Author: Angela Leone

Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers Fight Scheme

Did you know that nursing home abuse can be lucrative? Insurance companies do! The economy is struggling. You and I, our families and friends, even big companies are struggling to stay alive in a toxic economic climate. The difference is, these insurance companies have corporate shareholders to keep at bay. Their answer? Cash in on nursing home residents’ insurance policies of course!

Nursing home abuse against scheme to make death profit

nursing home abuse attorneys new jersey philadelphia Fight Scheme
Greedy Scrooge McDuck in the 1983 Disney animated feature

Remember when Ebenezer Scrooge died and his house cleaner sold his stuff to cash in? Well, insurance companies and nursing homes are now scheming to do the same to residents. It involves encouraging patients in long term care and assisted institutions to sell their policies for a discounted cash amount. The patients get a pittance of a return – which they can spend at the home for “care.” In exchange, the nursing homes and the insurance carriers get the insurance policies from the patients. These policies are then packaged and sold to Wall Street as future bonds. When the patient dies, Wall Street or the care facilities gets the payout. Talk about a conflict of interest! The longer the patient lives, the greater the cost to the nursing home and the smaller the profit on the policy. Conversly, if the patient dies just after the purchase, the care center reaps the profits.

Nursing home abuse and the “profits over people”

We believe that these institutions should be in the business of caring for our elderly loved ones, not stealing from them. They should not be in the business of leveraging a patient’s health and life as a commodity to be traded on the market. Such practices are depraved. But, this nursing home business IS big business, and as is often the case, “profits over people” is business as usual. Every day, we read about how nursing home abuse and negligence take the place of adequate and compassionate care, only to make an easier and quicker profit. People and their medical care should come first. We understand this and are ready to help you.

Nursing home abuse lawyers in NJ and PA

If you feel that your rights are being violated or that a loved one has not received proper care or may be a victim of nursing home abuse, contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation. The nursing home abuse lawyers at the Mininno Law Office will make sure that your loved ones’ voices are heard and their rights protected. You may also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Make sure that care is put before profits and advocate for these rights. Let the Mininno Law Office team earn you the compensation you deserve.

Full NY Times article, Wall Street Pursues Profit in Bundles of Life Insurance

New Jersey’s Medicare Project

According to the Star Ledger as reported on August 18, 2009, there has been a difference in the amount of money that doctors receive when treating Medicare patients and what hospitals receive. Hospitals only receive a large amount of money, while doctors receive money based on the services they provide to Medicare patients. Some New Jersey hospitals have decided to try and change this by having doctors and hospitals share the profits received. They are hoping this will cut costs by cutting patient stays, lowering rates and improving discharge plans. They are hoping that by saving these costs, hospitals and doctors can work together to help improve medical care for Medicare patients due to sharing financial incentives. Medicare services are significantly more in New Jersey, then the payments that hospitals actually receive. There are currently twelve New Jersey Hospitals participating in this “Medicare Project.”

For additional information on this “Medicare Project” and hospitals involved you may go to:

This link.

Patients should not have to Choose

Health care reform and what rights will be given and which ones will be pushed aside has been the subject of much public debate for many months now. One of the most recent concerns is that the Obama Administration may push aside malpractice reform and rights in order to push for other health care reform that may be more favorable to more people. This does not seem right. People should not have to choose between one of their rights to make room for another.

They should have their voices heard and their rights protected no matter where they are or who they are. There are millions of people that suffer each day in nursing homes from malpractice, abuse, neglect, and much more. They deserve to have their voices heard and rights protected as much as anyone else. If we choose to take away one very necessary right to make room for another, what are we saying to those nursing home patients and their loved ones?
Is this country saying that it does in fact care more about profits than people? If so, then something must be done to change this and make more voices heard. This is America where the rights of the people are supposed to come first before profits.

If you feel that health care reform is pushing malpractice rights aside to make room for other rights and want to do something about it, take action and write a letter to Congress and make your voice heard. Tell them that patient care and rights should not take second place to other rights. Speak up for your loved ones suffering from nursing home abuse and neglect.

If your loved ones have suffered from nursing home abuse and neglect and you want their rights to be protected and heard, contact a nursing home lawyer right away and let them help you get your voice heard for your loved one.

For additional information about health care reform and malpractice reform and to take action, you may go to this site.

Is Your Computer Chair Really Safe?

