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Nursing Home Negligence
- Nursing Home Resident Dies Because Staff Not Trained in Heimlich! Jury Awards $2.35 Million
- NY Nursing Homes Rank Among the Worst for Support and Family Caregivers!
- Are You More Likely To Develop Bed Sores Because Of The Color Of Your Skin? Click Here To Find Out!
- New Study reveals Antipsychotic Drugs Hazardous to the Elderly in Nursing Homes
- Times Union Publishes Moving Letter From Local Nursing Home Resident
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Nursing Home Negligence
- Pressure sores occur far more often in African-Americans than any other racial or ethnic group in nursing homes in Kingston, New York
- Top 3 steps you can take to avoid pressure sores in a nursing home or hospital in Kingston, New York
- Beware of the dangers of bed rails in your Kingston, New York nursing home
- What you can do to prevent your loved one from having an unintended weight loss in a nursing home
- What you need to know today to protect the rights of your family member in a nursing home in Kingston, New York
Kingston, New York medical malpractice lawyer reveals how the truth about medical errors is hidden by the American Hospital Association
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine reported that 98,000 people are killed by preventable medical errors in American hospitals every year. That scary number did not include persons severely disabled by medical errors or those injured or killed by preventable medical mistakes outside of a hospital, i.e., physician's office. The top recommendation by the authors of this report was to implement procedures for the mandatory reporting of medical errors by physicians and hospitals. This never happened.
Now, 11 years later, a new report by the Department of Health and Human Services estimates medical errors contribute to the deaths of an estimated 180,000 patients every year. This new report has findings that are virtually identical to those contained in the shocking report of the Institute of Medicine in 1999 and the recommendations of the authors of both studies are the same: INSTITUTE MANDATORY REPORTING OF MEDICAL ERRORS!
Disclosure of medical errors will help medical consumers select physicians and hospitals based upon knowledge of their prior mistakes. As reported in an editorial of the USA Today, "It's a problem crying out for a fix" and disclosure of medical mistakes is the number one step that can be taken to remedy this problem.
When the American Hospital Association's President was asked to comment about the disclosure of medical errors, the response was that "there is no magic solution to this challenge. If there were practices that would avoid every bad outcome, hospitals and clinicians would adopt them." He's right in one respect, there is no magic potion to fix the US's mess with poor medical care. However, mandatory reporting of medical errors is a step that is long overdue and still resisted by physicians and medical societies.
The President of the American Hospital Association claims that "hospitals willingly report performance data on key measures that demonstrate how care provided is affecting patient outcomes." Even better, the President states that such disclosure of medical mistakes by hospitals "also report adverse events to patient safety organizations, where they are analyzed by safety experts so everyone can learn from what occurred at a single hospital." Sounds good, but it's total crap!
What "patient safety organizations" is the President of the American Hospital Associations referring to? Where do hospitals report performance data to demonstrate how patient care is being provided? There are no specifics provided by the President of the American Hospital Association. The generalizations are not, unfortunately, substantiated by any shred of evidence and in fact, the President's claims are bogus.
Hospitals and physicians continue to cover up medical mistakes just as they have always been doing. Medical consumers are forced to make decisions about hospitals and physicians based on their gut feelings without any actual knowledge of the medical mistakes in the background of their medical provider.
Let's give an example of the coverup: the National Practitioner's Data Bank was created in 1986 by the federal government as a databank for the reporting of payments by physicians in medical malpractice lawsuits and claims. For those physicians who do not report malpractice settlements to the National Practitioners Data Bank, there have been no consequences. Even worse, consumers have no access to the National Practitioners Data Bank. You might be treated by a physician who has made ten malpractice payments in the last five years, but unfortunately, you have no way of finding out because the National Practitioners Data Bank is not accessible to you.
The sad fact is that the continued obstruction by physicians and hospitals to mandatory reporting of medical mistakes has resulted in death and injury for patients and a heavy dose of medical malpractice lawsuits against negligent physicians. Perhaps physicians like the status quo, but you shouldn't. Consumers are as poorly informed about medical mistakes as they were in 1999, when 98,000 deaths were first reported by the Institute of Medicine.
Nursing Home Negligence
Nursing Home Resident Dies Because Staff Not Trained in Heimlich! Jury Awards $2.35 Million
Jury found nursing home negligent in death of resident who was not supposed to be eating certain foods, choked, and staff was not trained in the heimlich!NY Nursing Homes Rank Among the Worst for Support and Family Caregivers!
