As nursing home abuse lawyers, we write about the many different forms of nursing home abuse in order to bring awareness to this serious issue. Most nursing home abuse cases are about abuse of power, whether that is through physical or mental terrorizing or stealing money from the patients or the facility.
Facility Administrator Received Money for False Transport Claims
Kelvin Washington, 47, who works as an administrator at a Sugar Land nursing home in Texas, was arrested on August 4, 2011 and is being charged with conspiracy, health care fraud and violations of the anti-kickback statute. He is being accused of creating a plan where he billed federal health care programs for ambulance transport and received payments totaling approximately $20,000 for referring the dialysis patients to a Houston ambulance transport service between 2003 and 2007. He allegedly conspired to have unknowing doctors sign transport prescriptions for patients who were never even admitted to the nursing home. Medicare and Medicaid were billed almost $1 million in false health care claims. The maximum penalties for a violation of the health care fraud statue in Texas is a maximum of 10 years in prison. The maximum sentence for a violation of the conspiracy statue or the anti-kickback statute is five years. Each of the 10 counts charged also carry a maximum $250,000 fine as punishment upon conviction.
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If you have witnessed any questionable or abusive behavior in a nursing home, directed towards your loved one or even another resident, contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation. You may also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Creekside Care Center in Stockton, California was fined $100,000 last month following the death of one of their residents. After an investigation from the state, they found that inadequate care led to the victim’s death. The nursing home staff failed to treat her properly after her left thigh bone broke in October 2008. The injury and lack of treatment led to cardio-respiratory distress and her death in the emergency room a few days later.
Sick and elderly citizens that depend on others for care are perhaps the most vulnerable of our population. Unfortunately, this populations is too often taken advantage of. Financial 
Jawara Henry, a 27 year old autistic patient at the South Beach Psychiatric Center, a state run facility in New York, died after a supervisor tried to restrain him. Henry was “agitated and aggressive and was biting staff and other patients,” when Erik Stanley, 37, a supervisor for disabled adults at the Staten Island mental health facility held him in a wrongful restraint. Stanley allegedly applied excessive pressure to the neck and torso of Henry. According to a source, he placed the patient in a “chokehold,” forced him onto his stomach, and got on top of the patient while he was face down on the floor. Stanley did “not follow protocol nor use proper techniques while to trying to restrain” and used “excessive force.” The medical examiner determined that the cause of death was asphyxiation by neck and chest compression. Stanley was charged with criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person. He pleaded not guilty and was released without bail.
A certified nursing assistant at the Fieldston Lodge Care Center in the Bronx, New York was attempting to treat an elderly female resident on January 2, 2011 with incontinence care when the resident resisted. The certified nursing assistant then grabbed the woman’s arm and twisted, causing the bone to fracture. The nursing home did not document the incident in the daily report and did not perform an x-ray on the victim until the next morning.
The facility now wants to transfer her to another nursing home. MetroHealth spokeswoman Susan Christopher said it was “in order to ensure her safety and welfare.” But Steve Piskor is afraid that the move is because he refused to remove the hidden camera from his mother’s room and that moving his mother would not be good for her. “My mother is the victim,” Steve Piskor said. “She’s not the problem. Metro wants to make it out like she’s the problem.” MetroHealth is saying that the camera is a violation of their policies and that caring for Piskor is becoming “too much of a financial burden.”
Stage IV bed sores are horrifying wounds that cause incredible damage to the health of a person. If you or your loved one has a Stage IV bed sore that is currently not being treated, it needs to be treated immediately for the health and safety of the patient. Unfortunately, Stage IV bed sores start off as Stage I bed sores, as discussed in previous blog posts, which are entirely preventable by attentive medical professionals.
An example of abuse that was not sanctioned by the state occurred in one of Hawaii’s premiere facilities, Kahala Nui. The home failed to protect their residents from a sexually abusive nurse’s aide and failed to properly investigate the allegations of abuse. they also failed to examine or interview any of the nine women who said the employee mistreated them between April 2008 and June 2009.
Stage III bed sores are incredibly serious and need immediate attention, as healing bed sores that progress past Stage II is extremely difficult. A stage III bed sore will display skin loss involving damage or death to the subcutaneous tissue that may extend to the connective tissue. The wound will look like a deep crater which is black around its edges. Subcutaneous fat may be visible, but bone, tendon, or muscle is not. There may be tunneling and undermining in the skin.