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If you are considering the possibility of filing a nursing home abuse or neglect claim in Orange County, or if you are wondering whether you have a valid nursing home abuse or neglect claim, it is important to learn more about how these claims work. A recent Forbes article provided information about the key elements of a nursing home abuse claim regardless of where you are in the country. Still, it is also important to understand how California law works specifically. The following is a general guide to nursing home abuse and neglect claims in Orange County and throughout California.

Understand What Constitutes Nursing Home Abuse, Neglect, and Negligence

The terms nursing home “abuse” and “neglect” are often used interchangeably, and you will also often see references to “nursing home negligence.” Generally speaking, nursing home negligence claims can include claims of abuse and neglect, and they usually name a specific nursing home or group of facilities (although sometimes additional parties may be named, such as certain staff members), and they allege that the nursing home’s negligence resulted in a resident’s injuries. More specifically, nursing home abuse claims tend to involve specific allegations of known types of nursing home abuse, and they may name the nursing home in addition to a specific staff member who perpetrated the abuse. At the same time, you may see these terms used interchangeably in various circumstances.

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As a law firm who specializes in the abuse and neglect of seniors, it’s important to stay informed about cases involving elder abuse. Unfortunately, these cases occur far too often, and can take many forms, including physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Neglect, in particular, is a type of elder abuse that can be difficult to detect, but can have devastating consequences.

Recently, a registered nurse who worked at a Riverside assisted living facility was charged with abuse by neglect of a 69-year-old woman who died after she developed gangrene. Emily Jones, 40, of Riverside, has pleaded not guilty to elder abuse that caused great bodily injury and remains free on $50,000 bail.

According to prosecutors, Jones was a case manager for a resident at Brookdale Senior Living in 2017 when she failed to properly assess an ulcer on the woman’s right heel. As a result, a Plan of Care was never developed, and the ulcer worsened into a wound that required the resident to undergo emergency surgery to her right foot, which had become septic and gangrenous. Jones also failed to notify a doctor and the woman’s family that her health was declining as a result of the lack of care, and she eventually died.

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When families in Los Angeles County or elsewhere in Southern California are seeking information about nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities in the state, they often turn to the CMS star rating system and to publicly available information about safety violations. Yet according to a recent report in The New York Times, some of the worst offenses at nursing homes across the country might not be reported to the public. Why are serious nursing home abuse and neglect injuries hidden? The report suggests that a “secretive appeals process” prevents the public from getting the full picture. Our Los Angeles County nursing home abuse attorneys can tell you more. 

Serious Injuries are Not Factored Into the Star Rating System

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes information about nursing homes through its star rating system, which is supposed to provide the public with information about recent safety violations at nursing homes and harms suffered by elderly residents. Yet the recent report, which stems from a New York Times investigation, indicates that “at least 2,700 . . . dangerous incidents were not factored into the rating system.”

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CANHRThe California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) is a statewide nonprofit that has been dedicated to improving the choices, care and quality of life for California’s nursing home residents and families.

On Jul 21, 2021 at 12:00 pm, CANHR will be holding an online town hall to discuss nursing home visitation rights in the Covid era. The goal of the town hall is to provide information to participants about the current state of the statewide visitation rules, and explain how advocacy can be used to gain more visitation access. There will also be a Q&A.

The town hall speakers will be CANHR staff attorneys Tony Chicotel and Mike Dark and Essential Caregivers Coalition co-founders Maitely Weismann and Melody Taylor Stark.

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It is critical for families and friends of older adults in Riverside County and throughout Southern California to recognize that nursing home abuse is not simply intentional physical or emotional abuse. To be sure, many serious and fatal injuries in nursing homes result from passive neglect, and caregivers can be responsible. According to a recent press release from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a registered nurse (RN) is facing charges related to nursing home neglect and abuse following the death of a 69-year-old female resident at an assisted-living facility in Riverside, California. 

The case underscores that the unintentional failure to provide care in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities can have deadly consequences, and emphasizes the need for families to hold facilities and individual caregivers accountable when their inaction causes serious harm.

Details of the Assisted-Living Facility Death

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5starBrookdale Senior Living, which is the country’s largest chain of senior living communities, is being sued by California prosecutors on the grounds of manipulating the Medicare nursing home ratings system. Becker’s Hospital Review recently published an article highlighting some details of the case. This federal ratings system assigns stars from one (being the worst) to five (being the best) to over 15,000 nursing homes nationwide. The system uses data submitted by nursing homes themselves, to assign stars. Prosecutors are claiming that Brookdale submitted false information in order to win a higher star rating, including exaggerating the number of hours that registered nurses work. This higher rating likely encouraged folks to choose Brookdale, making the chain of homes more money than they would have otherwise. The chain is also being accused of illegally evicting or transferring residents in order to make space for other residents that would bring in more money for the home.

