Elder Law
Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog 
Post Frequency: 2.1/day Last Entry: November 20, 2009 at 01:06:55 Recent Entries: 688
By Levin & Perconti
Go to Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog, find other Elder Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Search
Posts
Nursing Home Administers Drug that Causes Woman?s Skin to Peel Off
Posted on November 20, 2009A woman wrongfully died at a nursing home after employees administered her a drug that caused more than half of her skin to peel off. The woman filed a nursing negligence lawsuit against 17 defendants, whom she blames for repeatedly giving the victim a drug that caused her to experience a severe allergic reaction...
Nursing Home Fined $90K in Man?s Death
Posted on November 18, 2009A nursing home is facing a stiff penalty after state investigators found the facility did not adequately protect a 92-year-old resident from a fatal fall. The 120-bed nursing home received a ?AA? citation and a $90,000 fine for the 2007 death of a resident...
Case Law Update: Nurse?s Importance in Nursing Homes
Posted on November 17, 2009One state?s appellate court tackled a question of whether, as a matter of law, a nurse is or is not qualified to render a medical diagnosis on a claim of wrongful death. The circuit court stated that a nurse is not qualified to render a medical opinion with respect to causation...
Is Nursing Home Staff Retention and Resident Longevity Related?
Posted on November 17, 2009One nursing home has five residents over the age of 100 who have all lived in the same nursing home for several years. What do they have in common? All of the residents were assisted by employees that worked at the nursing home for 20 years. Turnover and the impact on residents in nursing homes have been greatly researched...
Nursing Home Penalized After Woman?s Suicide
Posted on November 16, 2009A woman?s son is still filled with question about his elderly mother?s death at a nursing home and state officials found reason to penalize the facility for its care of her. The medical examiner?s office ruled the woman?s death a suicide after she fell through her third-floor window...
Columbus Park Nursing & Rehabilitation Center Guilty of Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on November 15, 2009Illinois state authorities are investigating the murder of a 72-year-old man by a psychotic felon residing in at the Columbus Park Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Chicago. The aggressor, Nauden, has a history of drug convictions and aggressive behavior...
Ex-Caregiver Gets 4 Years for Stealing
Posted on November 15, 2009The former caretaker for a 93-year-old retired Springfield, Illinois pathologist has been sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution for stealing thousands of dollars from her employer. The 65-year-old criminal was convicted by a jury in September of financial exploitation of the elderly and financial exploitation of a person with a disability...
An Ex-Employee at Putnam County Nursing Home Alleges Drug Violations
Posted on November 15, 2009A former employee at a nursing home has filed a nursing home lawsuit against the Putnam County assisted-living facility for allegedly overlooking alcohol and substance abuse by its employees. This is an Illinois facility. She also alleges that they ignored state regulations for drug distributions...
Dr. Reinstein Received Nearly $500,000 from Antipsychotic Drug?s Manufacturer
Posted on November 12, 2009Recently the Chicago Tribune wrote a story about a Dr. Reinstein and his overuse of psychotropic drugs in nursing homes. It was further reported that he was working in conjunction with the pharmaceutical giant AstraZenca. The company paid the nursing home doctor $490,000 over a decade to travel the nation promoting its best-selling antipsychotic drug Seroquel...
Second Sexual Abuse Nursing Home Lawsuit Filed Against LaSalle County Nursing Home
Posted on November 11, 2009The second nursing home abuse lawsuit to arise from reported sexual abuse at the LaSalle County Nursing Home was filed in LaSalle County Circuit Court in Illinois. This nursing home lawsuit seeks at least $100,000 from the nursing home. The suit alleges that the nursing home allowed a sexually active male resident to have contact with a female resident between Jan...
Man Files Nursing Home Negligence Suit
Posted on November 10, 2009A man is suing his former nursing home on allegation of elderly abuse. His friend noticed that while at the nursing home smelled like urine and was without his oxygen. When management was confronted they stated that they were short handed and getting new staff...
Lawmakers Investigate Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on November 10, 2009Illinois Senators have heard about both civil rights violations and the need for community housing for dangerous people as they begin to explore ways to improve nursing home safety. Illinois state senators co-chaired the joint committee considering ways to correct the problems uncovered by the Chicago Reporter and the Chicago Tribune...
Chicago Doctor Gives Risky Drugs to Nursing Home Patients
Posted on November 10, 2009In Chicago?s Maxwell Manor Nursing Home, one doctor?s patients suffered from side effects so severe that they trembled, hallucinated or lost control of their bladders. Staffers told investigators that so many patients were complaining to Dr. Michael Reinstein about their medication errors that a security guard needed to accompany him on his visits...
Nursing Home Pharmacy to Pay $112 Million to Settle False Claims Act Cases
Posted on November 09, 2009The nation?s largest nursing home pharmacy, Omnicare, will pay $98 million and drug manufacturer, IVAX will pay $14 million to resolve allegations that Omnicare engaged in kickback schemes with several parties. A portion of the settlement has been allocated to cover Medicaid program claims by participating states...
One Nursing Home Patient Received 67 Different Drugs
Posted on November 06, 2009A scary result of the Omincare drug kickback case is how vulnerable elderly people in nursing homes are to schemes in which drug companies allegedly induce pharmacies to prescribe drugs they otherwise would not. One patient cited by the government?s complaint received 67 different drugs under Omnicare?s reign...
Woman Sues for Nursing Home Negligence
Posted on November 06, 2009A woman is suing multiple healthcare companies for elderly negligence and medical malpractice. The nursing home lawsuit claims that the facility is at fault for accelerating the victim?s deterioration in health and physical condition. The lawsuit claims that the elderly woman?s physical and emotional trauma including falls, congestive heart failure, medication diversion and malnutrition were the fault of the nursing home...
Illinois State Senate to Hold Hearing on Improving Nursing Home Safety
Posted on November 05, 2009Illinois state senators will hold a hearing in Chicago to examine different ways to improve safety at Illinois nursing homes where it appears that a high number of felons with mental illness have led to reports of assaults, rape and murder. Legislators will hear testimony from experts, government officials and the public in considering what laws we can strengthen and enforce to better improve nursing home safety...
Advocates for Mentally Ill Urge Overhaul of Nursing Home Operations
Posted on November 04, 2009Advocates for the mentally ill continued to push for a major overhaul of how Illinois? nursing homes handle psychiatric patients. They argued that the state should end its reliance on nursing homes to house dangerous people cheaply. The mix of felons, mentally ill people and seniors in Illinois facilities serves none of these populations...
Woman Uses Power of Attorney to Rip off Elderly Man
Posted on November 03, 2009A South Pekin, Illinois woman was arrested for allegedly bilking an elderly man out of cars, loans and his pension money. The 38-year-old woman was arrested for financial exploitation of the elderly, forgery and altering titles. In August, the son of an 83-year-old Pekin man called police saying he feared his elderly father had been the victim of financial exploitation by the father?s power of attorney...
Illinois Nursing Home Sued for Alleged Sex Abuse
Posted on November 02, 2009An Ottawa, Illinois man has sued the La Salle County Nursing Home on behalf of a female relative, who he alleges was sexually abused by a former resident at the nursing home. The man filed the seven-count lawsuit in La Salle County Circuit Court seeking at least $250,000 from the nursing home for allegedly failing to protect the woman...
Illinois Has Cited Half of Best Nursing Homes for use of Psychotropic Drugs
Posted on November 02, 2009Half of Illinois? nursing homes with ratings of four to five stars have been cited at least once sinse 2001 for misusing psychotropic drugs. Some of these nursing home violations have involved injuries and deaths. These findings show that the problem of psychotropic drugs occurs at all kinds of nursing homes...
Sedated Man Dies after Fall
Posted on November 01, 2009Just eight hours after moving into the Pekin Living and Rehab Center, a man was approached by four employees who injected him with a high amount of the antipsychotic drug Haldol. According to state records this quickly sedated him, and he fell in his room several hours later...
Westmont Nursing and Rehab Center Faces Allegations of Abuse
Posted on October 30, 2009CBS has reported that there have been allegations of nursing home neglect and unexplained injuries to residents at Westmont Nursing Home & Rehab Center. Additionally, a former nursing home worker has stated that these allegations are true. This employee was fired despite her good work record...
Compromised Care: Psychotropic Drugs are being given to Nursing home Patients Without Cause
Posted on October 30, 2009A Chicago Tribune investigation has found that frail and vulnerable residents of nursing homes throughout Illinois are being given with powerful psychotropic drugs which lead to tremors, dangerous lethargy and a high risk of harmful falls or even death...
Adult Foster Care Home Faces Serious Allegations of Elder Abuse
Posted on October 28, 2009An adult foster care home is facing serious allegations of nursing home abuse and is now looking at a revoked license. One resident told an investigator that she had been locked in the attic of the adult care facility and beaten. She then escaped in the middle of the night and told the police about her elder abuse...
Nursing Home Doctors receive no Reprimand even as Facilities are Cited
Posted on October 28, 2009Delores Fleming?s relatives placed her in Heritage Manor Nursing Home after her Alzheimer?s heightened. Although they had hoped to continue caring for their mother in her same two-story home, it became apparent that more skilled care was necessary. When she entered Heritage Manor near Decatur, Illinois she scored 23 out of a 30 on a mental exam and was deemed to be ?moderately impaired...
One State Rules for Plaintiff in Nursing Home Arbitration Case
Posted on October 26, 2009The son of a nursing home resident who was injured because of nursing home negligence supposedly was unable to have a trial because he signed a nursing home arbitration clause. However, the state?s supreme court found that since the son did not have the authority to sign a voluntary arbitration agreement on her behalf, thus he was not bound by such an agreement...
State Senators Hear of Nursing Home Bias
Posted on October 25, 2009After rising concerns about the treatment of Illinois nursing home residents, the Illinois Senate?s public health committee met today to discuss racial disparities in quality and care. The hearing stemmed from an investigation by the Chicago Reporter magazine that identified inequities between nursing homes where the majority of residents are black and homes where a majority of residents are white...
Trial Date Set in Elder Neglect Case
Posted on October 24, 2009A woman who has been accused of elder neglect in the death of her mother briefly appeared in Illinois court. The 53-year-old woman was charged with criminal neglect of an elderly person. The 89-year-old victim died with bedsores and other health problems...
Family Holds Nursing Home Accountable for Choking of Their Elderly Relative
Posted on October 23, 2009The family of a 77 year-old woman who was choked and beaten by a complete stranger is not just placing the blame on the 25-year-old attacker. They also believe that the nursing home in which this attack occurred should be held accountable. The family is stating that there was nursing home negligence when the nursing home did not come to rescue her after she was choked and beaten...
Center for Medicare Reins in Overpayments to Skilled Nursing Facilities
Posted on October 22, 2009For many years, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has reported that the Medicare program overpays skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) for rehabilitation services and underpays SNFs for certain residents needing specialized services and skilled nursing care...
Nursing Home agrees to pay $1.375 Million in Nursing Home Settlement
Posted on October 22, 2009A nursing home will pay $1.275 million to resolve charges of taking kickbacks from a supplier. The Justice department accused the nursing home of taking kickbacks from a corporation in exchange for the nursing home buying medical equipment from them...
Senators Introduce New Elder Abuse Bill
Posted on October 22, 2009Several US Senators introduced the Elder Abuse Victims Act to improve enforcement of elder abuse. The bill is a companion to the Elder Abuse Victims Act which the House passed earlier this year. It would create federal grants for states and localities to establish elder justice positions or units and would provide support for prosecutorial training on elder-abuse laws...
Illinois Task Force Hears Concern about Mentally Ill in Facilities
Posted on October 22, 2009Social workers, residents and advocates filled a hearing room to demand that Illinois stop using nursing homes to house younger adults with mental illness, including felons who police say assaulted, raped and even killed elderly and disabled housemates...
Family of Nursing Home Resident Sues Home over Death
Posted on October 20, 2009The family of a man who died in April has filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit claiming that negligent medical care at his nursing home resulted in his death. The lawsuit alleges that the victim gained 40 pounds in the month before his death and had a history of fluid retention and heart attacks...
Man Files Lawsuit against Burnham Healthcare Properties
Posted on October 20, 2009A man has sued a Burnham nursing home for allegedly failing to treat his injuries after he was physically kicked out of his wheelchair by another resident. The nursing home abuse lawsuit claims that the man was ?kicked by another resident and knocked out of his wheelchair,? which caused him to fracture his leg...
Illinois Task Force Sets Hearing
Posted on October 20, 2009Governor Quinn?s new Nursing Home Safety Task Force will hear testimony from elder care advocates, service providers and residents in an open, public meeting. It also announced a Web site that takes citizens? comments and recommendations. Task Force leader Michael Gelder stated, ?All of us have a role to play in ensuring the safety and well-being of nursing home residents, and we urge the public to join us in this critical work...
Nursing Home Faces Wrongful-death Lawsuit
Posted on October 20, 2009A nursing home was named in a $32.5 million wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of a deceased woman. The administrator of her estate is suing both the nursing home and the former nursing home administrator. The woman, who had been in the care of the nursing home, was admitted to a hospital shortly before her death with multiple infected sores on her body...
Nursing Home Cited after Elderly Man?s Genitals Disintegrate
Posted on October 19, 2009A nursing home is facing a nursing home negligence lawsuit after an elderly resident?s genitals disintegrated while nursing home staff failed to act. The 93-year-old man arrived at the nursing home suffering from maladies of old age. Court documents show that the nursing home left a wound on the elderly man untreated for months...
Hearing for Man Accused of Sexual Abuse in Nursing Home
Posted on October 17, 2009A man accused of sexual abuse on an elderly patient at a nursing home was in court recently on sexual battery charges. A witness told police she heard something from one of the rooms, and when she went in she say the employee engaged in a sexual activity with a disabled woman in the room...
Call your Senator to Support Nursing Home Legislation
Posted on October 16, 2009Recently the Senate Finance Committee passed a health care reform bill that contains the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act, the Elder Justice Act, and the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act are all in the massive Finance Committee bill...
Inspection Report Released on Nursing Home Violations
Posted on October 15, 2009The state has released a full inspection report on a nursing home which was cited for being unsanitary. An NBC2 investigation found a third of the residents at the nursing home already had pre-existing respiratory problems. Inspectors believed that the mold and leak problems have become health hazards for the nursing home and are the cause of the respiratory illnesses...
New Website Helps Rate Illinois Nursing Homes
Posted on October 15, 2009A new website allows family and friends of nursing home residents to access, rate and share information regarding Illinois nursing homes. It allows you to ask questions and view relevant information regarding nursing homes. This website will help you determine where to place your loved ones while avoiding nursing home negligence...
State Senate Hearing to Examine Nursing Home Safety
Posted on October 14, 2009Two Senate committees will hold a joint hearing next month to examine ways to improve safety at Illinois nursing homes. These homes have a high number of felons with mental illness which has led to reported assaults, rape and even murder. There will be a hearing in Chicago where elder advocates will speak...
