NURSING HOMES NEED NURSES!

It is my experience the best nursing homes not only have the best nurses and aides, but they have plenty of them. Face it, the primary care givers are the front line, hands -on nurses. The nurse or aide who assists with dressing, hygiene, feeding, medication, bathing, therapy, assessment, treatment, wound care, and the list goes on and on and on…..

Unfortunately, many corporate-owned nursing homes place profits over people and are in a constant mode of "down-sizing" in order to reduce the number of nurses...thereby reducing operating expenses....thereby increasing profits! Unfortunately, it also means less care and sometimes no care.

How much nursing care is needed? A lot. The National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) believes that the "minimal level of staffing" should be 4.13 hours of available nursing time per resident per day.

The law requires all certified nursing homes to publish daily the number of residents at the facility, the number of care providers and actual hours worked per shift at the nursing home.

This information is critical!

Ask for it…study it…and make placement decisions based upon it!

VIRGINIANS.... LISTEN UP, SUNRISE NURSING COVERS UP DEATH!

Sunrise Nursing Home cover up death!


Sunrise staff told Chase's son that she had died in her sleep. The son said he was told his mother had breakfast, was left alone at one point, and the aide returned to find she had died peacefully in her sleep.

The nurisng home lied!

The report from Mount Vernon police shows workers said Chase was sleeping at 7:30 a.m., but was "unresponsive" four hours later. Days after Chase was cremated, however, her family got a tip from someone with second hand knowledge of her death that the woman did not die peacefully.

One nurse claims, she found the woman, with her head caught between the bars of her hospital bed with her feet hanging off the side. The nurse said it appeared as if she struggled and then died of strangulation.
"Her tongue was protruding. It was purple," the nurse said.
The nurse said one of the maintenance workers then lifted Olive's legs while she held onto one of her shoulders.
"We brought her up, laid her flat on her bed," said the nurse. "I brushed her hair. This nursing coordinator told us, 'Don't say anything.'"
The nurse said the last person to treat Olive for a bedsore raised the bed for the treatment but did not lower it after, despite instructions to do so. Olive was known to wander, the nurse said.
"We had a sign on the top of the bed, readily visible, stating to lower the bed at its lowest level when finishing care," the nurse said.
An anonymous call to the state Department of Health days after Olive's death reported that the woman appeared to have died of asphyxiation after her head was caught in the bars, which triggered an investigation.
The department concluded the caller's complaint was valid. The department found that Olive's body had been rearranged after her death, but it was not reported that way in Sunrise's records, authorities told News 4 New York.
The Chase family filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court against Sunrise, alleging the staff tried to "cover up the horrific and ghastly manner" of Olive Chase's death, and that she died because of the "negligence, carelessness and recklessness" of Sunrise workers, according to court papers.
Sunrise released the following statement to News 4 New York:
"The state conducted a thorough investigation and nothing was found to substantiate the claim that Mrs. Chase's death was due to anything other than natural causes. (That is) Sunrise's position that the allegations are unsubstantiated."

Yeah, right!

ROANOKE NURSING HOME TO EXPAND

I read with interest an article which appeared in the Roanoke Times today. The article entitled, "Roanoke Council OKs Expansion of Nursing Home" was written by Mason Adams. The article reported that Roanoke City Council voted 6-0 yesterday to approve a 3,000-square-foot expansion of the Raleigh Court Health & Rehabilitation Center for a physical therapy unit. The anticipated cost is $750,000.

Why does this interest me? Because Raleigh Court Health & Rehabilitation is owned by Medical Facilities of America (MFA), which is located here in Roanoke...and this is no "mom and pop" organization. MFA is one of the largest nursing home chains in America with nursing homes throughout Virginia and North Carolina! When I attempt to hold one of MFA's nursing homes accountable for the poor care of one of its residents, I am told by the facility's Administrator and attorneys that MFA just doesn't have the money to hire all of the nurses and aides needed to care for every need of every resident. I am told that the Medicaid reimbursement rate is so low that running a nursing home is barely profitable!

Doesn't look like coming up with $750,000 was any trouble! How many nurses and nurse aides could be hired for $750,000? At an average salary of $25,000, MFA could hire an additional 30 nurses and aides. Think what that would do to improve patient care!

DOCTORS HEADING TO TEXAS: LET THEM GO!

I recently read an op-ed pieces in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Why Doctors are Heading to Texas." The article, written by Joseph Nixon a member of what I presume is a conservative pro-business propaganda machine, describes how tort reform in Texas has lead to a massive influx of medical doctors to the state.

Mr. Nixon points to two "reforms" which created the doctors' rush to the Lone Star State. First, the state legislature capped medical malpractice damages for noneconomic damages at $250,000. Second, it changed the standard of proof for suits against Emergency Room physicians from simple negligence to "willful and wanton" negligence.

This type of tort reform produces several results. First, it means that a home maker or child under the age of 18 who is killed due to the negligence of a health care provider is worth a maximum of $250,000 to the grieving family. Second, it means that the Emergency Room physician who misses clear indications of an impending heart attack and discharges a patient who, one week later dies from a heart attack, is not held legally accountable.