These tactics used by Brookdale Senior Living highlight the manipulative, and often deceptive nature of large for-profit nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the US. The allegations against Brookdale follow a recent Times investigation that found many nursing homes have taken advantage of the starred system to achieve high ratings on false pretenses, leaving issues of care quality not addressed.  These allegations are clearly an exaggerated example of some of the wrongdoings that typical nursing homes perform, yet a good reminder of the lengths that homes will go to if their powers are left unchecked. If you feel that a loved one has been subject to negligence or other wrongdoings regarding elderly care at a nursing home or assisted living facility, contact Walton Law Firm today to speak with an elder abuse attorney.

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Virus_Outbreak_California_Nursing_Homes_57249-300x208One of the great tragedies of the coronavirus pandemic is the disparate impact it has had on some of our most vulnerable citizens including elderly patients residing in Southern California nursing homes. Thousands of elderly nursing home residents across the country have died from coronavirus. Indeed, one of the first coronavirus outbreaks occurred in a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington where 129 residents, staff, and visitors fell ill with covid-19 and 40 died. In an unexpected twist of logic, many nursing homes are discharging long-term residents to care for patients with coronavirus. Why? Money, of course, even though this presents an increased risk to other residents of nursing homes and to their staff.

Caring for a patient sick with Covid-19 earns a Los Angeles nursing home, for example, significantly more money than can be charged for a non-Covid-19 patient who needs assistance with long term more mild conditions. In the fall of 2019, Medicare funding changed offering increased payments to nursing homes caring for patients who have recently been discharged from the hospital. The first weeks after their discharge, nursing homes earn up to four times of the daily amount offered for a long-term resident. For example, a nursing home can earn $800 per day for a COVID-19 patient while earning only $200 per day for a patient with dementia.

Thus, nursing homes have great incentive to attract those patients recently released from hospitals who are severely ill and require skilled nursing. To have the space to care for those patients, nursing homes must free up beds in their facilities. How does that happen? The long-term, less valuable patients are discharged, often under conditions that imperil their health and safety. Families of the soon to be discharged patients are called and told their loved one will be discharged sometimes in as few as 10 days, leaving no time to plan for or to find appropriate alternative housing for the patient. Little consideration is given to a patient’s level of income or to their well-being. Instead, the nursing homes while turning their backs on their vulnerable long-term residents tout their care of Covid-19 patients as a public benefit.

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max-larochelle-421822-copy-240x300Whether your elderly loved one is located in a nursing home in Riverside County or a facility in another part of California, a recent article in Kaiser Health News suggests that natural disasters—and preparation for them—ultimately may reveal possibilities of increased risk of nursing home neglect injuries in facilities. The article cites information from a new report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. As that report explains, when federal health officials visited 20 nursing homes in the state to determine whether the facilities were prepared for natural disasters including fires and earthquakes, they determined that there were other more pressing safety violations at those nursing homes. We want to tell you more about the Kaiser Health News report and its findings.

Nursing Homes Have More Serious Violations Than Mere Lack of Natural Disaster Preparedness

The federal health officials who visited nursing homes in California to determine their preparedness for a natural disaster found, by and large, that the facilities were not prepared for a natural disaster. Indeed, facilities were so unprepared that federal health officials indicated hundreds of nursing home residents throughout the state could be at serious risk of injury or even death. The article clarifies: “Inspectors found hundreds of potentially life-threatening violations of safety and emergency requirements, including blocked emergency exit doors, unsafe use of power strips and extension cords, and inadequate fuel for emergency generators.”

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obed-hernandez-592136-unsplash-copy-212x300When you are considering the possibility of moving an elderly loved one into a nursing home or assisted living facility in Encinitas, it can be difficult to determine whether a particular facility is likely to be a safe and healthy space for your loved one if it does not have any obvious problems. Many families look for histories of elder abuse violations, and check to see whether certain facilities have warning labels from the federal government. 

However, according to a recent report in The Mercury News, a new Senate report indicates “nearly 400 facilities nationwide had a persistent record of poor care . . . but they were not included along with a shorter list of homes that get increased federal scrutiny and do have warning labels. For families in California, it is important to know that 34 of these potentially dangerous facilities are located in the state of California.

Budget Cuts Limit Federal Inspections of Facilities, Resulting in Lack of Transparency

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LAFD_ambulanceWhen an elderly loved one in San Diego requires nearly constant medical care, many family members are at their most concerned when that loved one has to be hospitalized. However, according to a recent article in California Healthline, one of the most dangerous periods for elderly patients actually starts after they leave the hospital, and perhaps not for the reasons you might think. The problem is not that the elderly person does not receive sufficient care after a hospital visit, but rather that the patient failed to receive proper care while in the healthcare facility. Does this rise to the level of elder neglect?

Problems Associated with Poor Transitional Care

The time between leaving the hospital and receiving care either from a home caregiver or staff members at a nursing home in Southern California is known as a period of “transitional care.” As Alicia Arbaje, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine explains, “poor transitional care is a huge, huge issue for everybody, but especially for older people with complex needs.” While “the most risky transition,” Arbaje explains, “is from hospital to home with the additional need for home care services,” since it is the type of situation about which the least is known, injuries resulting from poor transitional care can also happen when the patient goes from a hospital to a local nursing home.

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