Cook County Jury Awards $1 Million Verdict in Nursing Home Negligence Case
Posted on October 13, 2009A $1 million jury verdict was entered in a nursing home negligence case against Lee Manor Nursing Home in Des Plaines, Illinois. The case involved the death of a nursing home resident who exited a window of the nursing home and died soon after from fall-related injuries...
91-year-old Nursing Home Resident Attacked at South Shore Nursing Home
Posted on October 13, 2009According to the Chicago Sun Times, a 91-year-old female resident of South Shore Nursing Home in the South Side of Chicago was attacked by a male resident of the nursing home. The woman was taken to a local hospital after she suffered bruises and swelling around her eye, but did not require further hospitalization...
Senate Finance Committee to Vote on Health Care Reform Act including Elder Justice Act
Posted on October 13, 2009The Senate Finance Committee is set to vote tomorrow, October 13, on health care reform. The bill includes nursing home transparency, background checks on LTC Workers and the Elder Justice Act. The Finance Committee bill will have to be merged with a bill already passed by the Senate HELP Committee...
Study Shows Poorly Performing Nursing Homes
Posted on October 11, 2009According to the Government Accountability Office almost 4 percent of the nation?s 16,000 nursing homes could be considered ?the most poorly performing? of standards of nursing homes. The most poorly performing home?s tended to be chain-affiliated, for-profit and have more beds and residents...
State Officials Meet on Nursing Home Deficiencies
Posted on October 10, 2009Top officials from seven state agencies met for nearly two hours to discuss safety breakdowns at nursing homes that accept high numbers of mentally ill criminals. They have laid out a blueprint for solving what they have described as a very serious problem in terms of nursing home abuse...
Illinois Ranks High on Bad Nursing Report
Posted on October 10, 2009A new federal report shows that Illinois has the nation?s second-highest number of nursing homes that have been flagged as having poor quality. Forty-seven Illinois nursing homes are among facilities that perform ?most poorly? on quality-of-care measures, according a study released by the General Accounting Office...
AARP Report Concerning Background Checks on Home Care Workers
Posted on October 09, 2009American Association of Retired Person?s Public Policy Institute just released a new report on federal and state approaches to background check screening of home care workers to protect vulnerable from harm. Currently states increasingly require criminal background checks for home care workers to protect vulnerable adults from harm...
Nursing Home is fined $90,000
Posted on October 09, 2009A nursing home has received the most severe penalty under state law after an investigation concluded that inadequate care led to the death of a resident. The department of health said that the nursing home received a ?AA? citation and a $90,000 fine from the state...
Illinois Congresswoman Wins NCCNHR Policy Leadership Award
Posted on October 08, 2009The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care issues a Policy Leadership Award to a public official who has provided exemplary leadership in advancing quality of care and quality of life for residents receiving long-term care. This year?s recipient is U...
Steven Levin Discusses Nursing Home Negligence
Posted on September 30, 2009There was a short period when nursing home care was improving. However, Lawyers and Settlements.com reports that bad behavior is returning to the nursing home business. Steven Levin was quoted on the website stating that, ?Unfortunately, conditions for nursing residents are once again on the decline...
Central Baptist Village
Posted on September 29, 2009Central Baptist Village in Norridge, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $20,000 after inspectors found evidence of nursing home abuse. The inspectors found nursing home abuse, lack of reporting by fellow employees and that the employee suspected of abuse was not properly terminated...
Nursing Homes are Allowed to Avoid Insurance
Posted on September 28, 2009In 2007 a nursing home patient developed a pressure sore shortly after arriving at a nursing home. Inside Bay Area stated that once the pressure ulcer began to fester, he wasn?t moved, washed, monitored or treated with antiseptic. The bedsore erupted and surgeons had to remove his tailbone because the wound had festered without treatment...
Elder Justice Act of 2009
Posted on September 28, 2009The US Congress has proposed the Elder Justice Act in the US Senate. The purpose of the Elder Justice Act is to ensure adequate public-private infrastructure to prevent, detect, treat, intervene in, and prosecute elder abuse, neglect and exploitation...
Nursing Home Accusations Continue
Posted on September 28, 2009At one nursing home the Attorney General?s Office is looking into accusations that a male employee had done inappropriate things with a female resident. The employee was a registered nurse and had been working at the hospital and filling in at the nursing home...
Jury Finds for Plaintiff in Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit
Posted on September 27, 2009A Madison County jury took less than two hours to deliberate in a nursing home negligence suit against Rosewood Care Center of Alton. The only thing they had to consider what damages to award after the Madison County Judge struck the defendant?s pleadings on the negligence issue and directed the verdict on the liability issues for the plaintiff...
Malpractice at Nursing Home Results in $125,000 Settlement
Posted on September 27, 2009A resident at the nursing home who was overdosed on Zyprexa for 2 days was awarded a $125 thousand nursing home abuse settlement. The nursing home negligence lawsuit centered on a miscommunication between a doctor who said he prescribed 2.5 mg of Zyprexa over the phone to a nurse...
CNA arrested in Nursing Home Attack
Posted on September 26, 2009A certified nursing assistant at a nursing home is charged with choking and pushing one of the facility?s residents. The man was arrested for felony battery charges after police were called to the nursing home in reference to the elderly battery. He was found asleep in a recliner of the woman he physical abused...
Nursing Home Management Receives $8 Million in Fines
Posted on September 25, 2009A state slammed Sunwest Management, several of their affiliates and former CEO with $8 million in fines, claiming that the ailing chain of assisted living centers misled investors, lied about the true condition of the company and used unlicensed salespeople to sell unregistered securities...
Jury Finds for Plaintiff in Illinois Nursing Home
Posted on September 25, 2009It only took an Illinois jury less than two hours to deliberate in a nursing home negligence lawsuit against Rosewood Care Center of Alton, Illinois. The plaintiff, Clifford Emons, was represented by an Alton attorney. This is the second verdict this year against Rosewood Care Center...
The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care Issues Newsletter
Posted on September 25, 2009The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care has issued their September Newsletter. The newsletter discussed the recent budget cuts to Illinois Ombudsmen Programs. On October 1, planned state budget cuts will significantly reduce funding to Illinois?s long-term care ombudsmen program...
Owner of Personal Care Home is Investigated
Posted on September 23, 2009The owner of a personal care home is being investigated for possible elderly abuse violations. WTOK.com broke the story in which officials say the probe into the facility started from complaints from residents. Officials found residents in the middle of the street complaining about mistreatment at the house...
Congressman Recognizes World Alzheimer?s Day
Posted on September 22, 2009Congressman Sestak recognized World Alzheimer?s Day by urging congress to pass legislation protecting Alzheimer patients from elder abuse. The Congressman wants legislation to protect Alzheimer patients from the growing epidemic of nursing home abuse, neglect and exploitation of vulnerable seniors like those suffering from Alzheimer?s...
Attorney Steven Levin to Speak at AAJ Seminar
Posted on September 21, 2009Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti, will speak on Saturday, 17, 2009 at the American Association for Justice?s (AAJ) Litigating Nursing Home Cases Seminar. Attorney Levin will speak to other AAJ members about Moving from ?Medical Malpractice to Nursing Home- Differences to Watch For?...
Nursing Home Deficient in Several Categories
Posted on September 21, 2009A State?s Department of Health and Human Services found a nursing home to be defiant in seven categories following an alleged sexual assault. A report showed that the home did not do enough to protect a 33-year-old disabled woman from sexual assault...
Woman Accused of Stealing at the Nursing Home
Posted on September 21, 2009An employee at a nursing home was arrested and has been charged with stealing from the nursing home and several of its residents. According to the police department after the employee was arrested after the home?s chief long-term care officer reported the center had information showing an employee had been stealing...
Director of Group Home Arrested
Posted on September 20, 2009Investigators are looking into charges of elderly abuse at a collection of group homes. They have arrested the director of one of the homes after discovering he was on probation for elder abuse and had been ordered to stay away from such facilities. He was convicted last year of causing great bodily harm to an elderly or dependent person and served three months in jail...
Caretaker Charged with Raping an Elderly Woman
Posted on September 19, 2009A private caretaker who was charged with raping an elderly woman in an assisted living pleaded no contest to all charges. The 50-year-old man will be sentenced to between four and nine years in prison for the elderly abuse. He will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life...
Nursing Home Fined for having an Unauthorized Worker
Posted on September 18, 2009Two nursing homes were hit with big fines for having an unauthorized employee. Federal prosecutors say that the nursing home both hired a nurse who had been previously banned from working in facilities that receive federal health care funds, like Medicare...
House Subcommittee Hears Testimony on Unfair Binding Arbitration Clauses
Posted on September 18, 2009Lawmakers and consumers testified before a House subcommittee, calling for new legislation restricting the ability of companies to force customers into mandatory binding arbitration when disputes arise. The new legislation will help protect elderly access to the courts in cases against nursing homes...
Briarbrook Place
Posted on September 16, 2009Briarbrook Place in East Peoria, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $20,000 after inspectors found that staff did not prevent wandering. Inspectors also found that the facility did not have an active medical record for each resident...
Sexual Assault Victim Files Suit against Nursing Home
Posted on September 16, 2009The guardian for an 82-year-old woman who was sexually assaulted when she was a resident at Parkview Terrace has filed a nursing home lawsuit. The suit was filed in Rock Island County Circuit Court and named the nursing home and its former employee. The nursing home lawsuit stems from a February 1 incident in which the woman was sexually assaulted by the employee, whose job at the nursing home is still unknown...
Care Worker Accused of Assaulting Woman
Posted on September 16, 2009The police have arrested a young man accused of assaulting a 76-year-old woman at a care home. The police capital stated that a supervisor caught a 19-year-old man sexually assaulting the woman one night last week. Staff members told police that the employee was on an on call, fill-in worker at the nursing home...
Fight against Mandatory Binding Arbitration
Posted on September 16, 2009Nursing Home Residents are often asked to signed nursing home contracts that contain mandatory arbitration clauses. When a person signs an arbitration clause they are unable to sue the nursing home even if they are a victim of nursing home abuse. Residents are oftentimes very nervous and busy when they enter a nursing home, and do not have the proper time to review each individual aspect of the contract...
Woman dies in Nursing Home as a result of an Infected Bedsore
Posted on September 15, 2009A family has filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit after their mother died of an infected bedsore wound. The 73-year-old woman went to the nursing home hoping that it would be a temporary place of healing for her fractured arm. When she tried to leave the nursing home, she was denied an exit because she had a fatal wound...
2009 NCCNHR Annual Meeting & Conference to be held
Posted on September 15, 2009The 2009 National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care Conference is scheduled for October 22, 2009 until October 25, 3009. It will take place at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel in Washington, DC. They have a renewed commitment to achieve ?quality care, no matter where?...
Task Force Gives Advice on How to Protect Seniors
Posted on September 14, 2009As the wife of Baby Boomers hits 65, the need for elder abuse awareness is hitting an all time high. Elderly people become vulnerable to financial abuse by relatives, caretakers and a range of helpers. Experts in preventing financial exploitation suggest the following safeguards: ? Never advertise for a caretaker, handyman or driver...
Illinois Ombudmen are Vital to Nursing Home Care
Posted on September 14, 2009Illinois ombudsmen help the staff understand the rights of residents. In order to make sure those residents? rights are upheld, the agency sponsors the Long-Term Ombudsman Program which covers 16 counties in Illinois. It serves residents age 60 in over 139 licensed health facilities, 11 assisted living facilities and seven supportive living facilities...
Levin & Perconti Settles $700,000 Nursing Home Lawsuit after Wrongful Death
Posted on September 14, 2009Prairie View Care Center in Charleston, IL recently agreed to pay a record $700,000 to the family of a 43-year-old man who died from injuries he suffered while a resident at the nursing home. The settlement is the largest reported settlement against a Coles County nursing home...
Bourbonnais Terrace
Posted on September 14, 2009Bellefontaine Place in Bourbonnais, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $20,000 after inspectors found that there was nursing home was negligent when it allowed residents to sexually abuse one another. Inspectors also found that resident?s were physically abusing each other as well...
New Legislation Passed To Protect Elderly
Posted on September 12, 2009Financial abuse by someone that an elderly member trusted is now becoming a lot more difficult to do in one state. New legislation that went into effect radically changed the power-of-attorney document. Legislators believed that this elder abuse legislation comes at the perfect time, since financial abuse is one of the fastest growing areas of elder abuse...
Department of Aging Urges Citizens to Report Abuse and Neglect of Older Adults
Posted on September 12, 2009Citizens are urged to immediately report the suspected abuse or neglect of an older adult by calling their state?s Elder Abuse Hotline. Also older individuals who are being abused or neglected are also urged to call the hotline. Older adults should have the right to live a life free from abuse and neglect...
Audit Finds Illinois Overcharging for Long-Term Care
Posted on September 11, 2009An audit says Illinois could be overcharging thousands of nursing home residents who rely on Medicaid to pay long-term care expenses. A report by the Auditor General shows that one patient was overcharged $9,204. The nursing home report says the state?s Healthcare and Family Services and Human Services departments are automatically applying increases in Social Security benefits to care; federal law allows patients to give the money to spouses still living at home...
Shake-up at LaSalle County Nursing Home
Posted on September 11, 2009Three of the top administrators at the LaSalle County Nursing Home have been either fired or they have resigned. An interim administrator has been hired until a permanent administrator can take over. While nursing home staff could not state why there has been such a change in administration, there is a great deal of speculation...
Investigation Finds Sexual Abuse at Nursing Home While Administrators did Nothing
Posted on September 11, 2009A 35-year-old man was indicted for sexually abusing four elderly patients at a nursing home. The state?s Board of Nursing has suspended the employee?s license. It was through the help of a resident investigation that the nursing home abuse was discovered...
Family Sues Nursing Home after Fatal Bedsore Leads to Wrongful Death
Posted on September 10, 2009A 73-year-old woman entered a nursing home in 2005 after she fell and injured her arm, believing it would be a quick month stint for therapy. However, two years later, after repeated denied requests to go home, the woman died due to a horrific infected bedsore...
Bellefontaine Place
Posted on September 10, 2009Bellefontaine Place in Waterloo, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $20,000 after inspectors found that there was nursing home abuse and neglect at the facility. The inspection revealed that the nursing home did not have sufficient seatbelts when transporting the residents...
One Woman?s Daughter Tries to Document Nursing Home Negligence and Gets Banned from Nursing Home
Posted on September 10, 2009After a fire broke out in her mother?s room, a woman decided to take pictures in order to document the nursing home abuse. She had received a call from the nursing home that there had been a fire, and that her mother would be moved to another floor. The daughter immediately went to check on her mother and to retrieve her mom?s smoky-smelling clothes for washing...
State Faces Cuts in Nursing Home Care
Posted on September 10, 2009A new analysis of pending health care reforms by the American Health Care Association says states could face more than $1 billion in cuts over a 10-year period to Medicare-funded nursing home care. According to America?s Affordable Health Choices Act Medicare payments for skilled nursing facilities may significantly decrease...
Alleged Abuse Found at Group Home
Posted on September 09, 2009Authorities have uncovered what are described as prison camp conditions at a group home housing the elderly. Investigators say the elder abuse took a new form as the seniors, some mentally disabled, were abused, crammed into chicken coops and forced to go to the bathroom in buckets...
