dramatic change will come in the form of long-term care insurance, and provision that was long championed by the Senator Edward Kennedy. Under the Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act (CLASS), all Americans will automatically be enrolled in a long-term care insurance program, but will have the option to opt out.

Under the Act, individuals will start paying a premium immediately, and will be able to use the benefit after five years of contribution to the program. The benefit, though, is not much, as it is expected to be about $50 per day to offset other long-term care costs.

The healthcare reform bill will also start to close the "donut hole" in Medicare Part D coverage for prescription drugs. Patients will immediately begin receiving a rebate for drug costs that fall into the gap, and drug manufacturers will be required to provide a discount on brand name drugs. Over time, the gap in coverage will be phased out entirely.

The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act is also part of the bill, and will require nursing homes to provide consumers with more information about nursing homes and the quality of care they provide. It will also provide better weapons for enforcing quality standards in nursing facility, and encourage homes to improve on their own. AARP has called the transparency bill "one of the most significant nursing home reform initiatives" in two decades.

Finally, the bill contains the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act, which will create a national system of background checks, to keep nursing home workers with criminal histories out of the long-term care setting.

Sources: SeniorJournal.com and HealthLeadersMedia.com.

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 (760) 571-5500 for a free and confidential consultation.

All licensed nursing homes in California are licensed and certified by the California Department of Public Health, which conducts an annual inspection of every licensed skilled nursing facility in the state. In addition, the DPH is charged with the duty to investigate complaints of neglect or abuse, and issue the results of its investigation. Here is some general information about making a complaint against a nursing home.

First, who can make a complaint? Under California law, any person can make a complaint about a nursing home; it does not just have to be the resident, family member, or responsible party. Complaints may be made anonymously.

When is a good time to make a complaint? A complaint should be made whenever one considers the treatment problems to be serious enough to report. It is usually a good idea to express your complaints to the facility first, but if you feel like you're not being taken seriously, call DPH.

Where are complaints made? Complaints should be made at the nearest district office of the DPH. There are several offices in Southern California, and contact information can be found at the Walton Law Firm website by clicking here.

What information should I give DPH? In short, everything. Before you speak to an investigator, it's a good idea to write your complaint down so you don't forget anything. Focus on the facts, and not your own opinions about the situation.

As a complainant, you will be notified of the name of the investigator assigned to your complaint within two days of the date the complaint is made. In addition, the nursing facility may not retaliate against a resident for a complaint that is made. In fact, any type of discriminatory treatment made against a nursing home resident within 180 days of a formal complaint is presumed to be retaliatory.

For more information about making a complaint against a nursing home, visit the website of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. The CANHR page How To File A Complaint can be found by clicking here.

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm LLP provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abused or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting. Cases are accepted in all Southern California counties, including San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura. Call (866) 607-1325 for a free and confidential consultation

In their ongoing series on nursing oversight in the State of California, Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein of ProPublica are out with another story about California's shortcomings in regulating healthcare professionals. Weber and Ornstein reveal that the national database that tracks dangerous or incompetent caregivers is missing serious disciplinary actions against "what are probably thousands" of health care providers. The revelations apparently surprised federal health officials, who just last month proclaimed that "no data is missing."

For almost twenty years the federal government has kept a database of disciplinary actions against doctors and dentist, and in 1999 individual state boards were required to include in the database reports on all other healthcare professional, including nurses, whose licenses were restricted or revoked. In California, however, not all penalized caregivers were included in the federal database. For example, California has formally disciplined 84 psychiatric technicians over the last two years, yet the federal database does not contain a single report of discipline against a psychiatric technician in the State of California.

The dangers of an incomplete database are obvious, as Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe of the Public Citizen's Health Research Group observed, prospective employers of health care professions could be given "a false sense of security that somebody who may be really dangerous isn't, because their name isn't there."

To read the entire ProPublica article click here.

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 (760) 571-5500 for a free and confidential consultation.

The New York Times is out with an article about lack of oversight given to the more than 400 long-term acute care hospitals that operate in the United States. These hospitals, most of which operate as for-profit organizations, are supposed to provide care for individuals that are too sick for traditional nursing homes, but too stable to require regular hospitalization. According to the article, long-term care hospitals were much more likely to be cited for serious violations of Medicare rules than regular hospitals, and had a higher incidence of bedsores and infections.

While the care might be questionable, the no one will question the profitability of these health care providers. In 2007, the profit-margins on long-term care hospitals was 6 percent on Medicare patients, which regular acute-care hospitals lost an average of 6 percent on Medicare patients. How does that happen? In a presentation last month by Select Medical, an owner of several long-term care hospitals, to its investors, it revealed that it maintains its profits by monitoring staffing and lowering supply costs.