Each day millions of people sit down on their computer chair to check their email, have conversations with people and even to do business. We also let our children sit at the computer to play computer games, learn or do homework. We all assume that our trusty computer chair in our home is safe; we never consider that to could possibly injury or harm us.  This assumption is wrong.  Each day, millions of products are recalled because they are unsafe and may cause injury. One of these recent product recalls was on the OfficeMax Office Chairs which was found to cause serious injuries to user because it was a fall hazard.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission the chairs were recalled on September 1, 2009 because the back and base were defective and could break during routine use causing a serious personal injury.  The OfficeMax Company has received thirty-six reports of these chairs bases or backs breaking while in use, resulting in fifteen reported personal injuries including lacerations, muscle strains, contusions, and concussions.

The specific office chairs being recalled are the OfficeMax Task Chairs with the model number OM182 and OM96614. The chairs are also charcoal in color and have plastic arms and a plastic and metal base.

If you have one of these office chairs, you should stop using it right away and go to an OfficeMax location for a full refund or a gift card.

If you have been injured or hurt by a defective product like this office chairs or know someone that may have been, you should contact a defective products lawyer right away. They can help you fight for your consumer product safety rights and be your advocate to make sure your rights are protected the way they should be.

For additional information regarding Consumer Safety Product Recalls you may go to the U.S. Product Safety Commission  located here: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerelsep09.html  and for additional information concerning this specific product recall you may visit: www.officemax.com

Nursing Home Training Tips to Prevent Abuse

Every day millions of nursing home patients face abuse because many nursing home put profits over patients.  As a result, many nursing homes are understaffed and have overworked, underpaid and unqualified employees. In particular, many nursing home employees are not trained to properly care for and treat bed sores due to incontinence, poor nutrition, and immobility. Many goverment agencies and organizations, including the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, have studied and evaluated ways to better train employees at nursing homes and other assisted living facilities to help prevent bed sores and pressure ulcer, as well as many other types of nursing home abuse faced by millions of patients every day. Although, the first concern should be patient care, unfortunately money usually comes before the care of a patient.  Clearly, with proper training and care of nursing home employees, much of the abuse we see can easily be prevented.

For example, nursing home employees should be trained to properly asses patients  with immobility problems such as those in a wheelchair or those who are bed bound. The evaluation of these patients should include plans for:

·a special diet plan

·Being repositioned or turned at night to reduce or prevent bed sores.

·A daily exercise routine

·Regular skin and hygiene evaluations

Regular bathing and cleansing of bed bound or wheelchair bound individuals can also help reduce or prevent bed sores and other types of abuse. Problems should be noted and written down on a weekly or monthly report. If a nursing home patient develops a malnutrition problem the first step that needs to taken is an evaluation of the food they have been eating and careful evaluation after adding more calories and nutrients.

Many times, the employees want training, but can not afford to do so.  Clearly, nursing homes and assisted living facilities should provide training classes to nursing home caregivers at little or no cost so that they can learn the proper ways to reposition, transfer and help a bed bound or wheelchair bound patient to help prevent bed sores or pressure ulcers.

Below are simple and general guidelines and training tips that can help to prevent nursing home abuse for millions of patients every day. Patients and their care should be priority number one; if not, patients need to have nursing home lawyer, someone fighting for their rights to proper medical care and abuse prevention.

If you feel that you or your loved ones rights have not been respected or you have been a victim of nursing home abuse, please contact a nursing home abuse attorney right away and let a nursing home lawyer help you fight for your rights and your loved ones.

To read additional information about the guidelines provided by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and the National Libary of Medicine, you may visit the following website:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=hstat2.chapter.4409

New Jersey Governor Signs bill concerning Patient Safety

 

When a Patient goes in to the hospital, they expect and deserve to receive the proper medical care and attention. Most patients believe they will be better when they leave the hospital than when they came in to the hospital. Unfortunately, there have been many times where a patient comes in with one illness or problem and leaves with a new and different illness because of medical malpractice.  For example, otherwise healthy patients have been known to leave hospitals with factures, punctures, transfusion reactions, drama from birth and even surgery done in the wrong place. This has caused many patients much more worry and pain than before they entered a hospital.