Nursing Home and Drug Firms Questioned on Dispensing of Drugs
Posted on September 09, 2009Several nursing homes may have provided powerful prescription drugs such as Fentanyl and OxyContin to patients without a doctor?s authorization which is a violation of federal rules. The drugs were in labeled ?emergency kit boxes? intended for use when a doctor is not available or when a patient is waiting for a prescription to be filled...
Administrator Charged in Nursing Home Drugging
Posted on September 09, 2009An administrator has been charged in a case of nursing home negligence, where the residents were allegedly drugged against their will. The administrator was charged with eight felony counts of elder abuse for allowing staff to forcibly administer psychotropic medications to patients for their own convenience, rather than for their patients? therapeutic needs...
Budget Cuts to Reduce Nursing Home Advocate Program
Posted on September 08, 2009Elderly people across Illinois may suffer when budget cuts are scheduled to take effect October 1. These budget cuts will reduce the number of trained advocates who visit nursing homes to expose and prevent elderly abuse and neglect. The president of the Illinois Association of Long-Term Care Ombudsmen is very worried about the effect that these cuts will have on nursing home care...
Illinois Nursing Homes Faces Investigation
Posted on September 08, 2009A Jacksonville, Illinois nursing home is alleged to have failed to keep six residents from being mentally, verbally or physically abused. This has prompted $20,000 in fines and a nursing home negligence investigation by the state?s attorney?s office...
Bement Health Care Center
Posted on September 08, 2009Bement Health Care Center in Bement, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $20,000 after inspectors found nursing home abuse and neglect. Inspectors found that an employee did not report physical and mental abuse that was inflicted upon residents...
Nursing Home is under Criminal Investigation
Posted on September 07, 2009A criminal investigation is under way after state health officials released a report about elder abuse at a nursing home. According to the nursing home abuse report, three nursing aides pinched, slapped and threw rubber balls at a resident with Alzheimer?s disease and told another resident to ?shut up? while calling him names...
Elderly People Held in Squalid Conditions
Posted on September 06, 2009Authorities arrested a woman who they say boarded 22 mentally ill, elderly and other people in prison-like conditions, housing some in converted chicken coops behind razor wire fences. The woman was arrested on 16 counts of suspected elder abuse. Many of the people appeared to have mental health issues...
Woman Claims Nursing Home Neglect caused her Mother?s Death
Posted on September 06, 2009A woman claims a nursing home bears responsibility for her mother?s death. The nursing home negligence lawsuit accuses the nursing home of improperly looking after her mother. It states that the nursing home repeatedly violated the law by failing to assure and provide sufficient nursing home care to her mother...
Caretaker Pleads not Guilty to Stealing From Elderly Employer
Posted on September 05, 2009A woman pled not guilty today to charges that she financially exploited more than $15,000 for a 93-year-old woman for whom she was employed to provide at-home care. The 49-year-old employee is charged with elder financial abuse by a caretaker, a penalty punishable by up to four years in prison...
Plaintiffs Awarded $250,000 in Nursing Home Injury Case
Posted on September 04, 2009The family of a woman who survived a two-story fall out of a nursing home window has been compensated for their nursing home negligence. The nursing home accident happened six years ago. The 57-year-old cognitively impaired woman tried to leave the nursing home to be with her family...
Nursing Home Workers should be required to get Flu Shots
Posted on September 04, 2009While state?s Health Department?s are requiring that health care workers be vaccinated for the flu, they are not requiring the same regulation for employees of nursing homes. One particular state?s law requires that nursing home employees get flu shots but allows workers to refuse the vaccine after being informed of the heath risks...
Study shows that Direct Care Workers are Essential to Quality Nursing Home and Home Health Care
Posted on September 03, 2009The Direct Care Workers (DCWs) are integral to addressing the many elderly family members that live in both nursing homes and need personal care takers. The DCW is also a liaison to the nursing home staff, reporting the care-receiver?s medical and emotional status...
Alden Owns over 40 Illinois Nursing Homes
Posted on September 02, 2009The Alden Network is an Illinois entity operating over 40 nursing homes within Illinois. Due to the overwhelming amount of nursing homes, you may not recognize a specific home as an Alden Network home. Since the nursing home abuse attorneys at Levin & Perconti have filed a number of lawsuits against Alden homes, we have provided a list of Alden Network homes below...
Nurse?s Aide Pled Guilty in Elderly Woman?s Death
Posted on September 01, 2009A former nursing assistant apologized for allowing 89-year-old Sarah Wentworth to freeze to death last winter after she wandered out of her Itasca, Illinois nursing home. The nursing assistant never checked a door alarm that sounded at two in the morning when the elderly woman left the Arbor of Itasca nursing home during zero degree temperatures...
Three People Arrested for Operating Unlicensed Assisted Living Facilities
Posted on August 31, 2009Three people have been arrested following an investigation by the Medicare Fraud Control Unit. The attorney general announced that three nursing home administrators were arrested on charges that they were operating two different assisted living facilities without licenses...
Elderly Abuse Conference Held
Posted on August 31, 2009A commission on aging invited service providers and community members participate in an elder abuse conference. The sessions included information about different types of advice and the resources available to victims. At the conference they discussed that the most common type of elder abuse is neglect...
Man Jailed for Touching Two Nursing Home Residents
Posted on August 31, 2009A former nursing home employee has been sentenced to six months in jail for sexually molesting two residents. The man was also sentenced to five years probation for the elderly abuse. The man pleaded guilty to two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual assault...
Nursing Home Receives Fine after Wrongful Death
Posted on August 30, 2009A 78-year-old woman died last year because a nursing home failed to properly monitor her medication and failed to check her into an emergency room fast enough when her brain started bleeding. The Department of Health was fined $100,000 after an investigation revealed that the nursing home ignored the worsening condition of a patient admitted a year ago with a hip fracture, heart problem osteoporosis, hypertension and osteoarthritis...
Avenue Care Center
Posted on August 30, 2009Avenue Care Center in Chicago, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation after inspectors found that residents were wandering from the facility. The inspectors believed that there was not proper procedures implemented to prevent wandering. The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators...
20-year-old pleads not Guilty in Elder Abuse Case
Posted on August 30, 2009A 20-year-old former nursing home employee pleaded not guilty to all charges related elder abuse at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home. Her case is no scheduled for a jury trial, and her lawyer is considering change of venue. He is worried about the adverse degree of publicity that occurred after the outrageous nursing home abuse that occurred at the home...
Delayed Plea in Itasca Nursing Home Death
Posted on August 29, 2009Three women came to the DuPage, Illinois County courthouse looking for justice for the wrongful death of their mother, who died last winter in an Itasca nursing home courtyard after she wandered outside in the cold. However, they left disappointed do to the inability of the nursing home employee to plea because of an ongoing trial...
Nursing Home Employee Charged with Cruelty
Posted on August 29, 2009A nursing home employee was arrested after the center?s administrator saw the employee push down one of the handicapped patients. The 49-year-old woman was arrested and charged with cruelty to the infirmed. The woman was seen arguing with a handicapped patient and was then seen ?stiff arming? the man who slid across the floor about four to five feet...
State Passes Nursing Home Legislation which Highlights Financial Protection
Posted on August 29, 2009A state has developed a pill to prevent the financial exploitation of senior citizens. The bill is called the Elder Abuse Protection Plan which is meant to address a surge in elder abuse complaints. The bill makes financially exploiting a vulnerable adult a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison...
Nursing Home Death Leads to $26 Million Lawsuit
Posted on August 29, 2009After two resident deaths, it became apparent that one nursing home was not operating at an acceptable level. One resident was covered in severe bed sores and developed an infection due to those bed sores. Another resident fell to his death. After a 26 million dollar nursing home negligence lawsuit was filed, investigators began finding more faults with the nursing home...
Nursing Home Employee Charged with Sexual Battery
Posted on August 28, 2009A nurse?s aide had to quit her position after she complained about elderly abuse and no action was taken. Finally, she contacted an investigator at the attorney general?s office what she saw, an aide molesting two different nursing home patients. The aide has now been indicted on four counts of aggravated sexual battery...
Former Housekeeper Commits Financial Exploitation of Elderly
Posted on August 28, 2009An elderly abuse lawsuit alleges that a housekeeper cleaned out most of her client?s accounts. It alleges that she took more than $1.4 million from a retired couple with serious medical ailments. The elderly abuse lawsuit claims that the woman bought fancy cruises and a quickie wedding in Vegas with the money she stole from the seniors...
Nursing Home Blamed in Death of Resident
Posted on August 28, 2009An investigative report showed that a resident hit his head on the floor when he was being transferred from his wheelchair to his bed with a mechanical lift. The man?s death was due to the injuries from the fall. A report from the Health Department found evidence indicating nursing home neglect...
Aurora Rehab & Living Center
Posted on August 28, 2009Aurora Rehab & Living Center in Aurora, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation after inspectors found that all the doors were not equipped with a signal to alert staff when a person leaves the residency. It was also found that care was inadequate at the nursing home...
Nursing Home Slapped with Wrongful Death Suit
Posted on August 28, 2009A nursing home is the subject of a wrongful-death lawsuit for the second time in less than a year. The wrongful death suit was filed after a man who had severe mental retardation was taken to the hospital because blood was found in his urine. The wrongful death lawsuit claims that the victim had fallen from his bed because a nurse failed to raise a guardrail, and he hit his head so hard that he had swelling the size of an orange...
Nursing Home Patient Charged with the Murder of another Resident
Posted on August 27, 2009An 87-year-old man has been charged with killing his 91-year-old fellow resident at a nursing home. The victim was sitting on a bench outside when the resident struck him in the head. The man was taken to hospice where he died of personal injuries. The death was ruled a homicide and he was charged with second-degree murder and first and second-degree assault...
Aspire on Eastern Nursing Home
Posted on August 26, 2009Aspire on Eastern Nursing Home in Bellwood, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and fines in the amount of $10,000 after inspectors found that resident?s fell in the facilities. The nursing home should create a comprehensive plan to assess a resident?s falling...
Binding Arbitration Clauses Create Havoc in Nursing Home Abuse Cases
Posted on August 26, 2009Binding arbitration clauses are becoming increasingly more common in society, especially in nursing homes. Many nursing home lawyers are finding that nursing home residents and their families are being faced with mandatory arbitration clauses when they try to take the corporations to court...
Nursing Home Aide is Accused of Assaulting Nursing Home Patient
Posted on August 26, 2009A nurse?s assistant is accused of using a pillow to silence a patient at a nursing home. The 23-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault on an at-risk victim and misdemeanor neglect of an at-risk victim. The arrest came after a staff member reported allegations of nursing home abuse at the police department...
Nursing Home Arbitration Bill Approaches Senate Markup
Posted on August 25, 2009The nursing home legislation would ban pre-dispute arbitration agreements now widely used by long-term care facilities. The nursing home bill was passed by the House Judiciary Committee in July. At a joint Senate committee hearing witnesses testified that under pre-dispute agreements, victims of nursing home abuse and neglect discussed how they faced a one-sided dispute resolution system with no public record and no appeal...
Nursing Home Employee Accused of Sexual Abuse
Posted on August 25, 2009A 29-year-old nursing home employee was arrested after staff caught her engaging in sexual contact with a 60-year-old male patient who suffers from a several mental defect. The employee was charged with felony second-degree endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person and misdemeanor second-degree sex abuse...
Program May Improve Quality of Care in Nursing Homes
Posted on August 25, 2009A 38-year-old woman in fine health decided to enter a nursing home in order to experience the difficulties associated with the specific type of living. The medical student was enrolled in a novel program that allowed her to experience life as a nursing home patient...
Nursing Home Agrees to Pay $1,450 Violation
Posted on August 24, 2009A state investigation looked into nursing home abuse and neglect into a Devon Gables care facility. It found that there were several civil violations and the nursing home had to pay a $1,450 fine. The 16 violations included: nursing home neglect of patients; faulty administration of medications; failure to report allegations of elder abuse and neglect in documenting renal disease...
Arbor Nursing Home
Posted on August 24, 2009Arbor Nursing Home in Itasca, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and fines in the amount of $40,000 after inspectors found that the facility did not have policies and procedures in place to ensure resident bed checks were being done. The Department of Health and Human Services also found that the employees did not use the electronic monitoring devise that prevents wandering...
Police Investigate Nursing Home Abuse Claims at Golden Moments Senior Care Center
Posted on August 24, 2009State police are looking into claims that a nurse?s aide threatened to cut a 68-year-old man?s throat, slapped a woman in the face, taunted and insulted another disabled and sick adults and took food away from a hungry resident of Golden Moments Senior Care Center in Jacksonville, Illinois...
Study Shows Fault with Nursing Home Admission Agreements
Posted on August 24, 2009The move to a nursing home is a stressful, anxious time for not only the resident but their family as well. That is why so many people find themselves signing nursing home contracts without properly reviewing them. However, the document is not one of routine and many admission agreements are harmful and have provisions that violate the law...
Nurse?s Aide Charged with Taking Inappropriate Photo
Posted on August 23, 2009A former nurse?s aide at a nursing home has been charged with taking a sexually explicit photo of a 49-year-old male patient with a traumatic brain injury. It was said that the man used a cell phone to take an inappropriate photo of a nursing-home patient under his care...
Woman is sentenced for Financially Exploiting Elderly Man
Posted on August 23, 2009A woman who was convicted in June of financially exploiting and neglecting the care of an elderly man was sentenced to probation. While the judge believed that the woman was responsible for the financial abuse she also felt that the state bore as much responsibility for the
$53 Million Nursing Home Lawsuit Overturned on Appeal
Posted on August 22, 2009A $53 million judgment against a nursing home management giant HCR ManorCare has been overturned by a court of appeals, citing technical issues surrounding the ownership structure set up between the nursing home where the nursing home neglect occurred and parent companies...
Alden Village North Nursing Home
Posted on August 22, 2009Alden Village in Chicago, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and fines in the amount of $25,000 after inspectors found that tube fed clients eat in their bedrooms. The Department of Health and Human Services found that these residents were not properly fed nor were proper records kept...
When the Caretaker becomes the Abuser
Posted on August 22, 2009Every year as many as 10% of older adults are reportedly abused by a family member. Of course these numbers do not reflect the actual number of reported elder abuse cases, because oftentimes elder abuse goes unreported. The elderly are a particularly vulnerable population for a number of reasons and they oftentimes rely on professional caretakers or family members to help them through their daily routines...
New Elder Abuse Legislation Raises Penalties
Posted on August 21, 2009The state of California has just enacted nursing home legislation that increases elder abuse penalties. The bill takes effect on January 1, 2010 and will increase fines from $6,000 to $10,000 for those found guilty of placing an elder or dependent adult in situations where great bodily harm or death is likely...
Ex-Nurse Admits Guilt in Elderly Abuse Case
Posted on August 21, 2009A former nursing home nurse is facing up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree assault on an at-risk adult. The nurse is accused of neglecting and sometimes abusing a mentally comprised 65 year old woman while bilking Medicaid for the cost of the care...
