This should raise the level of awareness of just how GrannyCams are being used with legal issues in nursing homes. The nurses and aide AND owner, in this article should be punished with the full weight of the law. It’s just strange to know they are charged based on a video…which doesn’t lie.

The Cortland County nurse has been found guilty of violating health laws and falsifying records.

Steven Nadeau worked at the Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility in Cortland from 2001 to 2006. He now faces up to two years in prison and a fine up to $2,000.

Nadeau was convicted of failing to provide necessary care to a 59-year-old patient in a chronic vegetative state and then falsifying documents by indicating he had provided the care.

Steven Nadeau has been found guilty of violating health laws and falsifying records while working at Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility.

The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit used an undercover camera in the resident’s room to monitor Nadeau’s actions.

This was the first case to go to trial in New York State using video surveillance in a resident’s room as evidence. It’s led to pending prosecution of three other nurses, a certified nurse’s aide and the owner of the Northwoods facility.

So there we have it. Don’t do the care just because a camera is watching you. Do it because it’s your job. Remember: the cameras are there to bear witness to what you do…so do it good, as ordered. Be proud of the care you give and don’t be nervous because of the camera. It can also come back to prove you did everything you were supposed do.

In Arizona they’re going after state managed Veterans Homes; I’m sure this is partly due to the national Walter Reed Hospital “scandal”.

PHOENIX – The state nursing home for military veterans has told federal regulators that the facility is retraining staff and taking other corrective steps in response to critical inspection findings.

But veterans home officials said at least one major allegation of inadequate care appears to be unfounded.

A report from a February inspection conducted by state nursing-home regulators found shortcomings at the facility in Phoenix, including staff inattention to required care for patients, response to patients’ activation of call buttons and possibly dangerous smoking practices by patients.

Acting on the results of the state inspection, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services imposed a $10,000 penalty on the state and ordered the home to fix its care shortcomings or lose its status as a Medicare provider.

Patrick Chorpenning, the director of the state Department of Veterans’ Services, resigned Tuesday, declining comment to reporters but predicting in his resignation letter that reviews would result in a complete exoneration.

Lawyers with a law firm hired by Napolitano to represent the home in regulatory matters arising from the critical inspection filed an “informal dispute resolution statement” late Monday.

The response said staff would undergo “mandatory re-education” on policies on responding to residents’ needs and on their rights and also must acknowledge in writing that they received information on abuse and neglect. Also, residents’ care plans on smoking will be reviewed, the plan said.

Regarding one matter that the inspectors flagged as serious, the response said statements provided by staff members indicated there apparently was a “communication glitch” regarding the unavailability of supplies for ostomy care for a resident. The night nursing staff did not refuse to provide necessary ostomy care and instead swaddled his abdomen with a towel, the response said.

It’s sad when people “suddenly” take notice of conditions we have been complaining about for years…in this context. Much of this is politically motivated. There is no place for politics and nursing care. But many people bring the two together to make themselves look good. Veteran Centers and Walter Reed Hospital have been having problems for YEARS now, long before the war with Iraq began. Long before Bush was elected President; heck, long before Clinton was President. While some of this stuff is serious, most of it is building wear and tear from normal use; and periodic supply shortages we all know about. The care isn’t bad. The staff don’t need re-training. The system needs to be re-trained. I will say this: These are examples why a national health care model probably won’t work…too many chiefs and too few indians, (that would be we the aides…) and too many regulations and red tape rules. The patients, residents always lose out, they come last.

A nursing home is fined $85,000 because it didn’t properly use a side rail, and a resident died because of this.

MONROE, N.C. State officials recommend that a western North Carolina nursing home be fined more than 85-thousand dollars following the death of an elderly patient.

Investigators determined Smith Nursing Center in Monroe failed to follow proper procedures for resident care. The investigation follows the death of Ava Price Sanders, a 93-year-old who suffocated on March 6th while trapped between her mattress and the bed railing.

A report by the state Department of Health and Human Services shows inspectors found the center did not follow mandated guidelines for using bed rails. The report also says rails were used to restrain some patients who didn’t have a medical need for them.

The report says Smith Nursing Center has since changed its policy on bed rails and has trained staffers on how to properly use devices for restraining residents.