 New Jersey is now one  of the first States to take action on this problem  In fact the Governor of New Jersey signed a bill yesterday, August 31, 2009 that will require the Department of Health and Human Services to report safety measures for patients on a hospital by hospital basis. This bill will also help protect patients from being charged for a hospital’s medical error.  This bill means that each hospital and all their procedures will be checked and reported on annually and then additional safety indicators may be regulated by the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services. The Department of Heath and Senior Services will include the following patient safety indicators in their reports:

  • forgein body left during a procedure
  • post operative hip facture (a facture after surgery)
  • latrogenic pneumothorax
  • postoperative hemorrhage or hematoma
  •  postoperative deep vein thrombosis or pulmnary embolism
  • postoperative sepsis
  • postoperative wound hiscence
  •  accidental pucture or laceration
  • transfusion reaction
  • birth injuries
  • Obstetric trauma- vaginal delivery with instrument
  • Obstetric trauma- vaginal delivery without instrument
  • air embolism
  • surgery on the wrong side, wrong body part, or wrong person, or wrong surgery performed on a patient

This list consists of concerns and conditions that can happen to a patient if the hospital is not following safety regulations. Some of these are minor and some of them are very serious. Never the less, they are all very important are things that should “never” happen in a hospital. They are called the “never events” for this reason.

 The Commissioner may consider recommendations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the Commissioner requesting studies from the Quality Improvement Advisory Committee on how to get public reports on patient infections, bed sores,  ulcers, or falls by patients while in hospital care. 

This bill signed by the Governor yesterday on August 31, 2009 is another step towards better patient rights and patient care. After all, when you enter a hospital as a patient you should know that you are getting the best care possible. If you are not, you should be able to fight for your right to better patient care and services.

If you feel that your rights have been violated under this new bill, contact a New Jersey Malpractice lawyer,  right away for help regarding your rights.

 For more information regarding this bill and your rights you may visit:

New Jersey State Legislature

 

Are Nursing Homes the Safest Places for our Loved Ones?

Putting a loved one in a nursing home is the toughest decision a family can ever make.  We research on line, ask friends, nurses and visit the facility to make sure we are making the best decision.  We would like to believe that when we spend time picking out a nursing home for our relative or loved one to go stay and live in for the rest of their lives that they are going to be well taken care of and looked after by properly trained and staffed nursing homes. We also would like to believe that they will receive the proper attention and medical care whenever such care and attention is needed.  Unfortunately, many Nursing Homes put profits over patients.  No matter where you live, nursing home and elderly abuse are a real problem in any state including New Jersey.  It is important to understand the reasons for elderly abuse and nursing home abuse before we can begin to solve the problem. The following is list of some possible reasons for this type of abuse:

·         Not enough staff

 This may be due to not being able to pay people enough for the amount of work they do, or people left and went elsewhere to be closer to relatives, or the market for this type of work may be bad in some areas over other areas.

 

·         Under qualified employees

Reasons for this might be that the employees never went through school for proper training, never received proper on the job training or attended training classes.

 

·         Overworked employees

If there are not enough staff as mentioned before, the employees a nursing home does have may be working longer hours and may be tired, or even feeling ill when they come to work. This leads to employees not paying enough attention which can lead to abuse.

 

·         Stress and Frustration

If an employee is stressed or frustrated on how to help a certain patient, this may lead to improper care and abuse. Training classes should be provided for these situations.

Some common signs of elderly abuse may include:

·         Unexplained injuries or bruises

·         Not receiving the proper doges of medications

·         Cuts or welts

·         poor nutrition and dehydration

·         Unsanitary conditions

·        Infections

·        Sudden death 

  •  Bed sores and pressure ulcers 

 

Sadly, these problems occur every day in even the nicest nursing homes and living facilities. There are different types of abuse. These can be physical, emotional, neglect, abandonment, emotional, or even financial. By putting profits over patient care, nursing home make millions for their investors while providing inadequate care.

The number of people suffering from elder abuse was 2.5 million in 1991, according to some studies from the National Center on Elder Abuse and this number will keep rising unless people become more aware of the problem and how to fix it.

 

If you or someone you love, you believe may have be a victim of this type of abuse, please call: (856) 833-0600 or contact a nursing home attorney for help today. 

 

Do not be afraid to speak up and get the help you need for your loved ones; they deserve the best care possible and may be depending on you to help them fight for their rights.

 

For more information on nursing home abuse and what can be done visit:

 

Got to the New Jersey Nursing Home Directory for a list of deficieny reports on 361 Nursing Homes in New Jersey.

 

Another great resource is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services web site which lists Health Care tools and research.