Death at Burnham Terrace Home may be the Result of Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on August 21, 2009In April of 2009, Levin & Perconti discussed the death of a nursing home resident in the village of Burnham, located in the southern suburb of Chicago. This death may have been the resident of nursing home abuse. The victim died on April 1 from injuries he sustained during an altercation, which may have been at the home...
Addolorata Villa Nursing Home
Posted on August 20, 2009Addolorata Villa Nursing Home in Wheeling, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $20,000 after inspectors found that there was recent falls with injuries at the nursing home. Many of these falls occurred despite the staff?s knowledge of predisposition for falling...
Study Shows Severe Underreporting in Elder Abuse
Posted on August 20, 2009The National Center on Elder Abuse says adult protective service agencies nationwide tallied 253, 421 reports of elder abuse in 2006. This amounts to 832 cases of elder abuse per 100,000 in that age group. While this may seem like a small number, research has shown that as much as 84 percent of elderly abuse and neglect goes unreported to authorities...
LaSalle County Nursing Home Angers Ombudsman
Posted on August 20, 2009On June 4, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) issued a report faulting the nursing home for failing to protect female residents from the molestations of a male resident between January and May. The day after report was released the resident was moved from the home to the mental unit at an Illinois hospital...
Nursing Assistant Charged with Elder Abuse
Posted on August 19, 2009A nursing assistant has been charged with hitting and beating four elderly women with Alzheimer?s disease at a nursing home. The nursing aide is currently being held under home confinement. The co-worker described a rampage in which the employee allegedly attacked one woman by grabbing her head to get her to a toilet when she began defecting...
Illinois Case May Set Legal Guidelines for Elderly Abuse
Posted on August 19, 2009The conviction of two Illinois sisters found guilty of neglecting their elderly mother may play a role in defining how similar cases are decided in the future. The Kane County State?s Attorney believes that the two convicted of elderly abuse will appeal their felony conviction, putting the case in the hands of the Supreme Court...
Steps Needed to Recognize Elder Abuse
Posted on August 19, 2009One of the biggest problems with elder abuse is that it is rarely reported. The elderly tend to be either or embarrassed or unaware of abuse, so it is important that family members recognize the signs of elderly abuse. Here are some signs to look for regarding elder abuse or neglect: 1...
Nursing Home Death Prompts Lawsuit
Posted on August 19, 2009The family of a woman who died in 2007 of acute sepsis and other complications stemming from a large Stage 4 pressure wound is bringing a nursing home negligence lawsuit. The pressure ulcer was discovered two months before her death, causing paramedics to rush the 82-year-old woman to the hospital...
Nursing Home Aide Charged with Assault at Nursing Home
Posted on August 18, 2009A nurse?s aide accused of punching and threatening an 83-year-old nursing home resident who has Alzheimer?s disease was arraigned on assault and battery charges. The woman allegedly punched the victim twice in chest and stomach, pushed her down onto her bed, and ordered her not to get up again...
Support the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act of 2008
Posted on August 18, 2009Congress is currently considering a very important piece of nursing home legislation. The bill would increase transparency of nursing home ownership, operations, staffing and expenditures. It would also improve the consumer complaint process and increase civil monetary penalties...
Assisted Living Facility Gives up License and Still Faces More Penalties
Posted on August 18, 2009An assisted living center that?s giving up its state license to avoid government oversight and regulation is facing $16,000 in additional fines. At the same time, the family of a resident who was seriously injured at the facility is discussing claims made by the care center?s owners...
Man Accused of Stealing Elderly Woman?s Drugs
Posted on August 18, 2009The manager of an assisted living facility accused of stealing the residents? medications and replacing them with over the county medications pled not guilty today in court. The manager was arrested by narcotics investigators with the sheriff?s office and charged with six felony counts of cruelty to a person 65 or older and counts of theft...
Illinois Fines LaSalle County Nursing Home
Posted on August 18, 2009LaSalle County Nursing Home has received a $20,000 fine for violations stemming from the molestation of several female patients by a resident of the home. The Illinois Department of Public Health said that the nursing home has opted to appeal the fine, but there has been no hearing date set...
Nursing Home Denies an Elder Abuse
Posted on August 17, 2009A family believes that one of their members is a victim of nursing home abuse. They have contact both the local authorities and the local police, however the nursing home denies any allegations of abuse. Additionally, the nursing home conducted their own internal investigation and allowed the Department of Health to investigate the complaints of elder abuse...
A Man Receives Sentence in Nursing Home Abuse Case
Posted on August 17, 2009A former certified nurse assistant at a nursing home has been sentenced to time served after pleading guilty to elderly abuse. The man was arrested for physically abusing an 88-year-old resident at the nursing home where he lived. The employee admitted to investigators that he struck the bedridden woman in the face, grabbed her arm and pushed her into the wheelchair...
Illinois Legislature Seeks to Amend Nursing Home Care Act
Posted on August 15, 2009Illinois House Bill 3445 will amend the Nursing Home Care Act and the state Mandates Act. It provides that no person may establish or operate a nursing home in Illinois unless and until he or she provides to the Department of Public Health proof of liability insurance coverage in an amount not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence...
While Economy Struggles, Elder Financial Exploitation is on the Rise
Posted on August 15, 2009Advocates for the elderly are seeing more cases of financial exploitation of senior citizens as the recession wears on. This elder abuse ranges from taking advantage of an aging relative to fraud. One victim was financially exploited by her at-home care giver...
Elder Self-Neglect and Abuse linked to Increased Risk of Dying
Posted on August 14, 2009Elderly self-neglect is associated with a nearly six-fold increase in the risk of dying within a year. Elder self-neglect and abuse are serious, common and under recognized. There are an estimated 2 million cases of elder self-neglect and abuse in the United States...
Nursing Homes still not Protected during Disasters
Posted on August 14, 2009A report released by the National Council on Disability claims that the federal government still has a long way to go to insure that disabled Americans are protected during major disasters. The report states that emergency agencies should be able to talk to disabled people and their representatives for guidance in formulating disaster plans...
Elderly Protected by Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act
Posted on August 14, 2009The elderly and their families will no longer be forced to give up their legal rights and sign one-sided mandatory arbitration clauses under new nursing home legislation introduced in the US Senate. The bipartisan Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2009 will prevent nursing homes from deliberately hiding fine print clauses that force seniors to surrender their rights to jury and enter an unfair and one-sided mandatory binding arbitration process...
Two Sisters Found Guilty of Neglecting Mother
Posted on August 13, 2009Two sisters from Geneva, Illinois were found guilty this morning of criminally neglecting their 84-year-old infirmed mother. The two women found guilty of elder abuse will be sentenced on October 9. They could be sentenced to as little as probation or 2 to 5 years in prison...
83-year-old Patient Restrained While Employee Took Nap
Posted on August 13, 2009A nursing home aide tied an 83-year-old woman to her wheelchair with a bed sheet, took her into a common room, turned out the lights and napped. The victim remained restrained for approximately one hour. The elder neglect incident occurred in May of 2008...
Physician Testifies in Elder Abuse Lawsuit
Posted on August 13, 2009A family filed an elderly negligence suit against a nursing home physician claiming that the doctor was negligent in prescribing a medication for her. The physician took the stand and testified that the family called months later asking for the exact medication in order to curb?s the woman?s anxiety...
Non-for Profit Nursing Homes have Better Quality of Care
Posted on August 12, 2009Researches published a nursing home study in the British Medical Journal in which they examined 82 studies carried out in the US and Canada from 1965 to 2003 comparing quality between for-profit and not-for-profit nursing homes. Studies showed significantly better quality in not-for-profit homes with only three showing the quality of care was better in for-profit homes...
As Population Ages Elder Abuse Grows
Posted on August 12, 2009One of the most under-reported types of abuse is elder abuse. With the economy in shambles, experts expect elder abuse cases will go up. When children move home, or parents move in with their children, elder abuse frequently rises. This is especially true in financial exploitation...
Nursing-Home Death Spurs Nursing Home Negligence Suit
Posted on August 11, 2009A nursing home negligence suit has been filed against a county alleging shoddy care of a nursing-home resident led to months of pain and ultimately the woman?s death. The elderly negligence lawsuit alleges staffers at the county-run nursing home caused the 81-year-old victim to fail, than failed to treat and report to her doctor a large pressure ulcer that formed...
NCCNHR releases August Bulletin
Posted on August 11, 2009The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care has released their August bulletin highlighting all their efforts to reform nursing home legislation. They urge constituents to contact their Congressmen to pass legislation to make nursing home quality and ownership more transparent...
Nursing Home Aide Pleads Guilty in Patient?s Death
Posted on August 10, 2009A 55-year-old former nursing home aide pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter in the death of an Alzheimer?s patient whom she fed steaming-hot cereal. The victim was being cared for by the hospice unit of a nursing home when the nurses? aide poured hot Cream of Wheat down his throat...
Daughter and Grandson Arrested in Will County Woman?s Death
Posted on August 10, 2009The daughter and grandson of a 91-year-old woman have been arrested on elderly neglect charges as a result of the woman?s death. The police arrested the two after suspecting that the elderly woman had been dead for some time before the authorities were notified...
Study Finds Not-For Profit Nursing Homes are Often Superior
Posted on August 09, 2009In the United States, two-thirds of nursing homes are investor-owned, for-profit businesses. However, making a profit does not seem to decrease nursing home abuse and the overall quality of care. A paper published by the British Medical Journal examined 82 studies carried out in United States and Canadian nursing homes...
Levin & Perconti Files Nursing Home Negligence on Behalf of Resident against Alden Northmoor
Posted on August 08, 2009Attorneys Steven Levin and Margaret Battersby of Levin & Perconti filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Cook County against Alden Northmoor Rehabilitation and Care Center in Chicago, Illinois. The complaint was filed on behalf of 77-year-old Mary Clifton of Chicago, Illinois for the injuries she sustained at Alden Northmoor...
Illinois Nursing Home Facing Fines for Abuse
Posted on August 07, 2009LaSalle County could face federal and state fines of $20,000 or more for violating codes at a nursing home where a male patient is accused of sexually molesting 10 women. The Illinois Department of Public Health recommended that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services fine LaSalle County $20,000 plus $100 for each day between the times that the complaint was filed until a review showed the nursing home was back in compliance...
Resident?s Advocates Discuss Nursing Home Legislation
Posted on August 07, 2009The Illinois State Journal Register discussed both the pros and cons of the new nursing home legislation proposed in Illinois, Senate Bill 314. Some, like the executive director of Nursing Home Monitors, believe that the nursing home legislation would weaken an already lax regulatory system by allowing the state to forgive certain fines against nursing homes that promise to use the money for correcting deficiencies...
State Implements Adult Abuse Registry
Posted on August 07, 2009The State of Delaware has passed a bill which allows the Department of Health and Social Services to provide online access to the names of individuals who are actively listed on the Adult Abuse Registry as a result of elderly abuse, elderly neglect or financial exploitation...
Couple Steals Millions from Alzheimer?s Patient
Posted on August 06, 2009A former doctor who had progressive Alzheimer?s disease and dementia was defrauded out of nearly $4 million dollars of her assets. The woman?s attorney has filed a financial exploitation lawsuit seeking $3.9 million in damages against the German couple who defrauded the former doctor...
Nursing Home Death Spurs Lawsuit against County Administrators
Posted on August 05, 2009A nursing home negligence lawsuit against a county alleges shoddy care of nursing-home resident led to months of pain and her wrongful death. The nursing home negligence lawsuit alleges staffers at the county-run nursing home caused the woman to fall, than failed to treat and report to her doctor a large pressure ulcer that formed...
Woman Accused of Striking Elderly Patient
Posted on August 04, 2009A woman is charged with elderly abuse on a nursing home resident who was under her care. The woman worked as a nursing assistant at the nursing home. The woman struck a 65-year-old across the left side of the resident?s face with a closed fist. At some point a co-worker heard yelling, walked in and said the worker had punched the victim in the face...
National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care Releases July Newsletter
Posted on August 03, 2009The NCCNHR has released their July Newsletter. This month?s newsletter discusses ombudsman programs, citizen advocacy action and a calendar of events. Please click on the link to view the newsletter or visit the NCCNHR homepage.
Former Nursing Home Worker Arrested for Elderly Abuse and Theft
Posted on August 02, 2009The former director of social work at a nursing home was arrested after being indicted by a grand jury on nursing home abuse and theft charges. The man was indicted for one count of willful abuse neglect or exploitation of a dependent adult, one count of theft over $10,000 and two counts of theft over $1,000...
Nursing Home Nurse Pleads Guilty in Elderly Neglect Case
Posted on August 01, 2009A woman has pleaded no contest to neglect of a vulnerable adult in a nursing home. The judge sentenced the woman to pay more than $600 in fines and court costs and complete 40 hours of community service. The woman was a practical nurse at the nursing home when she failed to properly assess a vulnerable adult after a fall and did not notify a physician and the victim?s family...
Nursing Home Accountability Discussed
Posted on July 31, 2009As a generation of baby boomers begins retiring it has became apparent that the size of the disabled older population who will need assisted or nursing home care will grow by more than 50 percent between 2000 and 2040. This has prompted many entrepreneurs to look at nursing homes as long-term investments...
Nursing Home Sued After Wrongful Death
Posted on July 31, 2009A man died two days after tipping over in his wheelchair near a nurse?s station in a nursing home. Now the man?s estate is suing the nursing home, saying that his wrongful death was due to elderly negligence. The lawyer?s assert that the home did not provide the man with adequate supervision when they failed to provide visual checks and appropriate restraints...
Nursing Home Choking Death Leads to Fines from State
Posted on July 29, 2009A nursing home was recently fined $50,000 after a resident choked to death while under the care of the home. After an investigation into his case, health officials concluded that his death was the result of the nursing home's failure to properly assess his ability to consume solid foods...
Update on ?Angel of Death? Case against McHenry County Nursing Home
Posted on July 29, 2009Yesterday, Illinois State Police investigators testified that a former nursing home supervisor at Woodstock Residence was aware that a fellow nurse was administering fatal doses of morphine to four residents of the nursing home. According to police testimony, several nurses came to Penny Whitlock to make her aware of what Marty Himebaugh, the ?Angel of Death?, was doing, but Whitlock did not report it to the Illinois Department of Public Health...
Elder Abuse Lawyer Files Complaint against Negligent Home
Posted on July 28, 2009Family members of an 84-year-old victim of nursing home negligence filed a wrongful death lawsuit recently on her behalf. The lawsuit alleges that she died as a result of the nursing home?s failure to prevent pressure sores, failure to properly feed and hydrate her, and failure to treat her stomach pain...
Son Charged with Financial Abuse of an Elder
Posted on July 27, 2009A man has been charged for financially exploiting his 77-year-old mother who suffered from dementia and was living in a nursing home. Since she moved into the nursing home 18 months ago, her 54-year-old son began cashing her pension checks, took out a reverse mortgage on her home, and wrote checks to himself for large sums of money...