New York nursing homes ranked among the worst in the country! A comprehensive study confirms that great changes need to be done in this state for our elderly.Are You More Likely To Develop Bed Sores Because Of The Color Of Your Skin? Click Here To Find Out!
A new study has found that black nursing home residents are more likely than white nursing home residents to develop bed sores.New Study reveals Antipsychotic Drugs Hazardous to the Elderly in Nursing Homes
Discover why antipsychotic drugs may be dangerous to your loved one in a nursing home. Get your FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims.Times Union Publishes Moving Letter From Local Nursing Home Resident
County Executive Mike Breslin has been advocating for the Albany County Nursing Home's closure. On Tuesday, Albany County Nursing Home Resident, Donna Lynn Mosley-Simpson wrote a passionate plea in the Times Union for the Legislature to keep the home open.Will There Soon Be Better Housing Conditions for the Mentally Ill?
The mentally ill will soon be able to receive better housing conditions in supportive living communities instead of nursing homes. Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court judge in Brooklyn ruled that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, mentally ill people living in adult nursing homes should be allowed to move into their own supportive living apartments.In Response to Public Outcry, the D.E.A. Issues New Prescription Drug Guidelines!
The D.E.A. has just issued new guidelines that will allow nursing home nurses to call in prescriptions for painkillers and anti-anxiety medication!Is Facebook Causing Complications In Nursing Home Abuse Cases?
Recently, Facebook has been causing numerous complications in both criminal and civil trials.There have been several prominent cases across the nation within the last few years where either (1) co-defendants have tried to communicate with one another despite no-contact orders through Facebook (2) a defendant has threatened or contacted a juror through the networking site or (3) a defendant gained access to a plaintiff's "private information" on the site and used it as ammunition within which to impeach their credibility during trial.Is the D.E.A.'s "War on Drugs" Hurting Nursing Home Residents?
Nursing home residents are becoming unintended casualties of the Drug Enforcement Agency's war on drugs. According to an article recently published in the New York Times, a new level of drug enforcement intended to prevent narcotic abuse is making it extremely difficult for nursing home residents to receive the prescription drugs that they need. In the past, medical staff from nursing homes would be able to have a prescription filled for a resident based on instructions given to the pharmacy by the resident's clinic or physician. However, that practice is now "under scrutiny" by the D.E.A. Pharmacies are now requiring a written or faxed prescription from the patient's doctor before dispensing the medicine and many nursing homes are unaware of the change. This means that some residents are being forced to wait days before getting the prescriptions they need if the doctor prescribing the medication is unavailable. This was the case with Roland Lorenz, a 75 year-old nursing home resident in St. Louis, Illinois. Mr. Lorenz has surgical screws in his back and neck and a pin in his upper leg and needs to take the pain medication, Percocet. One weekend his pain reared up severely and he was taken to a pain clinic where his doctor ordered his dosage of Percocet to be increased. Unfortunately, it took two days for him to receive the medication. Nurses were unable to have the medication filled by phone as was their usual practice, and the doctor who prescribed the medication was unavailable. According to nursing home staff, their own doctor on-call would not prescribe the medication to Mr. Lorenz without examining him first. Mr. Lorenz suffered through the weekend in excruciating pain until he was finally given the medication that Monday. According to The New York Times, the D.E.A. is "investigating pharmacies in 'about five states' for dispensing the drugs to nursing homes without direct written orders from a doctor". The D.E.A. asserts that they are trying to protect patients from nurses who call in prescriptions without a doctor's order and from pharmacists who dispense narcotics without a prescription, who both then try to get a doctor to sign the prescription after the fact even though he or she has never seen the patient. Medical experts agree that residents in rural areas and those arriving at nursing homes from a hospital usually suffer the most. In rural areas, doctors may not have immediate access to a fax machine or any way to send a prescription from their phone. Residents arriving from the hospital may have trouble getting their prescriptions faxed due to communication problems between the nursing home and the hospital doctors. Some nursing home critics argue that these problems would not occur if all nursing homes had on-site physicians and adequate medical care for their residents. According to the medical directors association and The New York Times, a doctor at a nursing home "writes an average of 169 prescriptions for controlled substances each month — which means ample opportunities for delays". Many times, nurses have a doctor's order and a resident in horrible pain, but is unable to dispense any medication. In extreme cases, nurses have been forced to illegally dispense medication from their homes' emergency kit in order to ease their patients' suffering. While I support the fact that the D.E.A. is trying to minimize narcotic drug abuse, nursing home residents are clearly suffering from their efforts. I think that pharmacies, nursing home staff, and doctors must work together in a concerted effort to minimize the time that residents must wait to receive their prescriptions. These residents should not have to suffer due to the unavailability of a physician, communication problems between nursing home staff and hospital doctors, or the illegal actions of a handful of pharmacists. I think that if the D.E.A. is serious in changing how nursing homes receive their prescriptions for their residents, they should first come up with a workable policy for how residents in need of narcotics can have them dispensed without having to wait for hours or days. Obviously, the current system is not working, and the D.E.A. should first come up with a plan on how to prevent nursing home residents from becoming casualties of their war on drugs.More Details Emerge In Local Nursing Home Abuse Case
New details now continue to emerge concerning how the investigation of Northwoods Rehabilitations and Extended Care Facility first began.Indictment Charges Local Nursing Home Staff With Abuse!