 

 

CBS Report Brings to Light the Ugly Truth on the Yamaha Rhino

A CBS Special Report has finally brought to light the outrage surrounding the Yamaha Rhino. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), more than 59 riders have been killed in accidents involving the Yamaha Rhino, an all terrain vehicle guilty of a seriously flawed design. A staggering 440 wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits are pending against Yamaha for accidents involving the Rhino, and that does not include lawsuits they have already decided to settle. For years, Yamaha has done their best to avoid public humiliation and increased legal pressure regarding the Rhino, however recent pressure from the CPSC has brought the matter to the attention of the public.

The consequences of poor design and lack of safety standards applied to the Rhino has had staggering consequences. Hundreds upon hundreds of cases have surfaced describing accidents involving crushed legs and arms, amputations, head trauma, and in far too many cases, even death.

So where does the problem stem from? Thanks to the extensive work of plaintiff’s attorneys and the experts that aide them, two fatal flaws have been discovered in the design of the Rhino. Almost all accidents involving the Rhino result from rollovers and full or partial ejection from the vehicle. Rollovers are reported to have been the result of a high center of gravity mixed with a shallow wheel base. This has resulted in rollovers even at low speeds and on flat terrain. Once the vehicle has begun to roll, injury becomes almost unavoidable, as the Rhino contains no safety restraint system, and does not include any doors which keep operators and their limbs inside the vehicle during a rollover. The results of these two design flaws has obviously been catastrophic.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, Yamaha’s response has been to deny until death. After being pressured by the CPSC to recall the product, Yamaha responded by announcing a , “free repair program,” to improve the Rhino’s handling and stability-seemingly a recall in everything but name. The company agreed to install spacers on the rear axles of the vehicles to make them a few inches wider, to remove their rear anti-sway bars, and install protective half-doors on Rhinos that don’t already have them. Owners who watch a safety video when they bring in their Rhinos will also get a $100 coupon toward purchase of a helmet. Yamaha stressed that the action was not a recall, but a, “voluntary repair program.” By avoiding the term, “recall,” Yamaha is attempting to protect itself from legal punitive damages, which has upset many agency officials and consumers.

While the evidence seems undeniable, Yamaha’s extensive legal team is making life as difficult as possible for the families of wrongfully injured or killed consumers. The problem comes from proving causation. Jurors have to be convinced that it was the design of the ATV, not driver error that caused the accident and resulting injuries. While accident reconstructions and expert testimony clearly point to faulty design, Yamaha’s attorneys have attacked its own customers by alleging improper use and dangerous driving. However, much to Yamaha’s avail, some cases brought regard drivers that are not doing anything irresponsibly. They are not going too fast, traveling on level ground, and not turning hard. They still roll over and because of lack of restraint systems these drivers and passengers are subjected to incredible injuries.

While it appears to be a long and difficult road ahead, the side of consumer safety and protection will eventually prevail. Plaintiff’s attorneys are continuing the fight to have the product entirely recalled and make sure the victims of faulty design are compensated for their pain and suffering. If you or anyone you know owns one of these vehicles, please inform them of the dangers immediately, and advise them to cease using it. Finally, if you, your family, or a friend has been a victim of an accident involving the Yamaha Rhino, please contact an attorney immediately. The only way to get Yamaha to right the situation is to press them legally. Each new case against Yamaha involving the Rhino send the message to corporations that the public demands safety be the top priority of vehicle design.

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You and Your Car: Control Your Surroundings Around Your Children

Close calls on the road can be a scary thing, especially when they involve children. This morning, while dropping my children off at school, I had one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. After my youngest son got out of the car, he turned to wave, and ran off towards the building at full speed, anxious to meet up with his friends. He wasn’t paying attention, and ran quickly around the back of another car dropping off their own children. He ran right through their blind spot right as they began to back out, coming very close to getting hit by the rear end of the car. I could only look on in horror, and thankfully, he was fine. While I know my son is very aware of the danger of vehicles, and how to act around them, there are still many uncontrollable factors that lead to terrible accidents involving children. However, there are also many factors which are controllable, which if addressed, can prevent thousand of accidents each year. Below is a list of safety ideas to help keep your young children safe in and around vehicles.

Please follow the following recommendations to keep children safe:

1. Walk around and behind a vehicle prior to moving it.

2. Know where your kids are. Make children move away from your vehicle to a place where they are in full view before moving the car and know that another adult is properly supervising children before moving your vehicle.