Support Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2009 (S. 512/H.R. 1237)
Posted on July 27, 2009Last week, two of the country?s largest arbitration firms said they are no longer handling consumer arbitration cases. In the Wall Street Journal, Ed Mierzwinski of U.S. PIRG said ?In the long run, I think that this is the beginning of the end of forced arbitration in all consumer contracts, from credit cards, to nursing homes to cell phones...
How to Recognize Elder Abuse
Posted on July 25, 2009According to a recent article, The National Center on Elder Abuse has estimated that among people 65 years and older, 1 to 2 million have been abused or exploited. In order to protect this vulnerable population, it is important to understand the various forms of elder abuse and to be able to recognize these issues...
Nursing Home Faces Allegations of Elder Neglect
Posted on July 24, 2009Allegations of nursing home abuse and neglect have prompted state investigators to review the case. The 87-year-old victim died on July 10, less than two months after being admitted to the nursing home. Investigators are currently trying to discover whether nursing home neglect contributed to his death...
Elderly Abuse Difficult to Prosecute
Posted on July 23, 2009While getting victims to report elderly abuse is difficult, it seems that persuading the judicial system of its seriousness is even more difficult. Some district attorney?s believe that elder abuse cases are not considered severe. He states that financial exploitation is even more difficult to prosecute...
Nursing Home Administrators See Largest Salary Gain in Recent Years
Posted on July 23, 2009Despite an economic recession and slower compensation gains for nurses, it appears that nursing home administrators? salaries rose this year to the highest rate in four years. Nursing home administrator salaries have jumped by an average of 4.8%, according to a report by the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service...
Recession Affecting Illinois Nursing Home
Posted on July 21, 2009A Champaign County, Illinois Nursing Home found an 8 percent decline in patient census and revenue in the month of June alone. The average census of residents is now at 180, compared to the highest of 186. The nursing home?s budget crisis has made it impossible to repay any of their debt to the county...
Nursing Home Employee Accused of Rape
Posted on July 20, 2009An employee at a nursing home accused of raping a patient is facing felony charges. The man was charged with second-degree rape, a felony, and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person. The man is accused of having sexual intercourse with a female patient who has a mental disability...
Nursing Home Employee Charged with forgery
Posted on July 19, 2009Three people associated with a nursing home reported checks being stolen from their checkbooks, and an employee of that nursing home was arrested in connection with the nursing home thefts and forgery. The employee was arrested and charged with eight counts of forgery...
Illinois Agencies Shed Light on Elder Abuse
Posted on July 17, 2009According to the estimates by the Illinois Department on Aging, as many as 80,000 people are victims of elderly abuse each year. Due to these staggering numbers, the Department has declared July to be Elder Abuse Awareness Month. Along with them, McHenry County state?s attorney Louis Bianchi has been working with the elderly on a local level through presentations and distributing information packets...
Registration Open for AAJ?s Litigating Nursing Home Cases Seminar
Posted on July 17, 2009American Association for Justice?s Litigating Nursing Home Cases Seminar is scheduled for October 17-18 in Chicago, Illinois. The program, which is a ?must? for new nursing home negligence attorneys, is an invaluable resource for plaintiff attorneys...
Woman Files Nursing Home Negligent Lawsuit against Owner for $2.9 million
Posted on July 15, 2009A woman is suing the owner of two assisted living facilities for more than $2.9 million in damages, alleging he violated state regulations by using her personal checking account for nearly 5 years. The woman was a resident in two assisted living facilities during the five year span...
Nursing Home Patient Claims Abuse by Nurse?s Aide
Posted on July 14, 2009A 92-year-old World War II veteran living in a nursing home claims he was assaulted last month by a nurse?s aide. The man claims the elderly abuse occured when he was assaulted during the early-morning hours by a female employee, who allegedly grabbed the resident by his ears and began slamming his head into the mattress...
Family Accuses Illinois Nursing Home of Abuse
Posted on July 13, 2009The family of a disabled man and woman filed a nursing home abuse lawsuit against a Norridge, Illinois nursing home claiming the victim was physically assaulted multiple times during her stay at the facility. The four-count lawsuit also claims the man was given incorrect medications...
Illinois Nursing Home Committee Chairman Discusses Sex Abuse Report
Posted on July 12, 2009The Illinois nursing home committee chairman whose home has recently been accused of having 10 nursing home residents sexually abused agreed to talk to reporters about the allegations. He stated that after reading the report that continued the elderly abuse allegations he contacted fellow board members to determine what to do...
Pressure Ulcer Prevention Diet
Posted on July 11, 2009Studies show that malnourished residents are twice as likely as well-nourished ones to develop pressure ulcers. Experts believe that good nutrition is an integral part of pressure ulcer management. Experts say that consuming an adequate number of calories to meet the body?s needs is imperative to maintaining good nutritional status...
Illinois Nursing Home Allowed Sexual Abuse
Posted on July 10, 2009The LaSalle County Nursing Home failed to prevent a male resident from sexually abusing 10 female residents and positioning others, some who couldn?t speak or suffered from dementia, according to allegations in a report from the Illinois Department of Health...
National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care Puts out Newsletter
Posted on July 08, 2009The NCCNHR?s monthly newsletter is focusing on ways to survive nursing home budget cuts. Also the newsletter discusses ways that ombudsmen are trying to combat elderly abuse. The bill touches on state?s nursing home legislation including Illinois?s laws voiding arbitration agreement...
National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys Urges New Legislation
Posted on July 08, 2009When Congress returns, the health care reform battle will begin in earnest. The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) is urging the public to keep up the pressure and intensify efforts so that the nursing home legislation will be passed. The NAELA hopes that people will call their U...
NCCNHR Advocacy Efforts Move Forward to Pass Nursing Home Transparency Law
Posted on July 07, 2009After US House and Senate members return from the July 4 recess next week to begin writing their final health care reform bills. The NCCNHR is pushing that nursing home legislation be an important part of that bill. At the White House, the NCCNHR is urging the Obama Administration to support the transparency provisions in health care reform...
Chicago Nursing Home Fails Sprinkler Test
Posted on July 06, 2009The Grove at Lincoln Park may have a five star rating, but it also has seven fire-related violations including sprinklers that were not maintained in working order. The Arbour Health Care Center also received a five-star rating, despite an inspection last year that turned up four fire deficiencies...
Three Illinois Nursing Homes Receive High Marks
Posted on July 06, 2009U.S. News and World Report recently unveiled the Best Nursing Homes Honor Roll, a list of nursing homes throughout the country that received five-star ratings in health inspections, staffing, and quality measures resident care. The list is part of the magazine?s larger efforts to rate nursing homes across the United States...
Jury Awards a Groundbreaking Verdict in Elder Abuse and Neglect Case
Posted on July 05, 2009A jury as unanimously awarded a plaintiff nearly $1.34 million for the reckless nursing home abuse and neglect that the suffered in the hands of her nursing home provided. The jury awarded $88,000 for past medical bills, $500,000 in general damages and $750,000 in punitive damages...
Study Shows that More Mentally Ill are Admitted to Nursing Homes than Those with Dementia
Posted on July 05, 2009A recent nursing home population analysis found that the number of first-time nursing home residents admitted with mental illness has far surpassed the number of those with dementia and Alzheimer?s. The number of nursing home residents admitted with a mental illness rose from 168,721 to 187,478...
Study Warns of Hazards for Elderly Using Walking Aids
Posted on July 05, 2009A study shows that about 47,000 elderly Americans are treated in emergency rooms each year from falls associated with walkers and canes. An epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that walking aids can be a hazard if not used properly...
Appellate Court Recognizes New Cause of Action for Civil Rights Violations at Nursing Home
Posted on July 04, 2009The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Federal Nursing Home Reform Amendments give residents of county-run nursing homes the right to bring civil rights claims under Section 1983 to challenge the quality of their treatment. The court says that these provisions make clear that nursing homes must provide a basic level of service and care for residents and Medicaid patients...
NCCNHR Examines the Role of Nurses in Nursing Home ?Culture Change?
Posted on July 02, 2009The National Citizen?s Coalition for Nursing Home Reform has joined with Geriatric Nursing Centers in order to develop quality care for Nursing Homes. The important and complex role of nursing in culture change is examined in the newly released issue paper entitled Nurses? Involvement in Nursing Home Culture Change: Overcoming Barriers, Advancing Opportunities...
Expose shows that Quality of Care in Black Seniors? Nursing Home is Drastically Behind that of White Seniors
Posted on July 01, 2009While Cynthia and Earl Wade look through a photo album, they remember their mother who was rushed to an emergency room less than 10 days into her stay at the International Nursing and Rehab Center. Their mother had explicit instructions on her medical chart not to administer dialysis through her left arm...
Nursing Home is Cited after Resident wasn?t Helped after Fall
Posted on July 01, 2009A nursing home that caters to those with Alzheimer?s disease has been cited for the second time in five months for endangering the lives of residents by failing to property care for them. The nursing home received a ?Type A? citation, which is the most serious, and a fine for $5,000 after the nursing home negligence...
Nurse?s Assistant Pleads Guilty to Abusing Patient
Posted on July 01, 2009A nurse?s assistant admitted Friday she abused a patient in her care at a nursing home. The woman pled guilty to one count of misdemeanor abuse of a vulnerable adult. The nursing assistant had physically abused a patient by striking their buttocks. The patient was bruised and ?visibly shaken by the event? but ?wasn?t seriously injured physically...
Attorney Steven Levin and Clients Cynthia and Earl Wade Discussed in Nursing Home Negligence Feature
Posted on June 30, 2009Attorney Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti was featured in a Chicago Reporter article that highlights the differences in care received in black seniors? homes when compared to white seniors. Attorney Levin is representing Cynthia and Earl Wade in their suit against International Nursing and Rehab Center...
New Requirements Look to Improve Quality of Life for Nursing Home Residents
Posted on June 30, 2009The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released a new set of requirements that focus on improving the quality of life for nursing home residents. According to the CMS Acting Administrator Charlene Frizzera, ?The improvements in the guidance are intended to support efforts underway to transform nursing homes into environments that are more like their homes through both environmental changes and resident-centered caregiving...
Chicago Nursing Home Attorney Steven Levin and Clients Discussed in Nursing Home Negligence Feature
Posted on June 30, 2009Chicago personal injury lawyer Steve Levin of Levin & Perconti was featured in a Chicago Reporter article that highlights the differences in care received in black seniors? homes when compared to white seniors. Attorney Levin is representing Cynthia and Earl Wade in their suit against International Nursing and Rehab Center...
Families in Elder Abuse Case Use Networks to Cope
Posted on June 28, 2009The families of alleged elder abuse victims are reaching out on social networking websites to spread the message of reform in long-term care facilities across the country. The families, who have formed under a group called Families Against Nursing Home Abuse, have pages on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace...
Westshire Nursing & Rehab Center
Posted on June 27, 2009Westshire Nursing & Rehab Center in Cicero, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine of $35,000 after inspectors found that the nursing home did not prevent pressure sores. Additionally, an inspector found that a resident had a diaper soiled with feces...
Man Imprisoned for Sexually Assaulting Patients
Posted on June 26, 2009A man who was once entrusted with the care of the elderly is now behind bars after being accused of sexually assaulting three female patients at an assisted living facility. The man is charged with three counts of sexual assault in the third degree. According to court documents he pinched three women?s bare breasts...
Tips to Protect Loved Ones from Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on June 25, 2009Elder abuse has become an all too real reality in nursing homes across the country. However, there are some very practical things you can do to make sure your family is safe while in a nursing home. The best way to combat nursing home abuse is to visit often...
Southview Manor in Chicago, Illinois
Posted on June 24, 2009Southview Manor in Chicago, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $15,000 after inspectors found that the nursing home did not have a psychiatric rehabilitation program. Also, inspectors found that employees allowed residents to consume drugs or alcohol while taking psych medications...
Man Charged with Sexually Assaulting Nursing Home Patient
Posted on June 24, 2009An 84-year-old nursing home visitor was arrested for first degree sexual assault after he inappropriately touched an 87-year-old patient. Police say that a nurse saw the man pushing the victim down the hall into her room, then noticed he never came out...
Nursing Home Draws a Maximum Fine
Posted on June 24, 2009A nursing home has been hit with a severe citation and the maximum fine of $100,000 in connection with a patient who wrongfully died from a preventable fall. The patient was recovering from hip surgery when she wrongfully died. He had been admitted for physical therapy and he fell twice within 24 hours...
Nursing Home Assistant Arrested in Sexual Assault
Posted on June 23, 2009Police arrested a 24-year-old certified nursing assistant at a nursing home in connection with the sexual assaults of three elderly female patients over a one-month period. The man was arrested on suspicion of five counts of third-degree sexual assault...
South Shore Nursing & Rehab Center in Chicago, Illinois
Posted on June 23, 2009South Shore Nursing & Rehab Center in Chicago, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $25,000 after inspectors believed that nursing home negligence had taken place. The nursing home neither failed to comprehensively asses a resident with a complaint of pain nor notified the physician in a timely manner of the medical change...
Phoenix Court in South Holland, Illinois
Posted on June 22, 2009Phoenix Court in South Holland, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $20,000 after the nursing home failed allowed a client to sustain a decubitus ulcer. The nursing home was also cited for failing to develop written plans for residents as part of a total habilitation plan...
Nursing Home Employee Charged with Rape
Posted on June 22, 2009The police have charged an attendant who works at the nursing center with two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a patient who lives at the nursing home. The man will be held without a bail until a bail hearing in 10 days after the nursing home abuse...
June 23 is Eldercare Workforce Alliance National Call-In Day
Posted on June 22, 2009The Eldercare Workforce Alliance has declared June 23 national call-in day. In order to participate in this day call your representative and senators and remind them that a strong eldercare workforce is essential to real health reform. Call in order to combat the many older adults that do not receive the care they deserve because of an inadequately trained healthcare workforce...
Levin & Perconti Files Nursing Home Neglect Suit on Behalf of Son Against Arbor of Itasca
Posted on June 20, 2009Steven Levin and Margaret Battersby of Levin & Perconti field a nursing home negligence lawsuit in Dupage County on behalf of Robert Gryncewicz for the personal injuries his mother sustained while under the care of the Arbor of Itasca nursing home in Itasca, Illinois...
Woman awarded $1.3 Million for Elder Abuse at Nursing Home
Posted on June 19, 2009A jury has determined that a woman suffered elderly abuse and neglect in 2006 at an elder-care facility and awarded her more than $1.3 million for past medical bills and damages. In October 2006, the woman was placed at the six-bed facility by her husband...
Caregiver Accused of Disabling Man
Posted on June 19, 2009A former employee of a nursing home has been arrested on charges that she abused a disabled resident of the facility. The woman was arrested after receiving information from the state?s department of children and families. Witnesses observed the employee grab the victim by his feet and pulled him off the facility?s van, causing him to strike his head on the floor of the van, the running board and the pavement...
Nurse?s Aide is Convicted of Elder Abuse
Posted on June 17, 2009Jurors returned a nursing home abuse guilty verdict in the trial of a former nurse assistant at a nursing home who was accused of striking a disabled resident in the groin and forcing water down his nose into his lungs through his oxygen tubing. The man was convicted of second-degree elder abuse in a single day trial...