Those of us who represent victims of neglect in long-term care facilities know that "monitoring staffing" is another way of saying that it keeps staffing levels at the lowest numbers allowable by law. That usually means a lower quality of care. As for Select Medical, this approach is victimizing patients.

Medicare inspection reports, however, describe preventable patient injuries and deaths, and they portray Select’s hospitals as understaffed and with high turnover. In the last three years, inspectors have found 22 violations of care standards at 12 Select hospitals so serious that, if uncorrected, could lead Medicare to ban those hospitals from admitting Medicare patients.

The 22 violations represent only an estimated 2 percent of the serious violations Medicare found nationally, but similar stories can be told all over the country. Right here in Southern California, Riverside County's Vista Hospital of Riverside has come under tremendous scrutiny by Medicare, and is under threat of being closed down. This law firm filed a lawsuit against last year for allegations of malpractice and neglect for the death of one of its patients.

The New York Times story - which can be found by clicking here - describes many instances of abuse and neglect it suggests is due to a failure to adequately regulate these hospitals; hospitals that frequently care for the sickest and most fragile patients.

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

The nursing home roommate from hell. A former San Diego nursing home resident was sentenced to 19 years in jail yesterday for setting a series of fires at two local nursing homes while she was a resident. According to an investigation, Mary Wilson tried to kill her nursing home roommate by setting her bed on fire while she slept. In another incident, Wilson threatened a resident with a knife.

The first incident occurred in January of 2009, when Wilson was a resident of the San Diego skilled nursing facility El Dorado Care Center in El Cajon. She was placed in a room with two roommates, both of whom were on oxygen and confined to their beds. In the middle of the night, Wilson got out of her bed and set the mattress on fire of one of her roommates. The fire alarm was triggered, and caregivers were able to extinguish the flame before any injuries occurred.

In May, Wilson was transferred to the assisted living center Golden Paradise Senior Living in National City. Shortly after her arrival, she set fire to trash cans and in the library. Luckily, there were no injuries.

Prior to yesterday's sentencing, Wilson pled guilty to two counts of attempted murder, three counts of arson, and one count of assault with a deadly weapon. Attorney General Jerry Brown lauded the prosecution and sentencing.

"These fires were no accident," Brown said. "This woman meant to kill or seriously injure dozens of disabled people. Residents of nursing homes are particularly vulnerable, so today's sentence is an important victory in our fight against elder abuse in California communities."

Source: SanDiego6.com

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 (760) 571-5500 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.

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 Pasadena 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.

A Ventura nursing home called Fillmore Convalescent Center, its owner, and one of its employees were hit with a $7.75 million verdict yesterday after a jury found them liable for elder abuse. It has to be one of the largest verdicts in California in a case involving nursing home abuse or neglect.

The facts are egregious. In 2006, the family of 71-year-old Maria Arellano, a stroke victim who was also non-verbal, began to notice suspicious bruising. They complained to the nursing home administration, but it failed to look into it. The family then placed a hidden camera in Ms. Arellano's room, which caught caregiver Monica Garcia slapping Arellano, pulling her hair, bending her fingers, and treating her violently. When the tape was revealed, Garcia was charged with criminal acts, and the family brought an elder abuse lawsuit against the nursing home.

The lawyer for Arellano, Greg Johnson, must have done an excellent job. He told the Ventura County Star that he offered to settle the case for $500,000, but was rebuffed. The nursing home, through its attorney Tom Beach, never offered a dime to resolve the case. "There was a lot of arrogance," said Johnson.

Ironically, Fillmore Convalescent received a five-star rating, the highest, from the Nursing Home Compare system, operated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Source: Ventura County Star

The nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys at Walton Law Firm LLP provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abuse or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting. Cases are accepted in all Southern California counties.

In their ongoing investigation into California nursing, Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein of ProPublica are out with an article on temporary nursing agencies being a haven for unfit nurses. Temp nursing agencies are used frequently by local hospitals and nursing homes to fill nursing positions that have been vacated for some reason; usually for day or two, but sometimes open-ended.

In its investigation, ProPublica found numerous instances in which the agencies, desperate to find certified nurses, failed to perform background checks or ignored warnings from hospitals about weak nurses in order to fill nursing orders. It is a profitable undertaking; the temporary nursing industry is a $4 billion industry.

Some of the other ProPublica findings were startling:

- Temp firms hired nurses who had criminal records or left states where their licenses had been restricted or revoked. At least temporary nursing agencies employed a nurse in California whose license had been suspended in Minnesota for stealing drugs at a string of temp jobs. One used him after he'd been convicted of doing the same thing at a Santa Rosa nursing home.

- Nursing agencies shuffled errant nurses from one hospital to another, even as complaints mounted. A Culver City agency continued sending one nurse to hospitals despite more than a dozen warnings that she was ignoring her patients and sleeping on the job. Before she was hired, the nurse had been convicted of 12 crimes, including prostitution, carrying a concealed weapon and possessing cocaine.