The nursing home faces an April 5th deadline to formally dispute the report and its fine recommendation.

UUgh. What a way to die. Side rails have dangers associated with them; we have to be diligent and careful when they are used.
The nursing home down the road from me no longer uses side rails. Period. They have done away with them. They have lo beds and pads along the floors next to the beds. The beds are cool- they raise right up to go working level but go down almost to the floor. So if a resident “falls” it’s really not going to hurt them. Does your nursing home use rails?

Last week I pointed to an article about a nursing home under fire for not conducting resident head counts. Here is an update.

MARION - State health officials want to place a nursing home’s license on probation in connection with the accidental death last month of a resident with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Indiana State Department of Health also wants Bradner Village Health Care Center to hire a registered nurse consultant and a licensed administrator consultant for 40 hours per week, the agency said Monday.

Nursing home staff found the body of Clarence B. Elliott, 76, about 3 a.m. on Feb. 15 outside a locked door of the home on a night when temperatures fell below zero. An autopsy determined the cause of death was hypothermia.

Following a survey days after Elliott’s death, the health department charged Bradner Village with violating state rules. The survey found the home had failed to watch Elliott over a five-hour period on the night of Feb. 14 and failed to prevent his unsupervised exit from the building into a snow-covered courtyard.

A certified nursing assistant responsible for the 10 p.m. bed check did not enter Elliott’s room, which was in the secure area of the home, according to the report. A second assistant responsible for a bed check two hours later entered every room but Elliott’s, the report said.

Bradner Village has made several corrections, including firing two employees, Eric Walts, part owner and executive administrator of Bradner Village, had said previously. It also installed a video surveillance system and a second alarm on the doors Elliott used to leave, he had said.

The Associated Press left a message Tuesday with nursing home administrators requesting comment on the case.

Apparently the aides didn’t actually check to see if Mr. Elliot was actually in his bed. They were fired for this. I say others should go to in all this. Aides always pay the first price and often it’s due to poor supervision, poor instruction from superiors, a lack of policy. In this I feel terrible for the staff. What they must be going through right now.

Unions in NY state are suing the state over the planned restructuring of the state’s health care centers and hospitals.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Three of the state’s biggest public employee unions on Tuesday sued to block the state over the planned restructuring of the health care system announced last year.

In November, the so-called Berger commission recommended closing nine small hospitals and seven nursing homes in New York in a plan billed as one of the most sweeping health care reforms ever proposed by a state.

All 16 facilities would be forced to close by mid-2008 to reduce a statewide glut of hospital beds. Dozens more would be forced to merge, downsize or change the type of care they offer.

A suit filed by the Civil Service Employees Association is challenging the commission’s recommendations for Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, Van Duyn Home and Hospital and Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse and Glendale Nursing Home in Schenectady County.

Suits by United University Professions and the Public Employees Federation are challenging the recommendation to privatize SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse by merging it with Crouse Hospital.

The suits were all filed in state Supreme Court.

Health Department spokesman Marc Carey said a total of 12 suits have been filed against the commission, three of which were already dismissed.

“As of January 1, the commission’s recommendations have the force of law,” he said. “The department was given the task of implementing those recommendations and that is what we are doing now.”

This is different from the stance these unions had just a month ago when they supported most of these plans. I guess they acted prematurely; I do think it’s too late now for action like this. It’s difficult to see nursing homes closed down and residents moved to other places; even when it make sense financially.

From Massachusetts:

After her mother died last May, Susanne Kimball began to care for her 88-year-old father, Manuel Silva, full time at his house in Bayview.

In the morning she bathes and dresses him, then makes his breakfast and helps him with his medications. She assists him back into his room where he lights a single candle at the altar of his late wife of 66 years. For the rest of the day, Kimball said her father will sit outside if it isn’t too chilly, watch as she does housework, talk to other family members who might phone or stop by the house, and always tunes in at 7 p.m. for “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

“I feel great,” Silva said, “because she always does what I ask of her. She’s been awful good to me.”

“You can never be too good to your father,” said Kimball, 63, as she rubbed her father’s shoulder affectionately.

For Kimball and many other Massachusetts residents, the norm for placing aging parents or disabled adults into nursing homes is becoming a thing of the past. A new state and federally funded program pays them up to $18,000 to take care of aging parents at home or provide foster care for elderly strangers or disabled adults.