Somerset Place in Chicago, Illinois
Posted on June 17, 2009Somerset Place in Chicago, Illinois has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine in the amount of $25,000. The nursing home has been cited for failure to apprise their residents of rights and a failure to report allegations of elderly mistreatment or elderly abuse...
National Citizen Coalition for Nursing Home Reform?s Lobbying Activities Help Diminish Elderly Abuse
Posted on June 17, 2009The National Citizen Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) has created many programs to combat elderly abuse. They are currently conducting a survey of family council members to help NCCNHR learn more about councils and strengthening their ability to provide networking and support to family councils across the country...
Fox River Pavilion in Aurora, Illinois
Posted on June 16, 2009Fox River Pavilion has received a Type ?A? Violation relating to the area of nursing home negligence was fined $5,000. This violation was based on the home?s lack of employee oversight and inability to implement a proper smoking plan. The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators...
State Wants to Close Oak Lawn, Illinois Nursing Home
Posted on June 16, 2009Illinois public health officials plan to try to close an Oak Lawn, Illinois nursing home despite the fact that the Regal Health and Rehab Center is now complying with state regulators. Inspectors from the Illinois Department of Public Health conducted their annual inspections of the nursing home in February and found it in violation of several regulations, including deficiencies in medical equipment, personnel and supervision of residents...
Daughter Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit against Sacred Heart Nursing Home in Chicago
Posted on June 15, 2009Chicago personal injury attorneys Michael Bonamarte and John Perconti of Levin & Perconti filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Sacred Heart Home in Chicago. The complaint was filed on behalf of the victim?s mother in the Circuit Court of Cook County for the severe injuries her mother sustained while under Sacred Heart?s care...
Chicago Nursing Home Neglect Attorney?s Levin & Perconti File Suit against Nursing Home
Posted on June 13, 2009Levin & Perconti have filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of a Harvard, Illinois woman who alleges that the nursing home failed to prevent a fall that led to her mother?s death. The woman is suing Sacred Heart Home in Chicago after her mother died after suffering from a broken back, head injuries and paralysis after she allegedly fell in a stairwell at the home...
Clearbrook Nursing Home in Rolling Meadows, Illinois
Posted on June 13, 2009Clearbrook East has received a Type ?A? Violation and a fine assessment of $15,000 for failing to protect their clients. The nursing home must also develop and implement written policies and procedures that prohibit mistreatment, abuse and neglect of their clients...
Proposed Bill would Name Sex Offenders Who Live in Nursing Homes
Posted on June 12, 2009A lawmaker wants to require nursing homes to notify residents and their families when a sex offender moves into the facility. Under the current law, no notification is required, and nursing homes are not allowed to turn away applicants for being sex offenders...
Two Separate Nursing Homes Fined for Patient Deaths
Posted on June 11, 2009State officials have fined two nursing homes for providing care that was so inadequate that two patients wrongfully died. One case involved a woman who died from dehydration. The nursing home failed to give the 82-year-old woman sufficient fluids, which caused her to suffer dehydration and acute kidney failure...
What Happens when an Elderly Abuse Victim Cannot Speak?
Posted on June 10, 2009A daughter was horrified when she walked into an emergency room and saw dark bruises on her 88-year-old mother?s face. The daughter demanded to know what had caused these elderly injuries, but she has received no answers. That is because her mother is unable to talk, due to her advancing dementia...
Alden Village North in Chicago, Illinois
Posted on June 10, 2009Alden Village North has received a Type ?A? Violation for allowing tube fed clients to eat in their bedrooms. They also received violations for personnel policies. The Illinois Department of Health produces quarterly reports on nursing home violators...
Nursing Home Not Caring for Patients
Posted on June 09, 2009A neighbor observed that a negligent nursing home when they saw residents wandering the streets at night. After picking the elderly man up from the middle of the street, the neighbor walked him to the come to confront them on what had happened. The nursing home claimed no elderly negligence stating that they would not allow residents to wander the streets, but a subsequent investigation found different information...
Maggots Infest Nursing Home Resident
Posted on June 08, 2009A nursing home was fined $16,000 by state regulators after a patient was found injured on the floor with maggots crawling out of his leg cast. The home was cited for nursing home negligence in that it failed to have a comprehensive care plan for the resident that included caring for his broken leg...
Department of Health Angry with Alzheimer?s Facility
Posted on June 07, 2009State Health Inspectors say patients at a local Alzheimer?s assisted living facility were left unattended. The assisted living residence cares for Alzheimer?s patients, but an unannounced inspection found seven residents attended only by a volunteer cook...
Federal Government Initiates a Web Based Program to Rate Nursing Homes
Posted on June 07, 2009The federal government now has an online tool consumers can use in evaluating the quality of nursing-home care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will start running a pilot program to see if cash incentives to nursing homes can improve the care they provide, especially in areas like nurse staffing and preventable hospitalizations...
Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit Reaches Settlement
Posted on June 06, 2009After almost four years the families of the 23 nursing home residents who died in a fiery bus while evacuating from Hurricane Rita have reached a negligence settlement with the nursing home company. The families have reached a settlement from the nursing home negligence settlement that reaches $80 million...
Elderly Negligence Lawsuit Filed after Nursing Home Fraud
Posted on June 05, 2009The family of a 95-year-old Illinois woman recently filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit, alleging that she fell on multiple occasions as a result of the nursing home negligence at her facility. The woman suffered multiple hip fractures after she was not properly monitored and supervised on at lest three occasions, despite having Alzheimer?s and dementia...
Comatose Nursing Home Patient Sexually Assaulted by Nurse
Posted on June 04, 2009The guardians of a comatose woman have filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against the nursing home where their loved one was sexually assaulted by a male nurse. The nursing home abuse lawsuit claims that the center should have known that the male employee?s conduct would violate the woman?s privacy and dignity...
NPR : How One States? Budget Cuts Affect Elder Abuse Investigations
Posted on June 04, 2009The June 3rd edition of ?Morning Edition? on National Public Radio highlighted the devastating effects that one states? budget cuts are having on its growing elderly population. The states? budget cuts have slashed the number of caseworkers who are responsible for investigating instances of physical elder abuse and financial exploitation of the elderly...
Nursing Home Sued Over 95-year-old Resident?s fall
Posted on June 03, 2009The guardian of a disabled 95-year-old woman says the elderly resident fell and fractured both of her hips while under the care of a nursing home. The guardian filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against the nursing home. When the elderly woman was admitted to the nursing home, employees were aware that she suffered from Alzheimer?s and dementia and was usually disoriented and confused...
NAELA Announces National Call-In Day for Long-Term Care Inclusion in Health Care Reform
Posted on June 03, 2009The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys is urging people to call their Representatives on June 4, 2009 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST to ask their members of Congress to include long-term care in future health care reform. Right now, long-term care options are often unaffordable for families and the needs of many seniors go unmet...
Levin & Peronti Nursing Home?s Blog Ranks in Top 100
Posted on June 02, 2009The Avvo blog website has ranked the top 300 legal blogs on the internet. Levin & Perconti?s Nursing Home Abuse Blog has ranked in the top 100 legal blogs and comes in and 96. Levin & Perconti is committed to informing the community on issues that affect our elderly such as nursing home negligence and elderly abuse...
Community Meeting For Nursing Home Justice June 8
Posted on June 01, 2009The Civic Action Network is holding a community meeting for nursing home justice. The meeting will take place on Monday June 8, 2009 at the Bray Temple CME Church located at 1049 E. 73rd Street in Chicago, Illinois. The meeting will take place from 6:30-8:00 PM...
Disparate Nursing Home Care in Illinois
Posted on May 30, 2009The wrongful death of an 85-year-old Chicago resident launched an investigation by The Chicago Reporter to determine the qualities of nursing home throughout the Illinois are. The investigation found that the specific South Side nursing home has the worst rating that any home can receive and that residents get less than half the time each day with staff than residents at a predominately white facility in Evanston which is operated by the same owner...
Nursing Home Doctor Fails to Disclose Background
Posted on May 29, 2009A woman claims that a nursing home doctor gave false information when applying for a medical license. The doctor?s license would have been suspended had it not been for a $3,000 fine. The doctor?s license had been suspended in four states. The daughter of a deceased nursing home patient was unaware of the sanctions against the doctor, who treated her mother for four years...
Illinois Nursing Home Sued over Resident?s Care
Posted on May 29, 2009A woman is claiming she received injuries after a Cahokia, Illinois nursing home failed to provide adequate care. The woman filed the nursing home negligence lawsuit in St. Clair County Circuit Court. The elderly negligence lawsuit alleges that employees at the center failed to care for her as they should have by failing to develop an individualized comprehensive care plan to ensure that she was kept clean to prevent infection in the skin of her abdominal folds...
Two Women Face Elder Abuse Trial
Posted on May 28, 2009Two women are set to stand trial on unrelated charges that they abused elderly patients in their care. One 27-year-old woman is set to go on trial for the elderly abuse of a 98-year-old woman in her care at the nursing home. The other 21-year-old woman is charged with elderly abuse after attacking a 76-year-old woman...
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Comes on June 15
Posted on May 27, 2009World Elder Abuse Awareness Day falls on the fifteenth of June each year. This day serves as a call-to-action for individuals, organizations and communities to come together and raise awareness about elder abuse, neglect and exploitation. Activities such as developing an educational program or press conference or volunteering to call or visit an isolated senior who may be at risk of elder abuse, neglect or exploitation are ways to observe this day...
Nursing Home Loses Medicare and Medicaid Funds
Posted on May 25, 2009More than two dozen residents of a nursing home that is losing its Medicare and Medicaid funding are being forced to move. The nursing home is having its certification pulled because of deficiencies found by state health inspectors. The deficiencies centered on medical and nursing home neglect...
Home Cited for Employee Cell Phone Use
Posted on May 24, 2009State officials have cited a nursing home for improper cell phone use by employees. This citation took place after investigators said staff members took cell phone photos of residents. They then attached sexually explicit lyrics and sent them as text messages to other workers...
Four Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuits Remain after Natural Disaster
Posted on May 23, 2009Only four nursing home negligence lawsuits remain against the owners of the nursing home where 35 people died following Hurricane Katrina. Settlements have been reached in the remaining 34 wrongful death suits and 12 personal injury cases. The nursing home owners were acquitted of negligent homicide and cruelty charges for not evacuating the facility as the storm approached...
Nursing Home Worker Charged with Elderly Abuse
Posted on May 22, 2009A former nursing assistant was arrested and charged with felony elder abuse. The woman allegedly kicked a 76-year-old woman in the back and slapped her in the face. The elder abuser and two other employees were helping the elderly woman get up from a fall in the bathroom...
Nursing Home Fatality Leads to Three Disciplined Employees
Posted on May 21, 2009Three nursing home employees have been disciplined with elderly negligence after a state investigation revealed the death of a 93-year old resident at an assisted-living facility. The health department discovered the elderly negligence in that the employees each noticed that the deceased resident was not in his room but failed to report it...
Nursing Homes May Need Fines to Get their Attention
Posted on May 20, 2009When a nursing home resident?s minor injury is left untreated and thus progresses to something major that will inevitably kill her, the nursing home should be fined. This is equally true when one resident beats another in a nursing home cafeteria because there?s no staff member there to stop it...
State asks Nursing Home Employees to limit Cell Phone Use
Posted on May 19, 2009A state is asking their nursing homes to limit employees? use of cell phones to prevent improper use of the devices in incidents involving residents. This comes after an investigation that revealed that staff members attached sexually explicit lyrics to photos of residents and sent them as text messages to other employees...
Nursing Home Resident Physically Abused
Posted on May 18, 2009Criminal charges have been lodged against a former nursing home worker for physically abusing an 88-year-old wheelchair-bound resident in the nursing home that resulted in a broken clavicle and other injuries. The complaint stated that he man admitted that he struck, grabbed and pushed an 88-year-old bedridden woman who was suffering form dementia and impaired vision...
Woman Charged in Elder Abuse Case
Posted on May 18, 2009Three women have been jailed on elder abuse allegations that they were involved in a scam that bilked an elderly man out of more than $150,000 he received from a settlement. One woman is charged with two counts of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult...
Nursing Home Patient Alleges Sexual Assault
Posted on May 17, 2009The police are investigating a local nursing home after a 78-year-old patient alleged she was sexually assaulted by a male staff member. A resident at the nursing home claimed that a CN touched her inappropriately. The nursing home director reported the incident to police three days after it allegedly occurred...
Elder Abuse Charged at Nursing Home
Posted on May 15, 2009A health-care worker is charged with physically abusing an 88-year-old bed-ridden resident at the medical center?s nursing home. The man, a former-nurse aide, is accused of hitting, grabbing and punching the visually and dementia-impaired woman. This elderly abuse left her with a broken collarbone and facial bruising...
State?s Decision Calls for Lower Fines in Illinois Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Cases
Posted on May 14, 2009An Illinois judge handed down a ruling that said the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) illegally increased fines against nursing homes. The IDPH may no longer fine a nursing home more than $10,000. This comes as a blow to many nursing home advocates who fear that lowering fines will cause an increase in poor quality care...
Family Sues Illinois Nursing Home in Alleged Sex Attack
Posted on May 14, 2009The family of a 69-year-old woman has filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against an Illinois nursing home for failing to protect her from being sexually assaulted by a 21-year-old mentally ill resident. The Elgin facility tried to cover up a brutal rape by calling it consensual sex...
Woman Criticizes Nursing Home after Mother Dies
Posted on May 13, 2009A woman believes her mother died after nursing home negligence. The woman has filed a elderly negligence lawsuit against the nursing home. She also claims that her mother had a $400 ring stolen from her while she was in the nursing home. The victim was also being given medicines she did not order like insulin, potassium, antibiotics and Cuma-din...
Area Nursing Home Employee is charged with Theft
Posted on May 12, 2009A nursing home employee has been charged with felonies in the theft of a credit card from a patient at the home. The police say the 25-year-old employee stole a credit card and then tried to get money from the ATM machine. A bank employee called the police to report suspicious activity and the man threw the credit card in the trash can...
During National Nursing Home Week learn how to find the Best Nursing Home
Posted on May 11, 2009There are certain steps that a person should check when trying to find the nursing home that is best for them. First, you should find nursing homes in your area. Then it is important to compare the quality of nursing homes you are considering. One way to do this is to look at health inspections and fire safety inspection reports, nursing home staffing rates, and quality measures...
Alzheimer?s Drug Seroquel Causes Side Effects
Posted on May 09, 2009Research has found that Seroquel anger is a serious side effect that can cause injury to patients who are taking this antipsychotic medication. Elderly patients who are taking Seroquel for the treatment of dementia or Alzheimer?s seem to have the greatest risk of suffering from the anger side effect...
Nursing Home Aide Accused of Sexually abusing 78-year-old Patient
Posted on May 08, 2009A 52-year-old man who worked at a nursing home has been charged with sexually abusing a 78-year-old patient. The man is formally charged with felony sex abuse, misdemeanor third-degree sex abuse for the incidents, alleged to have place at the center for approximately a month...