3. Teach children that “parked” vehicles might move. Let them know that they can see the vehicle; but the driver might not be able to see them.

4. Consider installing cross view mirrors, audible collision detectors, rear view video camera and/or some type of back up detection device.

5. Measure the size of your blind zone (area) behind the vehicle(s) you drive. A 5-foot-1-inch driver in a pickup truck can have a rear blind zone of approximately 8 feet wide by 50 feet long.

6. Be aware that steep inclines and large SUV’s, vans and trucks add to the difficulty of seeing behind a vehicle.

7. Hold the child’s hand firmly when leaving the vehicle.

8. Teach your children to never play in, around or behind a vehicle and always set the emergency brake.

9. Keep toys and other sports equipment off the driveway.

10. Homeowners should trim landscaping around the driveway to ensure they can see the sidewalk, street and pedestrians clearly when backing out of their driveway. Pedestrians also need to be able to see a vehicle pulling out of the driveway.

11. Never leave children alone in or around cars; not even for a minute.

12. Keep vehicles locked at all times; even in the garage or driveway and always set your parking brake.

13. Keys and/or remote openers should never be left within reach of children.

14. Make sure all child passengers have left the car after it is parked.

15. Be especially careful about keeping children safe in and around cars during busy times, schedule changes and periods of crisis or holidays.

These precautions can save lives.

Medical Malpractice Attorney in New Jersey

What Every Citizen Should Know About the Nursing Home Industry: A background

Deciding whether to put a loved one into a nursing home is the one of the most difficult decisions we must all face. In today’s fast paced society, however, it has become increasingly difficult to care for the elderly at home. Even more daunting, is choosing the right nursing home. Indeed, making a decision on a facility is difficult; with more and more nursing homes going up every year, the number of available options seems endless, even in some of the more remote sections of the country. Although on the surface many nursing homes may appear to be the same, there are dramatic differences between nursing homes, and unfortunately, many shortcomings. In order to have a better understanding of how nursing homes can be so dramatically different in quality of care, and to help you choose which nursing home might be best for your loved ones, you should first have a basic understanding of how nursing homes function in the United States.

First and foremost, it is important to constantly be aware that more than 80% of nursing homes in the Unites States are for-profit, publicly traded, corporations. This is in direct contrast to hospitals in the Unites States, which 87% of are non-profit operations. So how does this affect you and your family? Simple. In any publicly traded corporation, the final goal will always be profit. The Profits must come first. This is not just common practice, it is written into law. By law a publically traded corporations the most important, if not the only, obligation is to increase the profits of their shareholders. This set up has helped drive industrial and technological advancements at a staggering pace. However when it is applied to the practice of nursing homes and long term care, a problem arises.

By nature, medicine and long term care are extremely expensive. The cost to run hospitals and long term care, and nursing homes can reach staggering figures. In fact, it is estimated that at least $180 billion is spent on critical care alone in the United States each year. Although cost cutting is always a simple and desirable way to boost profits in any corporation, the nature of health care and long-term care simply does not allow for it. When dealing with the lives of human beings, there are large and unavoidable costs connected to providing their patients with the care they need to stay healthy with an acceptable quality of life. Unfortunately, this does not stop these corporate nursing homes from doing whatever they can to minimize their spending.

This cost cutting rears its ugly head in many forms in corporate nursing homes. Most apparent however, is the effect it has on the staff. Many for-profit nursing homes are dramatically under staffed, many of whom do not have the proper training to manage their positions in the first place. Lack of training, oversight, and personnel immediately translates into health risks to the patient. This includes, but is not limited to: bed sores, falls, under and over medicating, mixing up patients’ medications, unacceptable poor hygiene, physical abuse by staff, and lack of response to emergency situations. Incidents such as this are a daily occurrence. Fortunately however, you have the power to choose where to place your loved ones, and when the worst happens, you have the legal power to do whatever you can to rectify the situation.

When the worst happens to a loved one in a nursing home, contact an attorney immediately. The status quo of dramatic cost cutting in the nursing home industry will not change until it is no longer profitable to continue cutting costs and quality of care. By bringing a suit against a nursing home or long term care facility, you are demanding they change their way of business by punishing them financially for their neglect. By contacting an attorney who specializes in nursing homes, you are doing your part to make sure what terrible things happened to your loved ones do not happen to someone else.

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