This guide is intended for nursing home owners, administrators, nurse managers, safety and health professionals, and workers who are interested in establishing a safe resident lifting program. Research conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Veterans’ Health Administration (VHA), and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has shown that safe resident lifting programs that incorporate mechanical lifting equipment can protect workers from injury, reduce workers’ compensation costs, and improve the quality of care delivered to residents.

This guide also presents a business case to show that the investment in lifting equipment and training can be recovered through reduced workers’ compensation expenses and costs associated with lost and restricted work days.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2006-117/

Exposures to blood and other body fluids occur across a wide variety of occupations. Health care workers, emergency response and public safety personnel, and other workers can be exposed to blood through needlestick and other sharps injuries, mucous membrane, and skin exposures. The pathogens of primary concern are the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Workers and employers are urged to take advantage of available engineering controls and work practices to prevent exposure to blood and other body fluids.

CDC/Bloodborne Pathogens

This booklet was developed by the Alliance Implementation Team of the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This is a PDF booklet.

http://www.aohp.org/About/documents/GSBeyond.pdf

This brochure is to increase worker and employer awareness of the risk factors for violence in hospitals and to provide strategies for
reducing exposure to these factors.

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/2002-101.html

A different kind of activity for sure!

CALICO ROCK— Lois Wehrer’s eyes widen at the sight of a new visitor. She extends her aging hands and grins at the feel of soft fur. It’s one of the few times the 90-year-old smiles.

The woman’s joy comes from a 3-year-old miniature horse named Little Bit.

“He’s so cute,” she said as Little Bit thoroughly licks her hands, hoping Wehrer might be hiding carrots.

The little brown horse with black mane is proving therapy isn’t just for dogs.

Little Bit visits nursing homes four to five times a year to brighten the day of residents. The idea for miniature horse therapy came about when White River Healthcare’s Julie Lawton, who plans activities for the 91-bed facility, asked Little Bit’s owners, Jim and Vera Reeves of Norfork, to bring the horse to the nursing home.

Vera Reeves said residents laugh, smile and sometimes even cry when Little Bit makes an appearance.

“They just love to see him,” she said. “Some are afraid to touch him, but most of them like to pet him.”

Pauline Pinkston woke up from a nap Friday to find Little Bit nuzzling her hand. The former horsewoman, who rode her first horse when she was 2 years old, said petting Little Bit was the highlight of her day.

“That’s the prettiest horse I’ve ever seen,” she said.

Georgia Rand couldn’t help but laugh at the clicking sound of Little Bit’s hooves on the tiled floor.

“Hey there,” she said, addressing Little Bit. “You’re a good horse.”

The Reeveses said they plan to continue to use Little Bit as a therapy horse. They also may train some of their other miniature horses for the job.

“We just love it so much that we keep bringing (Little Bit) back,” Jim Reeves said.

White River Healthcare resident Ophelia Davis said she is glad the Reeveses brought Little Bit for a visit, although she was surprised to see the miniature horse in her room.

“How in the world did you get it in the house?” she asked. “I’ve never had a horse in my room before. If I did, I didn’t know it.”

Neat idea!

I’m not sure I believe this; a nursing home does not close down for a few weeks without any notice...

FREDERICK–Forty-one residents were moved out of the Winlen Oaks Living Center in Frederick over the weekend after employees refused to work after not getting paid. On Wednesday, the attorney for the owners of Winlen Oaks spoke with 7NEWS.

Ty Johnson told 7NEWS today that the reason the staff wasn’t paid was, in part, due to the ice storm two weeks ago.

“Probably the thing, the last straw I guess really had to do with the weather,” Johnson said Wednesday. “This problem with the payroll, this glitch really, is a ripple effect.”

The problem with the payroll surfaced after the home needed to buy a new generator following the ice storm two weeks ago that knocked out power to parts of Frederick. Johnson said that he was informed that there was enough money to make payroll today and all employees should be getting paid.

“What we needed was a back-up for the back-up, so we had those other expenses,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the owners of Winlen Oaks, Cole Brothers Incorporated, have told him they have no intention of shutting down the home for good. Johnson said once they can hire back the licensed employees necessary to run the home, they will then invite back the residents who were forced to leave the home this weekend.

“To the residents, a move on such short notice is hard on everyone. We want to apologize,” he said. “To the employees, we hate that this happened and we hope today, we can start the process of mending these fences.”

7NEWS did speak with two Winlen Oaks employees over the phone on Wednesday night. One employee said her paycheck did go through, the other said her check bounced.

More from the trial of the PA nursing home:

Nursing home resident Mabel Taylor died of heart disease, but sudden exposure to cold and stress after she was locked outdoors contributed to her death, a forensic pathologist testified.

An autopsy on Mrs. Taylor showed a blood vessel in her heart was 75 percent blocked and another was 35 percent blocked, Dr. Shaun Ladham testified yesterday. The sudden onset of cold and stress after Mrs. Taylor was locked outside in a fenced nursing home courtyard caused a sudden arrhythmia in her diseased heart, he said.

Dr. Ladham, formerly of the Allegheny County coroner’s office, said he did not believe Mrs. Taylor suffered the arrhythmia before she went outside. Her body temperature indicated she had been dead outdoors for at least two hours, he said.

Previous Posts on This:

Nursing Home Owner Trial Begins

Nurse testifies in cover up of nursing home resident’s death

Jurors Visit Scene of Death

A nursing home in Frederick OK- residents are moving out but no one seems to know why.

FREDERICK– We continue to monitor a developing story at a Frederick nursing home. Employees, residents and their families called 7-News on Sunday to tell us people were being forced to move out of the Winlen Oaks Living Center by Sunday evening.