Man Charged with Molesting Fellow Nursing Home Resident
Posted on May 08, 2009A 72-year-old man was arrested and charged with molesting a 53-year-old woman with the mental capacity of a 5-year-old at their nursing home. The man was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a disabled person. The man was seen touching the woman?s breast...
Man Sentenced in Nursing Home Sexual Assault Case
Posted on May 07, 2009A man who pled guilty to sexually assaulting an elderly woman at a retirement home will spend close to 12 years in prison. Investigators say the man was already a registered sex offender when he broke in the nursing home and fondled an 85-year-old woman...
Nursing Home Cited in 6 Deaths
Posted on May 06, 2009Nursing Homes have been cited by state investigators for failing to perform lifesaving measures on residents who had requested that they be resuscitated. Two nursing homes have been cited for ignoring written orders that residents not be resuscitated...
Abuse charges filed against Nursing Home Aide
Posted on May 05, 2009A nurse?s aide at a nursing home was charged with abusing an 80-year-old female patient by tying her legs together during an eight-hour shift. The woman had no authorization to commit such physical restraint on the elderly woman. The victim suffered from Parkinson?s disease and dementia...
Resident Falls to His Death at Alden Wentworth in Chicago
Posted on May 05, 2009An 84-year-old nursing home resident at Alden Wentworth Rehabilitation in Chicago died on May 4 after falling from a window at the nursing home. According to the Southtown Star, the victim was Benny Saxon of Chicago?s South Side. At the time of the report, it was not know whether his death was accidental or a suicide...
Abuse charges filed against Nursing Home Aide
Posted on May 04, 2009Two sisters are on trial, charged with criminal abuse or neglect of an elderly person, after their mother was found dead in their care. Prosecutors in Kane County, Illinois believe that malnourishment, dehydration and the bed sores on the woman?s body were contributing factors in the elderly woman?s death...
Man Jailed for Embezzlement and Elder Abuse
Posted on May 03, 2009A man is currently behind bars after the embezzlement and elderly neglect of his own mother. The victim was diabetic, deaf in one ear and blind in one eye. The man is charged with one count of embezzlement of a vulnerable adult, which is felony. Additionally, once inside the victim?s home investigators say they found trash, clothing and dirty dishes strewn about the house...
Nurse Steals $22,000 from Elderly Man
Posted on May 02, 2009A registered nurse stole more than $22,000 from an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer?s disease and then used the money to pay for expensive lingerie, delinquent tax bills, a trip to Atlantic City and more. The woman surrendered to authorities on various financial exploitation felony charges that could land her in jail for up to 15 years...
Poor Care Led to Nursing Home Resident?s Death
Posted on May 01, 2009A woman is alleging a nursing home?s substandard care of her mother resulted in her ultimate death. The elderly abuse lawsuit states that the woman suffered serious infections including numerous urinary tract infections. Additionally the nursing home staff is accused of failing to timely report these changes to the physician, resulting in delays in treatment...
Nursing Home Pays $6.5 Million in Patient Death
Posted on April 30, 2009A jury has awarded a family $6.5 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit. The man died two days after leaving the nursing home. A previous stroke had left the man rehabilitated, forgetful and always in need of water to drink. Jurors found the nursing home was solely responsible for the man?s death...
Caregiver Charged with Stealing from 86-year-old woman
Posted on April 30, 2009A 49-year-old Illinois woman was charged with felony theft and 20 counts of felony forgery after she admitted to writing 20 checks from the account of an 86-year-old woman she was caring for. Prosecutors say that the elderly woman was financially exploited out of $740...
Family Awarded $7 Million in Nursing Home Negligence
Posted on April 29, 2009A Court decided that a family deserved $7 million for the nursing home neglect and wrongful death of their father. The man died after officials at a local nursing home neglected him to the point where his body was covered with 35 bedsores. The sores which were in advanced stages and infected, made it impossible to embalm his body...
Nursing Home Investigated after Cell Phone Misuse
Posted on April 28, 2009A state?s department of health is investigating a nursing home after a complaint was made about an incident stemming from employee misuse of cell phone in patient areas. Two employees have been dismissed because of the incident. Under the nursing home?s policy an employee is not allowed to have a personal cell phone in a resident area...
Chicago?s Latinos Face Cultural and Financial Barriers When Accessing Quality Nursing Home Care
Posted on April 28, 2009A Brown University Study shows that more than 74,000 nursing home residents have bed sores in five states with high Mexican-American populations. This study mirrors conditions in Chicago, Illinois long-term care facilities. The report concluded that residents in nursing homes with overwhelmingly Latino patient populations are more likely to suffer from bed sores than those in nursing homes with mostly while patients...
Illinois Nursing Home Sued After Woman Found on Train Track
Posted on April 27, 2009An Orland Park, Illinois nursing home has been sued for nursing home negligence after a resident with dementia was discovered lying on train tracks. The woman was suffering from cold exposure eight hours after wandering off during a group field trip to a local high school...
Man Dies in Possible Case of Nursing Home Abuse Near Chicago
Posted on April 26, 2009The death of a nursing home resident in the village of Burnham, a southern suburb of Chicago, may be a result of nursing home abuse. Thomas Donovan, a resident at Burnham Terrace nursing home, died on April 1 from injuries he sustained during an altercation, possibly at the nursing home...
Help Protect Nursing Home Residents By Supporting Legislation Eliminating Mandatory Arbitration
Posted on April 25, 2009On April 29, 2009, NCCNHR and Fair Arbitration Now Coalition will sponsor Arbitration Fairness Day. People are encouraged to show their support for the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act (S. 512 and H.R. 1237) and the Arbitration Fairness Act (H...
Nurse?s Aide Enters Plea to Abuse Charge
Posted on April 24, 2009A 27-year-old nurse?s aide charged with abusing elderly couple has entered a plea of no contest. The man pled no contest but mentally ill to first-degree abuse of a vulnerable adult, which is a 15-year-old felony. A second count of the same charge had been dismissed as part of a pretrial settlement...
Break the Silence on Elder Abuse
Posted on April 22, 2009?Break the Silence? has become a phrase used to raise awareness to raise awareness for the reporting of elder abuse. People should report to the local authorities if they are suspicious of any elder abuse. Many times callers can remain anonymous as investigations are conducted...
Police Find Alzheimer?s Patient was Sexually Abused
Posted on April 22, 2009Deputies were investigating a case of sexual abuse in a nursing home. Police say that they discovered an 81-year-old visitor fondling an 86-year-old resident with Alzheimer?s disease. The police say that the 86-year-old woman is not aware of her surroundings, and the elderly man is facing a charge of abuse of an incapacitated person...
Ex Nursing Home Aide Admits to Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on April 20, 2009A former nursing home aide has pled guilty to three counts of disorderly conduct against vulnerable adults. The 25 year old aide pled guilty to three of the six original elder abuse counts against her. Two of the victims of her elder abuse are dead and some others have dementia...
Study Shows Many Nursing Home Problems Go Underreported
Posted on April 20, 2009Serious flaws in the nursing home industry have been uncovered by a nursing home watchdog group. This group believes that unreported physical and sexual elderly abuse is occurring too often inside many nursing homes. The group spent a great deal of time on the Medicare website that was supposed to show what?s going on inside all nursing homes around the country...
Three Accused of Extorting $100,000 from an Elderly Woman
Posted on April 20, 2009Three people used lies and threats to persuade an elderly woman more than $100,000. The three became acquainted with the victim and came up with a variety of reasons why she needed to give them thousands of dollars at a time from her bank account. Once the flow of money stopped, the three started threats of violence against the elderly woman...
Nursing Home Industry Makes Secret Survey and Enforcement Proposals to Congress
Posted on April 18, 2009In a secret Issue Brief being circulated in Washington, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) is asking Congress to turn back the clock on nursing home residents. The AHCA wants to repeal the current statutory requirement for annual surveys and nursing facilities and go back to a 1982 proposal for less-than-annual surveys...
Man Held in His Mother?s Suspicious Death
Posted on April 17, 2009A man was taken into custody in connection with what police believe is a suspicious death of his mother. When Meals on Wheels went to deliver food to the elderly woman they believe that the elderly woman was asking for water. They went there again and did not receive an answer...
Woman Found Guilty of Elderly Abuse
Posted on April 17, 2009A woman was convicted of elderly abuse nearly three years after the 76-year-old man?s body was found in his home. The woman faces up to 13 years in prison when she is sentenced. She was convicted of elder abuse with a ?strike? for a previous robbery conviction and an enhancement for great bodily injury...
Pair of Employees Indicted in Nursing Home Abuse Case
Posted on April 16, 2009Two former nurse?s aides at a nursing home have been indicted on elderly abuse and neglect charges stemming from an investigation into an alleged 2008 incident. The indictments come as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged physical abuse of a former resident at the nursing home...
Elderly Abuse on the Rise
Posted on April 15, 2009With the number of people losing their jobs and moving in with their elderly family members, elderly abuse is on the rise. Oftentimes people take the stress out on those closest to them. A victim?s advocate states that the elderly are being targeted right now and are often threatened by their abusers not to tell anyone or risk consequences...
HBO Debuts ?The Alzheimer?s Project? in May
Posted on April 14, 2009HBO is showing a 4-part documentary series that focuses on Alzheimer?s. Hopefully the documentary series will draw attention to the traumatic disease that affects the elderly. The documentary series starts May 10 at 9 P.M. Oftentimes those will Alzheimer?s end up in nursing homes...
Study Shows that Hispanics Receive Poorer Nursing Home Care
Posted on April 14, 2009A Brown University study shows that nursing home facilities with a primarily Hispanic resident population generally provide lower quality care than facilities primarily servicing whites. Investigators examined Minimum Data Set and federal OSCAR data to reach their conclusions...
Suspect Arrested in Nursing Home Abuse Case
Posted on April 12, 2009Police have arrested a woman suspected in a nursing home abuse case. The arrest affidavit states that the suspect is wanted for abusing an 80-year-old woman. One of the nursing home staff noticed the victim?s closed door and the fact that her help light was activated...
Case Law Update: Survival Complaint in Landlord Tenant
Posted on April 11, 2009Fan v. Auster Company, No. 1-07-2604 (3-30-09) found that the trial court erred when it granted summary judgment in favor of defendants dismissing plaintiff's wrongful death and survival complaint for negligent maintenance of elevator doors in warehouse building through which plaintiff's decedent, employee of sub lessee, fell and died...
Case Law Update: Punitive Damages in Wrongful Death
Posted on April 11, 2009The Illinois case of Martson v. Walgreen Company, No. 1-07-0209 (March 31, 2009) affirmed that the death of plaintiff's decedent, before trial of cause of action against pharmacy and dispensing pharmacist, for filling his prescription for anti gout medication with medication for diabetes; causing him to go into kidney failure, suffer brain damage, and, ultimately, die, absent specific authorizing legislation, foreclosed award of punitive damages...
Illinois Man Accused of Defrauding Mother
Posted on April 11, 2009A Lake County man who is oftentimes running for politics is facing charges that he swindled nearly $200,000 from his ailing mother. The man turned himself into Lake County, Illinois authorities on a warrant for theft over $100,000 and unlawful financial exploitation of the elderly...
Nursing Home is alleged to have Predator Roaming the Halls
Posted on April 11, 2009In a nursing home cradled in mountains, workers say a predator stalked the elderly in its halls. Authorities say that for nearly a decade, he fondled, groped and may have even sodomized patients. These were patients who may have not been able to walk, speak or see...
Nursing Home Employee Arrested After Hitting Resident At Champaign County Nursing Home
Posted on April 10, 2009Sharoia Hill of Danville was arrested for alleged assault against a nursing home resident at Champaign County Nursing Home in Urbana. According to a report in the Champaign News-Gazette, Champaign County police arrested Hill, a CNA at the home, for allegedly hitting a resident in the face...
Man?s Death at Nursing Home is Under Investigation
Posted on April 09, 2009An 86-year-old man, reportedly suffering from dementia, rolled down a short flight of stairs in his wheelchair at his retirement home and suffered fatal injuries. Sources say that the man was able to leave the oversight of his nursing home attendants and go through at least one security door, eventually coming upon the area where he suffered his injuries...
Guilty Plea in Nursing Home Wrongful Death
Posted on April 09, 2009A healthcare group that ran nursing home pled guilty in a case that ended with the wrongful death of a resident. The investigation was launched after a former resident died in 2006. The woman had been transferred to a hospital where doctors found out she had breast cancer and died three months later...
Worker Accused of Stealing from Patients at an Assisted-living Facility
Posted on April 08, 2009An elderly woman discovered that her two gold rings, one with a diamond-encrusted flower, the other a pearl was missing from her room at an assisted-living facility. Police say that the ring was stolen and then pawned by an employee at the assisted-living facility...
Elderly Woman?s Death was not one with Dignity
Posted on April 06, 2009An expert on geriatric medicine testified that an 84-year-old Illinois woman did not die a dignified death under the care of her two daughters, both of whom are on trial in Kane County for criminal neglect. The two women are charged in connection with the wrongful death of their mother, who was found in squalid conditions in the Geneva, Illinois house that the three shared...
Senator Hatch Reintroduces Elder-Abuse Bill
Posted on April 06, 2009Senators Orrin Hatch and Blanche Lincoln have reintroduced a bill designed to help curb elder abuse. Hatch noted that more than 500,000 Americans over 60 are victims of domestic abuse. He wishes that this bill would protect the elderly from those who would prey upon them physically, financially and psychologically...
Office Starts Training Program on Elder Abuse
Posted on April 05, 2009In one state an attorney general?s office held training sessions to help people recognize elder abuse. About 100 people in fields relating to seniors such as long-term care personnel, nurses, social works and law enforcement officers participated. They wanted to train everyone in law enforcement to recognize elder abuse...
New Legislation Targets Nursing Home Bonuses
Posted on April 05, 2009The United States Congress is considering nursing home legislation that would eliminate taxpayer-funded bonuses to nursing homes. This would be an amendment to a nursing home budget bill. The amendment was accepted to unanimous consent of the Senate, but is still waiting to be approved...
Elder Neglect Trial Begins
Posted on April 04, 2009Images of filth were the first things testified to at an elderly neglect trial. A paramedic described the cluttered home where ants crawled along the foot of an ailing 84-year-old woman?s bed. He immediately knew something wasn?t right. He testified that he found a cluttered home with a ?distinct? smell of urine and feces...
3 Women Plead Guilty to Crimes against a Nursing Home Resident
Posted on April 03, 2009A trio of women pled guilty to crimes against a nursing home resident. The three women stole a nursing home patient driver?s license and social security card. She and the other defendants used them to obtain credit cards, cell phones and other goods and services totaling more than ten thousand dollars...
CMS Unveils Pilot Incentive Program to Enhance Nursing Care
Posted on April 02, 2009The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to test a pay-for performance program to improve the quality of care in nursing homes. In Medicare-certified nursing homes based in Arizona, Mississippi, New York and Wisconsin all homes will be invited to join the Nursing Home Value-Based Purchasing demonstration project, which will run for three years...
