South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

Long distance love is no easy feat.

Trying to care for an aging parent from hundreds or possibly thousands of miles away - that's even tougher, as an increasing number of Americans are learning.

Our Boca Raton nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys understand that decision of whether to place your parents in assisted living can be gut-wrenching. The logistics of that decision are made all the more difficult when you're trying to work it all out from far away.

The Washington Post recently chronicled the struggle of Kristy Bryner, an Oregon woman whose aging parents live in Ohio.

"I feel like I'm being split in half between coasts," the 54-year-old Bryner told the newspaper. "I wish I knew what to do, but I don't."

Americans are living longer and as the Baby Boomer generation ages, this is becoming a growing concern for millions. Compounding this issue is that while the number of people who are aging will be ballooning exponentially over the next 20 years, the number of younger people will remain about the same. That leaves less people to oversee the care of the aging population.

Unfortunately, that can lead to nursing home abuse and neglect in Boca Raton and beyond.

According to the National Institute on Aging, approximately 7 million people are caring for elderly relatives from afar. The economy amplifies this trend, with people desperate to accept whatever work is available, even if it means relocating across the country.
Many insist on regular phone conversations to keep up with their parents or older relatives. This can provide some comfort, and ever-expanding technology can make it even easier, with the advent of Skype or FaceTime video chats that allow younger relatives to actually see what is happening in the lives of their older loved ones.
But the concern is always lurking.

"Someone needs to check on her, someone needs to look out for her," Bryner said of her mother. "And the only someone is me, and I don't live there."

The state's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) provides a nursing home guide that can help local and long-distance caregivers to research nursing homes not only by geographic location, but also by special features, such as language considerations, payment forms accepted, financial status and inspection ratings.

Having this kind of control can be a great comfort to both caregivers and their loved ones - and it's smart to know all you can about the nursing home's quality of care before considering it as a permanent living situation.

In order to help caregivers select the best care for their loved ones, the AHCA advises the following steps:

-Prioritize the needs. Medical care requirements vary greatly from patient to patient. Some require very basic assistance, while others need more specialized care. Ask around to friends, family, health care professionals and others to see what kind of care worked for them - and maybe also what didn't work.

-Visit the nursing homes. Even if you live far away, this is an important step. Make one visit that is announced and another that is not announced. Note the cleanliness of the facility, the condition of the residents there and how the staff treats the patients.

-Interview the staff. Ask them about when the site was last inspected, what kinds of special training does the staff have, what are the transportation arrangements, what sort of limits are placed on the use of restraints, what are the social programs offered and what the ratio is per nurse and nurse's aide to patients.

Continue reading "Selecting a Nursing Home from Afar Poses Challenges in Boca Raton, Beyond" »

Nursing homes in Florida could soon be staffed with even fewer nurses after Florida Legislature voted to lower minimum staffing requirements by nearly 10 percent. This cut was made as a way to help them absorb another round of Medicaid budget cuts. This cut could affect the more than 70,000 nursing home residents in Florida, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Please remember this the next time you hear of the need for tort reform -- which involves reducing the amount someone injured or killed by negligence can collect in a lawsuit. The system initially agreed to an increase in staffing years ago as part of an agreement limiting some rights of patients and families to sue. The reduction, of course, did not come with any agreement to restore those rights.

If you are in a nursing home in Fort Lauderdale, or you have a loved one in a nursing home elsewhere in Florida, this means that now you'll be averaging only 3.6 hours of contact with a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse or certified nursing assistant a day.

Our Palm Beach nursing home neglect attorneys understand that when we search for a nursing home, we want to choose a home that provides the best care at the most reasonable cost. With these recent reductions in nurse-patient contact, finding a nursing home with adequate care might be hard to find.

It is estimated that roughly 3,500 nurses across the state could lose their jobs as nursing homes shed staff. As it stands now, about three out of every four seniors that are in long-term nursing home care have dementia or Alzheimer's disease and require help with every day basic needs. Reducing nursing staff is only going to drastically affect these patients.

Many advocates predict that malnutrition, dehydration, falls, bedsores and life-threatening blood infections in nursing homes are going to experience a significant increase as nurses become harder and harder to find.

"You don't take the nursing out of nursing homes," said Jack McRay, advocacy manager for AARP Florida. "We think it was very shortsighted on the part of the legislature."

