Ninety-two-year-old Robert Doscher was admitted to Valley Gardens Health Care, a for-profit nursing home, on May 18, 2007. He came from a hospital where he was being treated for a mini-stroke, and other heart issues. Upon admission to the nursing home, he needed the use of a walker, and the…
George Washington once said: Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all. Letter of Instructions to the Captains of the Virginia Regiments [July 29, 1759]. The advocates of consumer rights, viewing the resources of defense firms and…
As America’s elderly population continues to explode (it will double by 2030), an important question that has received little attention in the national healthcare debate is how the U.S. will be able to deal with 78 million aging baby boomers. Those of us who practice elder abuse and neglect law…
A nursing home called Valley Gardens Health Care and Rehabilitation in Stockton, California has received an “AA” citation from the California Department of Public Health due the neglect of one of its residents. The AA citation is the most severe penalty that can be levied by the state, and is…
In a strongly worded report, the California Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes recommended major reforms to the California long-term care ombudsman program. The responsibility of the Ombudsman program is to investigate and resolve complaints made by individual residents in nursing homes. According to the California Advocates for Nursing Home…
At the end of last week, a Medicare rate adjustment that cuts $16 billion in nursing home funding went into effect. That cut, combined with state cuts, is creating conditions that are likely to put nursing homes in a state of crisis. In fact, the president of the American Health…
California should take heed. Illinois has been housing mentally ill felons with the elderly in state nursing homes and the results have not been pretty. An elderly woman was raped by an ex-convict, a frail man had his throat slashed, and in one home a wheelchair-bound man died of massive…
A report being released today by the Government Accountability Office finds that the federal program designed to identify and scrutinize the country’s worse nursing homes is missing many of the poor performers. The Centers for Medical and Medicaid Services has identified about 136 nursing homes nationwide that are considered “special…
After 15 years of bouncing from nursing home to nursing home, and living with the indignities, the mother of a quadriplegic and brain injured daughter had had enough. On Sunday, September 13, Diana Harden wrote a note to a television news station exposing the problems she encountered trying to care…
There is a growing movement to ban the common practice of requiring nursing home residents to waive their right to file a lawsuit in claims of negligence, abuse, or neglect in favor of arbitration. Last week, several consumer advocates testified before congress and criticized the practice of “forced arbitration.” Public…