“It’s a supplement for me to stay home and be with my dad,” Kimball said, “and keep him away from a nursing home.”

The program, which got underway Dec. 1, is called Caregiver Homes and is managed by Seniorlink Inc., which is based in Boston. Both the state’s Executive Office of Elder Affairs and federal Medicaid provide financial support for the program.

Read more about this program here.

This sounds like a model other states could follow. It’s cheaper than nursing home placement and obviously much better.

All people who are concerned about the status of Labor Laws, regarding home health aides, should be aware of this story.

Evelyn Coke sat in her wood-frame home in Corona, Queens, a hobbled figure, not realizing that this is supposed to be her moment in the spotlight.

For 20 years, she had cared for clients in their homes, bathing them, cooking for them, helping them dress and take their medications. But now, suffering from kidney failure, she is too ill to work.

Her mind and memory are not what they once were, she acknowledges, and as a result she is hazy about the important events that will take place on April 16. On that day, the Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case in which Ms. Coke, a 73-year-old immigrant from Jamaica, is the sole plaintiff.

She is challenging Labor Department regulations that say home care attendants, who number 1.4 million, are not covered by federal minimum-wage and overtime laws.

“I loved my work, but the money was not good at all,” Ms. Coke said in a whispering voice, noting that she often worked three or four 24-hour days a week, sleeping at a client’s home, while hardly ever receiving time-and-a-half pay for overtime.

The stakes in her case are considerable, not least because home care attendant is one of the nation’s fastest growing occupations. There are expected to be nearly two million aides by 2014, as the elderly population grows and government pushes for the elderly to be cared for at home rather than in nursing homes, where costs are high.

This is specific to NY State, but the ramifications could become a national problem.

The federal government and the Bloomberg administration have lined up against her, arguing that a victory for Ms. Coke could greatly increase Medicare and Medicaid costs, perhaps causing a budget shortfall that could leave many of the elderly without home-care aides.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, the Bloomberg administration, joined by the New York State Association of Counties, argued, “In the worst cases, some clients, especially those with high hour needs, might no longer be able to be serviced in their homes and might have to be institutionalized.”

The Bloomberg administration said a victory for Ms. Coke could force the city, state and federal governments, which all finance home care through Medicaid, to pay $250 million more a year to the 60,000 home attendants who work in the city.

Home health aides, in all states should get paid for overtime; I wasn’t aware that in NY they are not; in fact, some don’t even qualify for mininum wage. We will stay on top of this case as it goes to court. Let’s all hope for a postive outcome.

Nursing homes are accepting more and more short term rehab patients, and designing special units just for this population.

With billions of dollars at stake, nursing homes across the nation are rushing to reinvent themselves to compete with hospitals and affiliated rehabilitation facilities for short-term, higher-paying patients like Smyth. They are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on renovations and additions and new features like aromatherapy, brightly colored decor, spacious therapy gyms and Internet cafes to try to create a new, warmer, less institutional image.

Most often, they are providing postoperative rehabilitation for knee- and hip-joint patients, but heart attack and stroke victims are also coming in for therapy. Though many are retirees, others are still in the work force and some patients are as young as their 20s.

Offering treatment at lower costs, nursing homes are undeterred by criticism that they do not have the expertise that hospitals do, and that some data show a decline in the quality of their rehab care.

Too bad they can’t put this effort into the section where the elderly live. Too bad the elderly don’t rate this kind of service.
I understand the need to have a good design for short term stays, but this bothers me a lot- the very people who so deserve well designed and appointed surroundings aren’t getting this.

Excellent article about how Minnesota nursing homes are embracing culture change.

Coaching families to help nursing homes create that type of care is the focus of a free state-sponsored conference today at the RiverCentre in St. Paul.

The conference comes at a time when state agencies and the nursing home industry are struggling to guide the long-term-care system into a future of fewer and better nursing homes, with many more home-based alternatives.

“We’re already in the midst of nursing home culture change,” said Rosalie Kane, a researcher at the University of Minnesota and national expert on nursing home care. “There’s a lot of momentum for change, and families can be a powerful force to keep it up.”

Make sure you read all of it.

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