Nursing Home Abuse Rating Plummets

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Going, going gone. That's what happened to a nursing home that plummeted from five stars to one. Going from excellence to being on the most needs to improve list.

What went wrong?

First there were the numerous complaint investigations, among some of them: An 86 year old resident felt violated when a male nurse placed his hand on her vaginal area. He claimed he was checking for a urinary tract infection. He was fired but the problem was the alleged sexual abuse incident was not timely reported to the state. A 76 year old resident fell five times in one month eventually developing a hematoma; procedures were not in place to prevent falling Shower stalls were soiled with feces.

Part of the problem cited is the rapid change of administrative and supervisory employees and the prevalent use of temporary staff who doesn't know the patients. .

The nursing home has two years to improve its rating.

Nursing home employee sexually abuses patients

This is the saddest of all nursing home abuse scenarios.

An employee at a nursing sexually abused two different patients. One nursing home victim was mentally impaired and the other. physically disabled.

An eye witness reported the crimes to the police even though the perp employee tried to stop her.

There have been other nursing home abuse allegations at the same home but none have been verified. Lack of adequate management and supervision is an ongoing problem.

The employee was arrested; he has worked as a nursing assistant at this nursing home since 2005 and has worked at other nursing homes in the area.

The Dept of Children & Family Services is looking into the matter to see if it's an ongoing problem or an isolated event. Either way it's a crime against the helpless and must stop.

The perp remains in jail on $500,000 bond.

Prescription Drug Errors & Nursing Home Abuse

Warning: Nursing home patients are victims of prescription drug mistakes

A recent British study conducted by the Department of Health suggests that unwilling nursing home residents are the victims of prescription drug errors ranging from clerical errors to life altering mistakes.

These mistakes were made by pharmacists, nursing staff, and doctors.

Researchers visited 55 residential and nursing homes over 2.5 years and surveyed 256 residents. Amazingly, the average patient takes 7 or 8 medicines.

In some cases, doctors prescribed the wrong medication or failed to consider how a newly prescribed drug would affect the existing medications. Failure of a doctor to better monitor medications could be caused by the lack of connectivity for when a patient comes back from the hospital with new drugs and that information is not disbursed timely or at all with the resident doctor.

Clerical errors such as putting the decimal in the wrong place has also caused serious to life threatening drug reactions.

Nursing Home Sex - Is it Abuse?

Is it permissible for a nursing home resident and staff to participate in sex together?

According to the chairman of the board of nursing home administrators the answer would be yes.

Whether the chairman of the board has done his duty to license, investigate, and discipline nursing home admins for nursing home abuse is also in question.

The board's is supposed to serve and protect the thousands of residents of nursing homes.

Last week it was reported that a 20-something aide had repeated sex with a 29-year old brain injured male. Co-workers reported the incidents to supervisors but the chairman did little to even investigate much less take actions. He felt their relationship was meaningful and did not actually harm anyone; others feel this describes nursing home sexual abuse.

In the state of Iowa where the act occurred, a professional caregiver who engages in sex with a nursing home resident can be criminally charged with dependent-adult abuse.

Nursing Home Abuse Thrives When Lack of Penalties Prevail

Lack of action by one state's board of nursing home administrators breeds nursing home abuse.
In Iowa, the board of nursing home administrators is composed of almost all healthcare professionals. Board members are appointed by the governor. It makes for a relationship like the rooster that guards the henhouse.

The board is designed to help protect 24,000 residents of Iowa nursing homes, many of whom have no family members or friends to oversee their care. The board licenses and reviews the conduct of facility administrators who are ultimately responsible for meeting the needs of the residents. They fail at their mission.

State records show that since 2001, the board of nursing home administrators has disciplined only nine of Iowa's 750 licensed administrators and the discipline has no effect because personnel are retired or in prison.

Infractions were treated as minor when a nursing home admin failed to report repeated sexual abuse by a caretaker.

The board only meets quarterly and has stacks and stacks of reports to review.

There clearly needs to be a better system with more responsible and responsive participants.
Delays in making decision go back 3, 4, and 5 years then impose probation (if the guilty is still around) and minimal fines.

Complaints are kept confidential. Cases like these have resulted in no action: A resident was found dead with her head between the rail of her bed; a resident who choked on food was falsely reported to have a seizure; an administrator illegally transferred residents because she didn't like them; and an administrator put her friend on the payroll and siphoned money to her illegally.

Woman dies from infected bed sore at nursing home

Woman Dies from Bed Sore at Nursing Home

Bedsores are lesions caused by unrelieved pressure on the skin. Once bedsores become infected, they become fatal. Bedsores are preventable if patients are moved every two hours.

The woman's daughter said, "You could put your whole hand down in her back. "You could see the bones and spinal cord. It was like raw meat."

The 73 year old woman had 15 grandchildren, many who visited her daily. The family complained that there was only one nurse who would run between floors and had no time to check the patients.

Bedsores are an example of nursing home abuse negligence.

The family wanted to take their mother home but each request was met with denials.
By the time the family saw the bedsore, it was horribly infected and caused the patient much pain.

There is no systemwide recordkeeping of bedsores, so patients or families comparing nursing homes can make informed decisions.

Caught in the Sex Act: Nursing Home Sex Abuse

The recreational leader of a nursing home was caught in the act by another employee who walked in on her as she was engaging in sexual contact with a 60 year old male patient who has diminished mental capacity and is not able to give consent.

The 29 year old staff member was charged with felony second-degree endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person and misdemeanor second-degree sex abuse.

The police are in the dark at this time as whether this was a one time sex act or has happened before or has happened to other patients as well.

Victims are hard to find because of their lack of mental acuity and/or dementia status.