Bishops Corner Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation in West Hartford, Connecticut is facing a $710 fine for failing to properly administer antibiotic medications that were prescribed by a doctor to a severely demented patient who was experiencing wheezing accompanied by a cough. According to the facility’s nursing director, the medication was “not available in the medication cart and the nurses failed to check with their supervisor.” In another incident of nursing home neglect, two nurses’ aides improperly used a mechanical Hoyer lift to move a patient and the resident slid out of the sling, fell on the floor, and bumped the back of his head, suffering a hemorrhage. After the incident, the staff was retrained on how to properly use the lift.
Parent Company Starts Large Round of Layoffs
These two incidents occurred after a large round of layoffs for the facility. In the beginning of August, Bishops Corner Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation’s parent company, Omega Healthcare Investors, laid off 81 employees from their several nursing home facilities in Connecticut. This was the first round of 575 employees that are to lose their jobs. With the bad economy, layoffs are inevitable, but facility administrators need to make sure that care does not suffer as a result. It is clear that this nursing home neglect could have been prevented if the staff was trained properly and had not been spread so thin.
Nursing Home Neglect Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If your loved one is currently a resident of a nursing home or care facility and you are worried that they are not receiving their medication, or that the care they are receiving is negligent, abusive, or inadequate, 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.
James Gleeson, Gwendoline’s son, is very upset because he just recently found out the details of nursing home neglect involved in his mother’s death. He had previously assumed that she was left alone for a few minutes, not two hours. “I don’t want this to happen again to anybody … mum has passed away and I find out 12 months later what has happened and she was left tied to a toilet,” Mr. Gleeson said. He is angry with the facility for keeping him in the dark about the whole situation. He was unaware that restraining belts were even used on his mother. The care plan that was made for Mrs. Gleeson had no authorization for the restraints and stated that she needed to be supervised while on the toilet.
Amy M. Armstrong, 40, a hospice nurse in Woodstock, Georgia, is being charged with stealing medication from an elderly patient. After a family member went to the authorities with the possible theft of narcotic painkillers, agents with the Cherokee narcotics squad used video to catch Armstrong taking the pills from a patient. The agents then found more pills, including pain killers and anti-depressants, in her possession. She was arrested on August 23, 2011 and charged with two counts of felony theft by taking, two counts of elder abuse, two counts of possession of a schedule II controlled substance, and a single count of possession of a schedule III controlled substance. Armstrong is being held at the Cherokee Adult Detention Center under a $75,000 bond.
Telesforo Vasquez III, 25, was facing counts of attempted sexual assault and injury to an elderly person, but was given ten years of probation during an August 22 hearing. On November 24, 2010, Vasquez reportedly exposed himself to a 91-year-old female resident of the Castle Pines nursing home in Lufkin, Texas where Vasquez worked. He directed the elderly woman to touch him sexually, but when she refused he pushed her down causing injuries to her hip and buttocks. Part of his probation includes restrictions that say he cannot work in a nursing home, hospital or rehabilitation center.
After almost two weeks of trial, a jury awarded the family of Dorothy Douglas a total of $91.5 million in damages. The jury found that the facility and the staff failed to feed and care for Douglas and indirectly caused her death. Dorothy Douglas suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and several other conditions. Prior to moving into a nursing home, while Douglas was living with her son, her heath had improved. She could speak, walk and recognize loved ones. But in 2009, during the short three-week period when Douglas was a resident of the Heartland of Charleston nursing home, her health deteriorated. When she was transferred to the Heritage Center nursing home, she had lost 15 pounds, was dehydrated and unresponsive. The day after she was transferred, September 24, 2009, Douglas died at the age of 87 at the Cabell Huntington Hospital.
Milagros Angeles, 62, is being accused of theft by a caretaker, elder abuse, false imprisonment, and being in possession of altered checks. If she is found guilty, Milagros may be facing more than six years in prison. She worked as the caretaker of Navy veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor Arnold “Max” Bauer, 93, since 2009. When employees at Bauer’s bank noticed a series of suspicious checks drawn on his account during a 6 month period of absence, they contacted Adult Protective Services. Investigators were sent to check on him. Once in the home, they found that the elderly man was living in “filth and squalor,” with trash, rotting food and rat feces covering the house. According to San Diego Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Varnau, Bauer was found disoriented and dehydrated and “It appears he has advanced Alzheimer’s … He can engage in conversation for a very short period of time and then he drifts off. He is very vulnerable and very much open to being victimized and manipulated.”
Deborah Rutledge was experiencing numbness in her groin, legs, and feet when she went in search of medical help at the Andersen Air Force Base clinic in Guam. A doctor’s assistant and a nurse met with Rutledge but failed to conduct proper medical examinations for the numbness the woman experienced. To compound the problem, the medical professionals did not report the case to their supervisors and instead misdiagnosed what Rutledge was suffering from. Lawyers say that the symptoms persisted, even after an emergency operation. Rutledge continues to suffer today from nerve damage.
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.