Maybe most importantly for Texans....it means that all of the poor doctors who have long track records of lawsuits in other states will move to Texas to practice their craft!

Hey Texans...you might think about moving out of the Lone Star State before you need good medical care!

Virginia's Birth Injury Fund Will Run Out of Money

Virginia's Birth Injury Fund was the first effort in the nation promising lifetime medical care to a small class of infants whose injuries at birth represented a severe malpractice threat against doctors and hospitals. A wonderful plan...but it has never worked!

The plan was "sold" to the Virginia General Assembly by the Medical Society of Virginia as a way to keep Virginia's obstetricians from going broke paying ever increasing medical malpractice insurance premiums and at the same time providing benefits (more easily obtained than by pursuing traditional medical malpractice claims) to those infants severely injured at birth. The plan has failed at both goals. The premiums which obstetricians pay for malpractice insurance fluctuate with the rise and fall of the stock market, as a result of the rise and fall of the value of insurance companies investment portfolio...not the number or severity of malpractice claims.

And what about the infants, the procedure under the plan, promoted as user friendly, is anything but. Bureaucratic delays and gamesmanship prevail...the plan fights almost every request for benefits!

Now, the Richmond Times Dispatch has reported that Virginia's Birth Injury Fund will run out of money in about 20 years. An audit released last week shows that assets of the program climbed to $227 million at the end of last year but that those assets are $127.6 million short of the amount needed to assure lifetime benefit payments to infants admitted into the program.

I SAY LET THE BIRTH INJURY FUND DIE....IT WAS A BAD LAW TO BEGIN WITH!

Medications Can Cause Eye Disease

I was surprised to learn that commonly prescribed medications can impair our vision and cause diseases of the eye. A recent report, published in Drug Safety, identified 62 drugs that can cause adverse reactions to the eye.

Public Citizen, on its WorstPills.org web site, summarizes the report and details how the medications can cause cataracts, glaucoma, conjunctival diseases, optic nerve diseases, and retinal abnormalities.

Be an informed consumer....You eyesight may depend upon it!

Drug Mistakes in Nursing Homes

The press has been filled with articles recently about drug mistakes in hospitals. The wrong drug given to the wrong patient...the right drug given to the wrong patient...and even the right drug given to the right patient but in the wrong dose (actor Dennis Quaid's newborn twins)!

These articles got me to wondering about just how prevalent these medication errors are in nursing homes. We see them all of the time in our cases but do our cases reflect what is happening across the United States? Apparently so!

A 2005 study published in the American Journal of Medicine revealed that 1 out of every 10 nursing home residents has suffered a medication-related injury and that 73 percent of the most severe injuries, including internal bleeding and death, were preventable.

Not very encouraging news!

Problems in Nursing Homes Often Overlooked and Underreported

To anyone who regularly reads this blog, it will not come as a surprise to hear me say (once again) that the medical - industrial complex which runs America's long term care industry puts profits ahead of people. Always have and always will! The result is overwhelmingly poor care.

Some of critics of my position counter with the argument that, "many nursing homes get good inspection reports when surveyed by state agencies - so they can't be as bad as you say." My response, yes they are just as bad as I say and here is more proof.

In a report to be released today, investigators, from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), say they have found widespread “understatement of deficiencies,” including malnutrition, severe bedsores, overuse of prescription medications and abuse of nursing home residents. Nursing homes are typically inspected once a year by state employees working under contract with the federal government, which sets stringent standards. Federal officials try to validate the work of state inspectors by accompanying them or doing follow-up surveys within a few weeks.

The GAO found that state employees had missed at least one serious deficiency in 15 percent of the inspections checked by federal officials. In nine states, inspectors missed serious problems in more than 25 percent of the surveys analyzed from 2002 to 2007. The nine states most likely to miss serious deficiencies were Alabama, Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.

Okay corporate owners of nursing homes....what do you have to say now?

Bayer Antibleeding Drug Removed From Market

Bayer AG of Germany, agreed to temporarily suspend sales of Trasylol last November following requests from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The antibleeding drug may have received its final blow with a new study that shows it is associated with a greater risk of death compared to competing medications.

The results of that study, published by the New England Journal of Medicine, confirmed the earlier findings: a more than 50% increase in the relative risk of death. The study found that 6% of patients who received Trasylol, or aprotinin, died within 30 days of surgery compared to 4% of patients who received tranexamic acid or aminocaproic acid. All three drugs are used to prevent blood loss during heart surgery.

What was the best comment about the drug and the tests results? "This study could have been done by the company five to ten years ago," Dr. Paul Hébert said, adding that Trasylol costs about $1,400 compared to about $4 for aminocaproic acid. Dr. Hebert was one of the studies lead investigators.

83 patients have filed lawsuits against Bayer over the use of the drug. And if President George Bush has his way...those lawsuits would be banned because the FDA initially approved the drug.

Doesn't seem fair does it?