This policy change was initially proposed in an eleventh-hour budget conforming bill, apparently to mute public input. Officials tried to sneak this one through without causing too much backlash. They'll be taking $187 million from Medicaid's nursing homes to try to balance its budget.

"It was published the night before the legislature was adjourned, so it was an up-or-down vote and there was no hearing on this standard," McRay said.

Palm Beach County is the home to more than 50 nursing homes. These homes will lose a combined $13 million because of these cuts, reports the Florida Health Care Association.

"We agree that better staffing leads to better care," said Medicaid's nursing home reimbursement director Tony Marshall. . "You can't staff if you don't have the adequate funding."

According to a number of recent studies, patients typically do better in homes that have a greater mix of registered nurses. The Institute of Medicine and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services concluded that the ideal level of care in a nursing home is only 45 minutes of registered nurse staffing per resident per day.

AARP is fighting back against these cuts. They are encouraging nursing home caregivers to sign its petition demanding that the nursing homes commit to maintaining their current nurse staffing. So far about 3,000 caregivers have contributed their signatures.

"It's unfortunate that this is the route that had to be chosen" to reduce Florida's budget deficit, Marshall said. "We will be back to the legislature to try to close that gap next year."

Having trouble finding the right nursing home? MSNBC offers these tips to help you along:

-Know your rights. If you're told that your loved one must be discharged from a hospital within 24 hours, it is important to remember that you have appeal rights under Medicare. This could allow you to extend your loved one's stay by two more days. These additional two days will allow you with more time to research nursing homes.

-Hit the computer. Through Consumer Reports, you are now able to investigate nursing homes across the country. This website makes a note to list the nursing homes you should avoid, too!

-Make unannounced visits to potential homes more than once. As you start to narrow your search down to two or three homes, make sure to visit them at different times of day. When are residents sleeping? Are they eating dinner in their rooms rather than in the dining room? Keep an eye out for resident stimulation.

-Sit down with the administrator of your potential homes. Ask about their views on long-term care. Ask if the nursing home has experienced high-level turnover in recent years. Ultimately, find out if the care at this facility is stable.

-Ask about Medicaid. If your loved one lives in a nursing home for a long time, their financial resources most likely will be exhausted. Then they will be eligible for Medicaid. Make sure you get the nursing home's payment policy in writing. Specify what happens when private funds or Medicare reimbursements run out.

Continue reading "Florida Nursing Home Staffing Funds Get Slashed; Neglect and Abuse a Risk in Fort Lauderdale " »

Severe viral outbreaks are threatening the health and welfare of Florida nursing home residents, according to Florida Today.

The flu can spread through a nursing home like wildfire and can be particularly devastating to the older population. Sepsis and other bacteria or viral infections may also threaten the well-being of nursing home residents. A Fort Lauderdale nursing home neglect lawyer should always be consulted whenever a resident dies from a sudden illness in a Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach county nursing facility. In many faces, such illnesses could have been prevented by an alert staff properly concerned about the welfare of residents.

Florida Today reports a husband who attempted to pick his 84-year-old wife up for Christmas dinner was told the facility was on a self-imposed quarantine because of a viral outbreak. Worse, the home would not tell him what kind of virus but said his wife, who has advanced Parkinson's disease, could not receive visitors during the holidays.

Last week, the 114-bed facility was adorned with orange signs asking visitors not to enter until further notice. The Florida Today reports the two-week quarantine was the result of a norovirus or stomach flu, which also impact seven other nursing homes and residential care facilities in the area.

The Brevard County Health Department said as many as 25 percent of residents were infected. Similar outbreaks have been confirmed in Palm Beach County, and Hendry County, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Continue reading "Viruses can be deadly case of neglect in South Florida nursing homes" »

A Cape Coral nursing home abuse investigation has resulted in the firing of three employees, the News-Press reported.

Florida is among the states with the most nursing home residents, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Nearly 700 facilities house more than 82,000 residents. In most of these, the cost of care exceeds $40,000 a year.

More than half of the nation's nursing homes are for-profit companies operated by large chain corporations. If you have concerns, contacting a Cape Coral nursing home neglect attorney is the best course of action for ensuring the proper care of our most vulnerable older adults.

In this case, the state is investigating Clare Bridge, a home that provides dementia care. Two men went to police after a staff member reportedly told them an employee was abusing residents. A spokeswoman for the home's parent company, Brookdale Senior Living, said the firings were not related.