- Nurses who got in trouble at one agency had no problem landing a job at another. An Oklahoma nurse cycled through at least four Southern California agencies in a year, accused of pilfering drugs while at each.

Sadly, there are a ton of temporary nurses out their practicing nursing in local hospitals and nursing homes. We see it all the time in our nursing home abuse and neglect law practice. In fact, we've had cases against nursing homes that only used temp labor. According to the report, almost 6% of registered nurses in California (approximately 19,300) are temporary nurses.

Here's a scary example: Nurse Beverley Cathey had trouble in her home state of North Carolina. She decided to move to California in July 2007 for better nursing opportunities. She applied for a job at EZ Staffing in Glendale, told them she had experience in critical care, and the next day she was working at Huntington Memorial Hospital. After a series of nursing mistakes - she had six complaints against her by the end of August - EZ Staffing to check her nursing license in North Carolina. It turns out she was on probation.

Read the full L.A. Times article here for more scary examples.

The nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys at Walton Law Firm LLP provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has been abuse or neglected in the nursing home or assisted living setting. Cases are accepted in all Southern California counties.

The State of California has announced that healthcare providers, namely nurses, that have abused drugs will face more stringent guidelines to maintain their licenses. After treatment, the nurses will be required to pay for regular drug testing. After a negative test, the nurse will be able to return to work, but during the first year, will be required to undergo 104 drug tests. The new guidelines state that a single failure of a drug test will result in an immediate suspension of the nursing license. In addition, the state will be permitted to publically identify nurses who are being subject to this increased supervision.

These new regulations follow an L.A. Times investigation earlier this year (and blogged about here) that found several problems in the licensing, certification, and regulation of California nurses. In that investigation, it was revealed that numerous nurses with documented drug problems were allowed to continue working without consequence, and that nursing complaints were taking years to resolve.

The new regulations can be found here.

Source: McKnight's

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.

In a strongly worded report, the California Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes recommended major reforms to the California long-term care ombudsman program. The responsibility of the Ombudsman program is to investigate and resolve complaints made by individual residents in nursing homes.

According to the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), nursing home and assisted living facility residents in California at an increasing risk of elder abuse because ombudsman funding has been severely cut and the state ombudsman office has established unreasonable restrictions on ombudsman reporting of abuse.

The state report, entitled California’s Elder Abuse Investigators: Ombudsman Shackled by Conflicting Laws and Duties, revealed that ombudsman complaint referrals to the nursing home licensing agency dropped by a stunning 44 percent in the last year after the Governor Schwarzenegger slashed funding to the fledgling ombudsman program. Assisted living facilities have been affected as well. During the same period, complaints by ombudsman to California's Community Care Licensing regarding assisted living and residential care facilities also dropped by more than 40 percent.

According to CANHR:

The California Department of Aging operates the state ombudsman office, which is going to extreme lengths to prevent the proper investigation of abuse and neglect. The report states that the state ombudsman office will not even release the names of elder abuse witnesses to law enforcement or licensing agencies that are investigating the abuse, despite laws directing it to do so.

Source: California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform

The Walton Law Firm represents the elderly victims of neglect or abuse in the nursing home, residential care, or assisted living setting. Cases are taken in all Southern California counties. For a free and confidential consultation call (866) 607-1325, or fill out an online form.

The Chicago Tribune recently published a brief article called 5 Things to Know about Psychotropics, which I thought I would pass along to you. Here are the five things:

Your rights: A nursing facility cannot administer a psychotropic drug without a physician's order, which by law requires informed consent and a legitimate diagnosis. The standard of care requires that nursing staff must first try to calm patients, and other possible causes of agitation must be ruled out, such as infection.

The consent: Before psyschtropics can be used consent must be obtained by the "responsible party" of the resident, usually the person with power of attorney. The consent must be in writing.

The drugs: What are psychotropic drugs? Psychotropics generally include antipsychotics, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. The antipsychotics generally pose the greatest risks to nursing home residents. Remember, antipsychotics are intended to treat serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, but doctors may prescribe them for other uses. They cannot be used as a "chemical restraint."

The risks: As stated, psychotropic drugs are powerful, and can cause drowsiness, dizziness and confusion. This, in turn can lead to falls, dehydration, and extreme lethargy.

To complain: As a first step, contact the nursing home's administrator. If you are not getting the answers you need, contact the local ombudsman's office or the California Department of Public Health. Telephone numbers for the offices of the ombudsman and CDPH in all Southern California counties can be found by clicking here.

Source: Chicago Tribune

The Walton Law Firm represents seniors and dependent adults who have suffered neglect or abuse in the nursing home, residential care, or board-and-care setting. Cases are taken in all Southern California counties. For a free and confidential consultation call (866) 607-1325, or fill out an online form.

