Nursing Home Fraud Neglect & Abuse Much Too Common

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 2 of 7 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

In another case, a resident left the nursing home unsupervised without permission several times and once walked to a nearby store, bought alcohol and was later found sitting in a puddle of urine, wreaking of alcohol, in a nursing home room. Another time the police returned the patient to the facility and staff had not even realized that he had left.

Inspectors found that one resident fell from a shower chair and sustained a skull fracture and that a plan to move the patient to and from the shower had not been developed.

Three residents did not receive doctor ordered intravenous antibiotic medications and the nurse in charge told the inspectors that nursing home officials knew she was not trained in intravenous administration, but continued to schedule her as the only nurse in the facility.

On March 29, 2006, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid notified Lakeside that it would terminate funding for residents paid for by Medicare or Medicaid in 30 days because of health and safety violations that put patients at risk.

But the lead inspector says cutting funding is not enough. "I believe the standard of care was at such a low level that it constituted fraud," Mr Benvenuti said.

"You have money flowing into that facility from the federal government and state to provide services," he explained. "If those services are not provided, that is fraud."

In April 2006, Kentucky Attorney General, Greg Stumbo, announced that his office was investigating charges of abuse and neglect at Lakeside and whether the nursing home committed Medicaid fraud. In a statement, he said that accepting payment for care and services that are not delivered can constitute fraud.

The inspection report, he noted, shows that therapists had stopped giving services in the wake of huge unpaid bills, and that nursing home employees' checks had bounced and utility bills went unpaid.

The state also alleges that Lakeside did not perform proper background checks on all employees and according to the report, some employees had criminal records. In fact, one nurse hired had previously pleaded guilty to felony theft of a controlled substance and theft by unlawful taking.

According to Barbara Becker, who became a staunch advocate for elderly citizens in nursing homes after her mother-in-law was murdered in a nursing home, there are also the problems created by "the failure of many nursing homes to adequately protect residents from other abusive residents."

In her mother-in-laws case, she notes, the male resident who committed the murder had a criminal record, a history of over 50 instances of abusive behavior, and was described by a psychiatrist as "an accident looking for a place to happen."

According to the April 14, 2006, Kentucky Post, "Inspector General Robert Benvenuti III notified the Highland Heights nursing home that its state operating license will be revoked in 30 days and the center, the largest nursing home in the state, will be closed."

Attorney, Philip Thomas, who practices civil litigation in Mississippi, says there are similar cases of neglect, abuse and fraud in nursing homes all over the country.

Mr Thomas and attorneys, John Giddens and Pieter Teeuwissen, recently filed two lawsuits against the giant nursing home conglomerate Beverly Enterprises in federal court Mississippi.

One lawsuit is a breach-of-contract class action on behalf of residents who were not provided adequate care in accordance with current state and federal regulations and the other involves severe abuse and neglect of nursing home residents.

Beverly operates 342 nursing homes across the US and it remains the poster child for patient neglect, abuse and fraud in the nursing home industry.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7