It can be a heart-wrenching decision to seek outside care for an aged loved one when the time comes that more care than you can provide as a family member is needed. Choosing an assisted living facility or nursing home for your elderly family member is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. We’d like to think that the people we … [Read more...]
Weekend Nursing Home Inspections Catch Understaffing Issues
If you have ever worked as a healthcare professional in a nursing home or assisted living setting, you know that caring for the elderly is one of the most meaningful acts a healthcare worker perform in their career. But if you have worked in this field, you also understand the challenges that come with this type of work: long hours, high turnover, … [Read more...]
Sexual Abuse in Nursing Homes
In 2015, George Kpingbah pled guilty to third degree criminal sexual assault with a mentally impaired or helpless victim. Kpingbah was a nursing assistant at the Walker Methodist Health Center in 2014 when another caregiver witnessed him raping 83-year-old Sonja Fischer in her room. This particular case was the first time Kpingbah was caught, … [Read more...]
Lawsuit Over Senior Living Harassment Claims Reinstated
A woman who was threatened, verbally assaulted, and physically assaulted at Glen St. Andrew Living Community outside of Chicago in Niles, Illinois has had her lawsuit against the facility reinstated after 7th Circuit Judge Diane Wood disagreed with contentions from the senior center and its management team that a landlord isn’t liable under the … [Read more...]
Biometric Privacy Statutes Raise Important Questions Around Privacy
Nine years after Illinois legislators passed the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), a surge in litigation has forced state courts to consider sui generis questions related to privacy and the legal definition of “actual harm.” Though the law was passed in 2008, it wasn’t until late 2017 that workers started pursuing legal action in response … [Read more...]
Nursing Home Company Files for Bankruptcy
After a slew of personal injury lawsuits, the senior care conglomerate, Preferred Care Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a step that owner, Thomas Scott, hopes will keep the company afloat while it focuses on restructuring. The group owns over 100 facilities in Texas, Kentucky, New Mexico, Kansas, Iowa, Florida, Mississippi, Colorado, … [Read more...]
Assisted Living Facilities Receive Very Little Oversight, Says GAO Report
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that nearly half of the 48 states offering Medicaid-covered assisted living services could not provide basic data pertaining to issues of abuse and neglect. In 2014, to fund these services, states spent nearly $10 billion in state and federal funding, making the recent report even more … [Read more...]
Nursing Home Abuse Goes Severely Underreported
Under federal law, as it currently stands, nursing homes are required to report elderly abuse two hours following a serious incident. Less serious injuries must be reported 24 hours after the event. Failing to do so could result in the nursing home paying out $300,000 in fines. In violation of this clearly written law, most nursing homes fail to … [Read more...]
The Battle for the Rights of Nursing Home Residents
Earlier this month, in an attempt to fight for nursing home residents’ rights, a coalition of consumer and health advocacy groups sent a strongly-worded letter to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The coalition attempted to persuade the agency to abandon its plan to repeal an Obama-era rule prohibiting the inclusion of … [Read more...]
New Nursing Home Regulations Go into Effect
In response to concerns about sub-optimal nursing home care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released new nursing home regulations. These regulations have become part of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), and they apply to any nursing home that accepts Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement (in other words, almost all of … [Read more...]