In the 10 years since I took my first case against a nursing home for elder abuse, I have seen a growing number of homes going without liability insurance. While the uninsured problem used to be confined to the small mom-and-pop assisted living facilities with 6 to 12 beds, now I am seeing in large, institutional-type skilled nursing facilities. On Friday, the Oakland Tribune did an excellent article on this problem.

The article profiles the story of 39-year-old Grover Brown, a multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's patient with paraplegia. Brown was a resident of High Street Care Center in East Oakland. High Street is owned by Trinity Health Systems, whose president, Randal Kleis, has operated about a dozen facilities all over California under several corporate names.

While in the care of High Street, Brown developed a pressure ulcer on his coccyx, which, due to neglect, worsened to the point that doctors were required to remove his tailbone to curtail the deep infection. Brown and his family hired an elder abuse attorney, who sued High Street for abuse and neglect under California's elder abuse laws, which also protect "dependent adults" like Brown.

But, as the story points out, Brown will not likely see any big settlements for his avoidable suffering. High Street carries no liability insurance, and the corporate ownership structure is set up in such a way that makes it very difficult to pursue the owners for the treatment Brown received. The government will end up picking up the tab for the expensive medical care Brown received, and the owner will continue operating substandard facilities with impunity. It's an ugly cycle that those of us who prosecute nursing home and assisted living facilities see all the time.

There is a fledgling movement to enact a law requiring that nursing homes carry liability insurance, but any action seems a long way away. There is a moral component at work here. AARP spokesman Mark Beach said every responsible business should have liability insurance, particularly those businesses that care for the most vulnerable among us. Having insurance "is the right thing to do," said Beach.

To read the entire Oakland Tribune story click here.

The attorneys at the Walton Law Firm represent seniors and dependent adults who have suffered neglect or abuse nursing home, residential care, or board-and-care setting. Cases are taken in all Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego. For a free and confidential consultation call (866) 607-1325.

The Del Rosa Villa nursing home in San Bernardino received the state's harshest citation after investigators concluded that inadequate care led to a resident's suicide. The California Department of Public Health issued a AA citation and a fine of $90,000.

According to reports, on June 11, 2009 a 52-year-old resident was found hanging from a fence in the parking lot of the nursing home. He apparently had rolled his wheelchair through a back entrance to the nursing home and into parking lot where he hung himself with a belt

The man's care plan, which all skilled nursing facilities must maintain for patients, required that he be under suicide watch at all times, and that a nursing assistant admitted to investigators that she made a mistake. It was not the man's first attempt at suicide. He was in the facility from an acute care hospital where he was admitted after throwing himself in front of a moving vehicle.

In response to the citation, the nursing facility's attorney Elizabeth Tyler disputed the report that the resident required constant supervision. "We serve as a hospital," she said, "not a mental institution."

The nursing home may challenge the state's findings.

Source: The Press Enterprise

The San Bernardino elder abuse attorneys at Walton Law Firm LLP represent individuals and families who have suffered due to abuse or neglect in the nursing home setting. Call today for a free consultation.

The North County Times had a good column on the cold reality that elder abuse or neglect can happen anywhere. Susan Reichel, CEO of Advanced Home Health Services in San Diego says that an estimated 2 million elderly Americans are victims of elder abuse, whether its physical, mental, emotional, or financial, and it can occur in the home or at a nursing facility.

We, of course, know this. At this law firm, we take legal action against nursing homes and residential care facilities for abuse or neglect all the time. But it's always worth reminding people that such abuse cases are real and all around us. Remarkably, it is estimated that 84 percent of elder abuse cases go unreported.

The author makes a list of clues to look out for that might be signs of abuse or neglect, and we though it would be helpful to list them here.

● Unexplained injuries: bruises, scratches, fractures.
● Serious and persistent bed sores, signs of improper nursing care.
● Persistent or chronic infections ---- more signs of improper care.
● Sudden or chronic weight loss; is food being withheld?
● Unsanitary living conditions, linens not changed, clutter ignored.
● Increasing dehydration; is water being withheld?
● Sexual abuse: unusual bleeding, suspicious injuries, STDs.
● Repeated wandering by patients who have dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
● Excessive costs, financial fraud, overcharging on medical bills, etc.

San Diego has a variety of resources available if abuse or neglect is suspected. In an emergency, of course, call 911. The local office of Adult Protective Services can be reached at 858-495-5660. If mistreatment in a nursing or care home is suspected, call the Ombudsman Program at 800-640-4661 or call us at Walton Law Firm and we'd be glad to assist.

Source: North County Times

The nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers at Walton Law Firm LLP provide free consultations to individuals and families who believe a loved one has suffered from abuse or neglect in a nursing home or residential care setting. Cases are accepted throughout Southern California.