Details are still hard to come by, but here’s what we’ve found out. The director of Winlen Oaks, Ann Redecker, refused to tell us about the situation going on at the home. We tried to talk to her in person and by phone. Since then, we’ve been in touch with State Representatives Don Armes and Joe Dorman, as well as State Senator Mike Schulz. They’re also in the dark as to what’s going on.

While we were in town we did see people carrying out personal belongings. We also spoke with an Altus nursing home who confirmed they were taking in some of the patients from Frederick. A spokesperson there says she was told Winlen Oaks was closing.

Winlen Oaks resident Lois Rogers and her daughter say they can’t believe they had to pack up all of their belongings and move out on Sunday. “Nothing, nothing was going on. She was trying to make sure I wasn’t worried. But you do worry when you think your home is fixing to be uprooted.” Rogers said.

Lois Rogers wasn’t the only one. We caught up with Joe Diaz who came to pick up his mother. “This is wrong. They call you up at the last minute and don’t give you a place. This ain’t right,” said Diaz.

Barbara Bagwell’s brother lives at Winlen Oaks. She says this will be a huge loss for people in Frederick. She works at a pharmacy in town that supplies medications for the home. “I just hate to see everybody hurting like they are. These old people don’t need to be jostled around because they cant take it. ”

So what’s the problem? Several employees and former employees say they walked out on Friday after a problem with their paychecks. Irene Cruiz has worked at the Winlen Oaks Living Center for over 20 years. She says she and other workers were asked to not cash their checks until Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. “I’m angry, it makes me mad being with them after so many years. They’re family just like your family, just like your family and it hurts you.”

One employee says there were 40 patients at the nursing home. She says three were transferred to the hospital. The employee says that left 37 others who needed to find a new place to live. Another employee called 7-News and told us there were only three residents still at the home Sunday night.

Again we made several efforts to let Winlen Oaks explain what was going on. While we were at the center they threatened to call the police on us, and over the phone they declined to comment.

We’ll continue pressing for answers.

They could contact the CMS to see if the government is aware of any problems here and if they’re citations and whatnot against this home. Residents and their families deserve a reason for these things, as do staff. What is going on with all these really bad ethical choices management is making these days?

A Louisiana Nursing Home in trouble…and management mincing words about it all.

Thursday was not a good day for some Washington Parish residents. Despite repeated failures by Resthaven Living Center to come into compliance, enough was finally enough and the state and federal government had to pull its Medicaid and Medicare certification.

Actually, the certification was lost last October - as was first reported in this newspaper - but ongoing efforts by the state to get the owners and administration to bring the facility into compliance were a failure.

On Thursday, a meeting was held at Resthaven to announce options for residents. State Sen. Ben Nevers admitted during the meeting that when he arrived, he expected to hear the announcement that the owners had decided to close the facility.

They did not, thanks to the efforts of minority owner representing Mickey Mitchell and minority owner Steve Pigott.

But many in attendance came just hours after receiving a letter from the state, postmarked Jan. 16, that Resthaven had lost its Medicaid and Medicare certification and residents would have to do something.

For some, that means finding a new place to live, but to residents of a facility such as Resthaven, it is more than a place to live.

“We don’t want to move,” one resident, sitting in her wheelchair, cried out as the meeting drug on. “We like it here.”

That the facility had multiple repeat violations is a given. Time and again, the same violations showed up and that’s what proved to be the facility’s undoing.

But as DHH’s Bob Johannessen told this newspaper in October, it is not unusual for a nursing home to experience deficiencies that put them on a track to lose certification. What is unusual, he added, was the lack of effort on the part of the facility to try and come into compliance.

It was disclosed Thursday night that DHH and those within that agency who work with Medicaid and Medicare went over and above, trying to keep what turned out to be the inevitable from happening.

Mitchell said as much, making a sweeping hand gesture as he said, “These ladies have done everything in the world to try and help us.”

He added that it was the fault of the administration and owners that the facility - and the 59 affected residents - are in the situation they find themselves in today.

He, and administrator Kevin Butler, both said things will change for the better.

Nevers said only time will tell.

In the meantime, we’ll all be watching.

Different people have different standards of what is good care and what is not. For the most part, the US Government defines good care with minimum standards. These standards are OK but do not call for excellence. So, when a nursing home is cited by the government for problems, I would expect the place to be very bad indeed.

Danger at a local nursing home. Health officials say a Jackson County facility is putting its patients at risk. Just off I-94 in Grass Lake sits a 77-year-old farmhouse, now converted to the Cedar Knoll Care Center, and inside the doors, 110 nursing home patients receive round the clock care.

Phil Troyer, Red Oak Health Care Mgt.: “I think we are doing everything to ensure their safety.”

But the state department that oversees nursing homes disagrees, citing the center for ongoing and serious safety issues. The most recent state inspection at Cedar Knoll uncovered 25 violations, including patients exposed to cold temperatures without proper covering, beds with improper siderails and a patient suffering from bedsores. Cedar Knoll’s management insists the center is dedicated to improving conditions for its residents.

Phil Troyer: “We don’t allow things to go unfixed, we do take care of them, and continuously on a day-to-day basis.”

But the state isn’t satisfied, and is asking the federal government to terminate Cedar Knoll’s Medicare/Medicaid status.

Phil Troyer: “That would effectively shut us down.”

It’s a scary prospect for the elderly patients and those who care for them.

Phil Troyer: “We want the best for our residents, for our employees and for the community.”

But whether Cedar Knoll truly is what’s best remains to be seen. The US Center for Medicare-Medicaid services is currently reviewing Cedar Knoll’s case and will decide whether or not to pull the facility’s license.

The states inspect the nursing homes on behalf of the federal government; states must also follow the government standards and their own higher standards as well. The management of this home has different ideas about what is safe and what isn’t.