Posted on May 28th, 2010
The Illinois Attorney General’s office conducted a sweep this week at the Golden Moments Senior Care Center in Jacksonville, Illinois. This is the 11th sweep of a nursing home in the state in the last few months, in an effort to clean up the state’s less than stellar nursing home record.
The nursing home was one wherein both elderly patients and convicted felons are housed, a sadly common state of affairs. Five former sex offenders are housed in the Golden Moments Senior Care center, and the nursing home was targeted for failing to provide risk assessments to the state for three of those five offenders.
Earlier this year, the nursing home was fined $50,000 in connection with the death of a 74-year-old resident who choked on food despite staffers’ knowledge of that possibility given the patient’s history. In 2009, the home was fined $20,000 for failing to keep residents from being mentally, verbally, and physically abused. Staff members were found to be slapping and bullying residents.
Nursing homes with a history of abuse need to be held accountable for their inaction if they do not fix their problems. If you or someone you love has been the victim of elderly abuse, contact the New Jersey nursing home abuse attorneys of Levinson Axelrod at 800-346-5529 as soon as possible.
Posted on May 28th, 2010
A Corlandt, NY, nursing home employee has been arrested for stealing an elderly resident’s debit card and withdrawing over $2,000 from a number of banks around town.
The 26-year-old man, or 5 Redway Road, Ossining, was charged with first-degree identity theft, which is a felony.
The man worked in the laundry and maintenance department of Bethel Nursing Home in Cortlandt. He used the card to withdraw money at banks in Elmsford, Peekskill, and Ossining.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of elderly abuse, contact the New Jersey nursing home abuse attorneys of Levinson Axelrod at 800-346-5529 as soon as possible.
Posted on May 14th, 2010
On May 6, Illinois state lawmakers passed a nursing home reform bill, 118-0, that will increase the number of state checks on nursing homes as well create more strict safety guidelines.
“Far too often, nursing home residents are subjected to violence at the hands of other residents and abuse and neglect at the hands of those entrusted to care for them,” Attorney General Lisa Madigan said.
“It is the state’s obligation to address these failings and ensure that nursing homes provide safe and therapeutic environments for their residents,” she said.
“Nursing home residents and their families depend on the state to ensure that vulnerable adults are treated with care, compassion and dignity,” added Madigan.
The new mandated checks will be unannounced and random.
Elderly abuse is despicable and those who take advangate of their position in nursing homes need to be held to account. If you or someone you love has been the victim of elderly abuse, contact the New Jersey nursing home abuse attorneys of Levinson Axelrod at 800-346-5529 as soon as possible.
Posted on May 14th, 2010
Colonial Healthcare of Auburn, Calif., and its parent company, Horizon West of Rocklin, Calif., were found guilty Wednesday of elder abuse in the 2005 death of a 79-year-old woman. The jury leveled $28 million in punitive damages against the nursing home corporation in a case brought by the woman’s daughter.
According to reports, the woman was admitted to the nursing home with full mobility but mild dementia. She fell and broke her hip, reports say, and seven months later she died from an infected bedsore. Her daughter’s lawyer accused the nursing home of putting corporate gain ahead of good resident care. The nursing home was also accused of being understaffed and keeping poor medical documentation. The company denied the charges of nursing home abuse and argued that the woman was never neglected but had one-on-one care.