Nine nurses, nurses aides and a physicians' assistant at the Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility, a nursing home near Troy, New York have been named in an indicment charging them with endangering the welfare of elderly residents and felony falsification of nursing home records.Will $677 Million Dollar Verdict Against California Nursing Home Bring Change to the Industry?
Both the defendant and the plaintiffs in a recent California class action suit were brought to tears, albeit for different reasons, after the jury handed down a $677 million dollar verdict against the defendant for nursing home abuse and negligence. The verdict is easily the largest in the country this year and the largest verdict ever brought against a nursing home. Although the plaintiffs have now agreed to a settlement of only $50 million dollars, the case has still sent shock waves of fear throughout the nursing home industry.Click to Learn About a Scam Nursing Home Residents Must Watch Out For!
The majority of nursing home residents are vulnerable to abuse due to either their weakened physical or mental health. The abuse can manifest itself in various forms: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and now...financial abuse.Sexual Abuse Not Uncommon Within Nursing Homes
A rash of sexual abuse within nursing homes has been sweeping the country. One only has to read the extensive blogs, news articles, and first hand accounts to see that the number of cases is rising. According to expert research, sexual abuse accounts for about 2% of nursing home abuse cases. Unfortunately, only about half of all instances of sexual abuse within a nursing home come to light; in many cases, nursing home officials either brush aside allegations of abuse or try to cover-up evidence of the abuse to avoid legal sanctions.State and Federal Legal Action Taken Against Western New York Nursing Homes
Four Western New York nursing homes, Fairport Baptist Homes, The Brightonian, Park Ridge Nursing Home and Wayne Health Care, have been punished with Federal and State civil and/or criminal sanctions in the past 6 months.Nursing Homes Using Tax Dollars to Restrain Residents
"Chemical restraint" is when a person is force-fed powerful psychotropic drugs to control their behavior. They are only legal for a nursing home to use if they are needed to keep a resident from harming himself or others. Overdosage of these drugs can result in death or severe neurological damage. Research has shown that up to 15,000 nursing home patients die each year from the improper use of these drugs. Tax-payers foot the bill for these drugs in most cases.Nursing Home Fails to Seek Emergency Care For Resident
A lawsuit was recently filed against the Sunrise Assisted Living Facility, a nursing home in Rochester, New York for the 2007 death of resident, Donald R. Salli. The suit alleges that the nursing home was negligent in both failing to adequately supervise its residents, and for failing to provide Mr. Salli with necessary medical treatment after he was attacked.Dumping and Transfer Trauma: Wrongful Discharge Abuse on the Rise
The number of nursing home complaints for wrongfully discharging patients in these ways has doubled over the past ten years. Dumping and Transfer Trauma are two types of nursing home abuse that, although often overlooked, are quickly becoming an epidemic. Dumping and Transfer Trauma are similar in that they are two types of abuse that stem from wrongfully discharging a nursing home resident that is in desperate need of care.New Report Confirms Inadequate Staffing Leads to Nursing Home Abuse
Understaffing may be the number one cause of negligence within nursing homesNursing Home Abuse Caught on Camera in North Troy!
Fourteen workers at Troy nursing home charged with endangering the welfare of elderly residents and felony falsification of nursing home recordsNew Law requires disclosure about nurse to patient ratios
What is the nurse-to-patient ratio at your hospital? How many are registered nurses? Now you can ask those questions and the hospital has to tell you
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John H. Fisher
130 North Front Street
Kingston, New York 12402-3058
Phone: 518.265.9131
Toll Free: 866.889.6882
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John H. Fisher
130 North Front Street
Kingston, New York 12402-3058
Phone: 518.265.9131
Toll Free: 866.889.6882