She said the firings were for failure to maintain confidentiality, spreading gossip and threats.

In cases where an employee is fired for revealing neglect or abuse, he or she can and should seek to collect all of the damages to which they are entitled under the law.

The home is being investigated by the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Children and Families, according to the News-Press.

Continue reading "Cape Coral facility target of nursing home abuse allegations" »

Having surgery of any kind can be frightening. You can't help thinking about what may go wrong. One thing you shouldn't have to worry about is being attacked by ants. But this is exactly what happened to 76-year-old Cornelius Lewis recently at the Gulf Coast Medical Center, according to his son, Neil Lewis. The senior Mr. Lewis was reportedly bitten "a couple hundred" times before a nurse discovered the problem. He was then moved to another ICU room, which was also infested.

Our Fort Myers injury lawyers fight for the rights of nursing home and hospital patients who have suffered from neglect, abuse or malpractice. As nursing home neglect and abuse attorneys, we know patients are often most at risk for such conditions in area nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Whether or not an ant infestation in the ICU constitutes malpractice or negligence, it certainly should serve as a warning of the increasing problems regarding infections and inadequate hygiene in health care facilities.

Patients of healthcare facilities, such as hospitals and nursing homes, deal with a variety of neglect issues. For example, hospitals have been plagued by deadly bloodstream infections that are easily preventable, yet continue to proliferate because facility administrators fail to adequately address the problem, according to a recent Washington Post.

Approximately 80,000 patients per year develop bloodstream infections caused by catheters that are either improperly prepared or left in too long. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 30,000 patients die as a result.

These infections, however, can be prevented. Taking steps such as using sterile masks, hats, gowns, gloves and patient drapes, cleaning patients' skin with antiseptic, putting a sterile dressing over the catheter site, and even simply washing hands have all proven effective.

Preventing infections has monetary advantages as well. According to a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, implementing effective infection-control programs costs about $3,000 per infection, while an infection costs between $30,000 and $36,000.

Continue reading "ICU ant attacks might be rare, but South Florida medical facility continue to struggle with cleanliness, infections, malpractice" »

More than 540 people a day die from an infectious complication often linked to medical malpractice yet few have every heard of sepsis, the New York Times reported.

Whether medical malpractice in Fort Lauderdale or nursing home neglect in Boca Raton, sepsis is a killer -- it develops when the body's immune system spins out of control in response to infection and it is responsible for more than 200,000 deaths a year.

That's six time more than the 34,000 people a year that die in car accidents, yet 3 of 5 Americans were unfamiliar with the term when polled for a recent study. Among older adults, who are at the greatest risk, even fewer were familiar with this often fatal medical complication.

Sepsis is often the result of a lack of sterility in medical equipment or poor hygiene among patients or hospital or nursing home environments. It can quickly become life-threatening if not identified early and treated aggressively, something that is also the responsibility of medical staff and hospital staff.

Early symptoms include confusion, abnormal body temperature, chills, low blood pressure, rash and rapid heart rate. Health and safety advocates say raising awareness of the early warning signs is critical so that patients can do a better job of self-diagnosing, in much the same way many are able to do when it comes to the early warning signs of a heart attack.

We would like to count on hospitals and nursing homes to do a better job of preventing infections. But unfortunately, as we reported earlier this year, hospital infections in South Florida are a leading cause of injury and death. Nationwide, hospital-acquired infections are blamed for more than 100,000 deaths per year

Continue reading "Sepsis a common sign of medical malpractice and nursing home neglect in South Florida" »

Aside from infants and children, perhaps no segment of our population is more vulnerable than the 35 percent of senior citizens who are nursing home bound and dependent on daily assisted care to walk, maintain basic hygiene, eat and maintain basic quality of life.

Accordingly, fewer things are more devastating than finding out a loved one placed in a privately- or publicly-owned South Florida nursing home has fallen victim to neglect or abuse. Such was the case for the family of one 77-year-old Florida mother and wife who was raped while in residence at a Jacksonville facility in 2002, the Florida Times-Union recently reported.

With 17.2 percent of Florida's 18.5 million residents aged 65 or older, stories such as hers resonate across our many retirement communities. If you are concerned about the conditions of a South Florida nursing home, talking with a nursing home neglect attorney at the Hollander Law Firm can help you better understand your rights.

A court battle between the family and the Georgia businessman who owned the facility - along with five others in the state for a total of 15 privately-owned and operated facilities in the Southeast - ended with a $750,000 verdict for the family. Money they have yet to collect as the facility owner and his legal team continue to work the system to evade payment, the Times-Union reports.

There are about 17,000 nursing facilities in the U.S. providing 1.8 million beds to long- and short-term care residents. More than half are part of a chain and more than two-thirds are "for profit" operations. Regardless of ownership, the majority of nursing homes in the U.S. are primarily funded by Medicare and Medicaid.

So while many residents or their families turn to privately-owned or state-run nursing facilities to provide affordable and quality care for their loved one on a fixed income, more than half of nursing home owners, as in the Glenwood case, often have deep pockets and the veneer of corporate ownership to hide behind in the event of legal action.

Continue reading "Assisted care patients in South Florida at risk for neglect and abuse" »

A change in how minimum hours of care are computed could leave elderly residents at greater risk of nursing home neglect in South Florida, the Florida Times-Union reported.

As we reported earlier this year on our South Florida Injury Lawyer Blog, nursing home lobbyists supported the measure, which permits a reduction in care hours each resident receives by a Certified Nursing Assistant and permits those hours to be provided by a registered nurse.

This is about saving money for the large chain corporations that operate most nursing facilities. A nursing home typically has very few registered nurses on staff and the majority of care is provided by CNAs and other support staff. The current requirements were set as part of a 2001 deal involving lawsuit rules between resident advocates and consumer groups on one side and the nursing home industry on the other. As a result, lawsuit damages were limited and staffing requirements increased. By 2007, CNAs were required to spend 2.9 hours per day with each patient.

The new law permits a reduction to 2.7 hours of care by a CNA and permits an increase in care by a registered nurse to make up the difference.

"It actually gives providers more flexibility to staff to the residents' needs," said Kristen Knapp, a spokeswoman for the Florida Health Care Association, a long-term care trade group. "... You're still maintaining the minimum staffing. It simply gives [nursing homes] more flexibility."

As if Florida nursing homes are going to be busy spending more on registered nurses. Instead, the law permits homes to manipulate staffing numbers and flies in the face of the agreement they made with advocates in 2001. Of course, the lawsuit limits were not lifted as a result of the industry's violating the terms of the deal.

"They broke their word to the nursing home residents," said Anna Spinella, a Tampa-based advocate and chair of ACTION, Advocates Committed to Improving Our Nursing Homes. "That's the bottom line."

We just don't think 2.9 hours of care a day is too much to ask in exchange for the $54,000 annual cost of a Florida nursing home.

Continue reading "Changes to nursing home staffing laws could lead to South Florida neglect claims " »

Florida's underfunded and understaffed nursing home system is being targeted for further funding cuts as lawmakers work to balance the state budget, Sunshine News reported.

Understaffed nursing homes and inadequately trained and poorly paid staff are primary causes of South Florida nursing home neglect and abuse cases. Yet lawmakers are looking at ways to change the number of hours of mandatory care provided by certified nursing assistants. Instead, proposing legislation that would have registered nurses assume responsibility for the care.

Supporters, including nursing home lobbyists, argue it will improve care by having skilled nurses assume more responsibility for resident care. However, opponents argue registered nurses have a lot to do already and would not have the time to provide the hands-on assistance many residents require.

The current law was set in 2001 as part of a deal involving lawsuit rules struck between resident advocates and consumer groups on one side and the industry on the other. As part of the compromise, lawsuit damages were limited and staffing requirements were increased so that by 2007 CNA's were required to spend an average of 2.9 hours per day with patients.

CNAs typically do routine hands-on care in homes, such as turning and bathing patients. The proposed rule would permit a reduction to 2.7 hours per day and allow registered nurses to make up the difference.

Of course, there has been no mention of renegotiating a patient's ability to collect additional damages in a neglect or abuse lawsuit despite the apparent intent to rewrite the original agreement in favor of nursing home operators -- and at the expense of patient care.

The Senate is proposing $200 million in cuts to nursing home reimbursement this year, while the House has proposed a reduction of $133 million.

Residents in Florida nursing homes have rights under the law, which you can review by clicking here.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration provides comprehensive nursing home resources for South Florida residents, including Florida nursing home guides by region and county as well as a watch list of nursing homes with known problems.

Continue reading "Budget cuts would increase risk of South Florida nursing home neglect and abuse" »