Number of Assisted Living Lawsuits Growing
Posted on April 02, 2009There are a growing number of lawsuits alleging assisted living nursing home abuse and neglect in the fast-growing industry. One such lawsuit resulted in an $11 million verdict after a jury determined that an assisted living facility was responsible for a man?s wrongful death...
Steven Levin Speaks to Elder Law Class
Posted on April 01, 2009On March 31, Steve Levin spoke to the Elder Law class at DePaul University Law School in Chicago on topics related to nursing home litigation. During his discussion, Steve covered the Nursing Home Care Act, conditions in nursing homes, as well as careers in nursing home litigation...
Gunman Kills Eight in Nursing Home
Posted on March 31, 2009Detectives believe that a gunman may have killed eight people in a nursing home because his estranged wife was employed there. The 45-year-old man went on a terrifying rampage on a Sunday morning, killing seven nursing home residents and one nurse. He also wounded three other people...
Case Workers Charged with Elderly Abuse
Posted on March 30, 2009Three case workers with the department of social services are facing elderly abuse and neglect charges after leaving an elderly man in care of his ill-equipped daughter. The three employees were charged with misdemeanor abuse or neglect after they found the victim in the bed unable to move...
Report Details Abuse at Local Nursing Home
Posted on March 30, 2009Several residents of a local nursing home suffered repeated physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their fellow residents. State officials state that the nursing home management failed to stem or report any of this alleged abuse. Victims included both male and female residents at the nursing home which is on the federal government?s list of the nation?s most troubled nursing homes...
Levin & Perconti Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit against Alden Poplar Creek Rehabilitation and Health Care Center
Posted on March 30, 2009Attorneys Steven Levin and Margaret Battersby of Levin & Perconti have filed a lawsuit against Alden Poplar Creek Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Hoffman Estates. Levin & Perconti filed the lawsuit on behalf of Warren Osborn for the wrongful death of his 94-year-old mother, Mildred Osborn, who was a resident at the nursing home...
Nursing Home Settles for $600,000 in Wrongful Death
Posted on March 28, 2009The owner of a nursing home for developmentally disabled adults has agreed to a $600,000 out-of-court settlement with the family of a man who died after he was physically restrained by his caregivers. The 30-year-old man died in late October. An investigation determined that the man died from ?excited delirium? which is a condition traditionally associated with police death-in-custody cases, in which struggling suspects suddenly stop breathing after being forcibly restrained...
Nursing Home Worker Sentenced for Fraud
Posted on March 28, 2009A nursing home worker was sentenced to eight years in prison and 22 years of probation for stealing from elderly patient accounts. The nursing home employee must also pay $200,000 in restitution following her sentencing of one count of grand theft and 41 counts of forgery...
Elderly Neglect Case Leads to Charges
Posted on March 27, 2009Charges have been filed against three employees at a state?s social service department after an investigation into the well-being of an 85-year-old city man. They were chargd with elderly abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult. Police checked on the 85-year-old man and found that the man was a victim of elderly neglect...
Maggots are no Longer Cure for Festering Wounds
Posted on March 27, 2009Putting flesh-eating maggots into open wounds has not been found to be helpful. The maggots do clean wounds more quickly than normal treatment, yet this does not lead to faster healing. A study shows that this ?so-called? larval therapy more painful...
Nursing Home Patient Charged with Sexual Battery
Posted on March 27, 2009A nursing home patient was charged with sexual battery of another patient. According to the police, the 65-year-old attacker, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression, was found on the bed of a profoundly mentally retarded resident who has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk or talk...
Elderly Woman Raped at Nursing Home
Posted on March 26, 2009Authorities believe that an 87-year-old woman with dementia may have been sexually assaulted at her nursing home. The woman is currently being treated for pneumonia where she is in serious condition. Nurses found evidence during the examination that she may have been molested at the nursing home...
Bill Will Require Nursing Home Residents who live near Sex Offenders to Be Notified
Posted on March 26, 2009A state?s law says that people who live within 1,000 feet of a convicted sex offender must be notified; however a loophole in the law leaves out residents of nursing homes, assisted living centers and other long-term care facilities. In one instant, an 18-year old mentally retarded woman was raped by a sex offender who lived in the building...
Internet Scam Victimizes the Elderly
Posted on March 25, 2009An internet scam that is sweeping the nation is defrauding many elderly residents. The scam involves elderly residents winning the lottery in foreign countries, and then being forced to transfer taxes upfront before the fictitious winnings are released...
Illinois has most mentally ill in nursing homes
Posted on March 25, 2009Illinois ranks the highest among the states in the number of mentally ill adults under the age of 65 living in nursing homes. Last year, over 12,000 mentally ill individuals lived in nursing homes in Illinois. The high number is due to the seven state-run mental hospitals that have been closed since 1980...
20 Common Nursing Home Problems and How to Resolve Them
Posted on March 25, 2009Eric Carlson, an attorney with the national Senior Citizens Law Center has given advice on how to choose a nursing home. He first suggests that consumers be aggressive about questioning a prospective home about nursing home staff and staff training. If you are looking for a home with dementia care, he suggests looking for one that uses resident-centered care that offers a homelike environment and that works to meet a resident?s preference...
Official says elder abuse cases being investigated
Posted on March 24, 2009An agency director takes issue with a recent report that claimed that the county stopped providing services to protect elder abuse. The report stated that the county was in violation of the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protective Act, which mandates local governments to provide elder abuse protection to seniors...
Nursing Home Scrambles after Signs of Sexual Assaults
Posted on March 24, 2009A nursing home is claiming it took extraordinary measures to protect residents when it feared that three women with Alzheimer?s disease had been sexually assaulted last fall. A police investigation and medical exams of the three women were inconclusive...
Jury Awards $11 Million Verdict in Assisted Living Case
Posted on March 24, 2009A jury awarded a landmark verdict of $11 million to the widow of a 36-year-old man who died after ingesting foreign objects while in the care of Liberty Manor Residency. The nursing home verdict awarded $2 million for the decedent, $5 million for the wife and $4 million in punitive damages...
Mentally Ill Threaten Elderly in Nursing Homes
Posted on March 23, 2009Over the past several years, nursing homes have seen an increase in young and middle-age people with mental illness. This increase in mentally ill patients has also increased the amount of elderly violence in nursing homes. One such incident at All Faith Pavilion in Chicago's South Side involved Ivory Jackson, a 77-year-old man with Alzheimer?s who was smashed in the face with a clock radio as he lay in his bed...
Illinois man alleged of elder abuse homicide
Posted on March 23, 2009In a recent Daily Southtown article, the writer spoke with the son of an elderly man who is accused of elder abuse homicide. According to the medical examiner?s office, the neighbors found the elderly man bruised and severely dehydrated at his home duct-taped and tied with a dog leash to a chair...
US Senators Reintroduce Bill to Raise Standard of Care in Nursing Homes
Posted on March 23, 2009Senators Chuck Grassley and Herb Kohl reintroduced the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act, a bill that would give consumers more information about individual nursing homes and their track record of care, giving the government better tools for enforcing high quality standards...
Bill that would require long-term care workers to have background checks introduced
Posted on March 22, 2009Two Senators last week introduced a bill to establish a nationwide system of background checks to prevent people with criminal histories from working in nursing homes. Thre bill is called the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act, which expands on a three-year pilot program helped to prevent applicants with a criminal record from working in long-term care...
Nursing home fined $80,000 for resident?s death
Posted on March 22, 2009A nursing home has been fined $80,000 after investigators determined a patient died because of the staff?s nursing home neglect. The staff failed to follow the resident?s dietary needs. The 54 year-old resident was supposed to be restricted to soft foods and died when he choked on a meatball...
Police Arrest Man for Elder Abuse
Posted on March 21, 2009Police have arrested a man accused of stealing money from elderly women. The man was a traveling gypsy who preys upon elderly women. He would pull his truck over and set fire to the trunk. Then the scammers would allegedly convince the seniors that their cars needed immediate repair for their own safety...
Wrongful death lawsuit filed against nursing home
Posted on March 20, 2009A wrongful death lawsuit was recently filed against a nursing home alleging nursing home neglect. The nursing home abuse lawsuit alleges that the care center violated the Nursing Home Act in that the resident suffered malnutrition, dehydration, decubitis ulcers, and sepsis prior to her death...
Financial abuse costs elders more than $2.6 billion annually
Posted on March 19, 2009A recent MetLife Mature Market Institute study reported that elder financial abuse costs older Americans more than $2.6 billion per year. An especially disturbing result of the study found that the financial abuse is most often perpetrated by family members and caregivers of the elderly...
State investigates nursing home?s abuse of 78 year-old Alzheimer?s patient
Posted on March 18, 2009A state agency has begun a nursing home abuse investigation into a rehabilitation center where a nurse injected Xanax into a 78 year-old Alzheimer?s patient. If the investigation finds severe nursing home abuse, the facility could face possible sanctions such as fines or license revocation...
Family of 87 year-old hit-and-run victim sues nursing home
Posted on March 18, 2009The family of an 87 year-old woman who was struck and killed in a car accident plans to file a nursing home neglect lawsuit. The family alleges that the nursing home was negligent when their 87 year-old mother, who was in the beginning stages of dementia and had a history of running away, escaped from the nursing home...
Nursing home abuse lawsuit follows maggots in elderly woman?s bedsore
Posted on March 17, 2009A nursing home neglect lawsuit has been filed against a nursing home, contending that the doctors found maggots crawling in a 95 year-old woman?s bedsore. In addition to this nursing home abuse lawsuit, the facility has faced multiple state and federal sanctions...
Nursing Home Cited For Failing to Report Suspected Abuse
Posted on March 15, 2009According to the Chicago Tribune, a nursing home was recently fined $7,000 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for ?its indifference to complaints of sexual abuse against elderly residents.? The nursing home neglected to investigate an incident in which a male staff member was suspected of nursing home abuse and the nursing home also failed to report the suspected abuse to the state...
Nursing Home Fined After Negligence Results in Resident Death
Posted on March 13, 2009An elderly nursing home resident died last year after choking on his lunch at a nursing home. He suffocated to death when the nursing home neglected to accommodate his dietary needs by changing his meal plan. Prior to the accident, a nursing home dietitian alerted other staff to his risk of choking because he was having a hard time chewing and swallowing thin liquid...
Levin & Perconti File Nursing Home Negligence Suit for Family
Posted on March 12, 2009A Lake Zurich, Illinois nursing home has been accused of negligence in a Levin & Perconti filed nursing home negligence suit. The suit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court. The elderly negligence suit was filed against Lexington Health Care Center of Lake Zurich on behalf of Edna Kneided, an 83-year-old woman, after she suffered a hip fracture at the nursing home...
Levin & Perconti File Family Suit Against Nursing Home
Posted on March 11, 2009A McHenry, Illinois woman alleges that poor care at a Lake Zurich nursing home led to her mother?s shattered hip. Due to this elderly negligence, Levin & Perconti has filed a lawsuit against the facility. The nursing home negligence lawsuit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court against the Lexington Health Care Center of Lake Zurich, on behalf of Edna Kneidek who was 83...
90-Year-Old Illinois Man Found Duct-Taped to Chair
Posted on March 10, 2009A 90-year-old Steger, Illinois man was allegedly found duct-taped taped to his living room chair. The man had wrongfuly died from dehydration and elder abuse. The police chief was alerted to the case after paramedics transported the senior to the local hospital...
Levin & Perconti File Lawsuit on Behalf of Nursing Home Negligence
Posted on March 10, 2009Attorney Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti filed a nursing home negligence case in Cook County against Lexington Health Care Center of Lake Zurich in Lake Zurich, IL. The complaint was filed on behalf of Edna Kneidek for the injuries she suffered while she was a resident at the nursing home...
Nursing Home Firm Charged with $300 Million Fraud
Posted on March 09, 2009Recent reports show that a national nursing home management firm, Sunwest Management as been accused of defrauding investors out of roughly $300 million in a Ponzi scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission leveled charges against the company, and its founder...
Sexual Abuse Allegations at Nursing Home
Posted on March 09, 2009Sexual abuse allegations at an elderly home have family members concerned as hospital officials believe there are more victims. The suspect is a male nursing assistant who?s since been fired. The family members of the alleged victims claim that the nursing home tried to cover up the elderly abuse...
Man Charged in Death of Nursing Home Patient
Posted on March 09, 2009Police have arrested a former health care worker in connection with the 2007 homicide of a patient with cerebral palsy. The case almost ended with no investigation into the victim?s wrongful death and his burial days later in pauper?s grave. The nursing home aide is charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of the disabled man...
Nursing Home Resident?s Advocates Vow to Stop Illinois Bill
Posted on March 09, 2009Advocates for nursing home residents hope that they will be able to stop the progress of a bill in the Illinois General Assembly which is designed to allow state regulators to refund fines paid by nursing homes planning to use the money to improve care...
Nursing Home Faces Manslaughter Trial Date
Posted on March 08, 2009A nursing home is facing manslaughter charges after a resident rolled her wheelchair unattended out of the front door of the nursing home and tumbled down a flight of stairs. The woman wrongfully died a short time later. The woman was not wearing a doctor-prescribed bracelet designed to set off an alarm and lock the doors if she got too close to the exit, pointing to elderly negligence...
Nursing Home Aide is charged with Death of a Patient
Posted on March 07, 2009Authorities say a nursing home aide has surrendered on a homicide charge in the death of a patient. The certified nursing assistant turned himself in and was being held on the charge of criminally negligent homicide. The nursing home assistance was indicted in the 2007 death of the resident of the Nursing Home...
Nursing Home Sued in Man?s Death
Posted on March 06, 2009The family of a 54-year-old man who wrongfully died after a six-day stay in a nursing home is suing the facility. The family?s attorney said nurses failed to assess and monitor the man?s respiratory condition or to suction him. The nursing home has faced several federal sanctions in the past two years...
Lawyer Alleges Negligence in Nursing Home Death
Posted on March 06, 2009A jury started hearing arguments in a wrongful death lawsuit in which the family of a 90-year-old woman claims the nursing home where she lived was negligent in her care and caused her death. They contend that she received inadequate care during her stay at the nursing home...
Nursing Home Operator?s CEO gets Salary despite Bankruptcy
Posted on February 25, 2009One of the nation?s largest assisted-living facility operator?s has been asked to pay its former CEO up to $54,000 a month while development projects liked to the company have stalled. The CEO founded the company that defaulted on numerous loans after it began running out of cash last year and could not get any more credit...
3 Employees Arrested in Nursing Home Deaths
Posted on February 23, 2009Some investigators are describing a recent elder abuse case as the most outrageous that has even been seen. According to authorities three top managers at a nursing home have been arrested in the deaths of three residents who allegedly were given needless doses of psychotropic medications...
Dementia?s Dangers are Often Overlooked
Posted on February 23, 2009Nursing homes are facing more challenges as they admit residents with dementia who are prone to have combative outburst. In one case a 97 year old man was thrown to the floor by a former wrestler, resulting in his death. While this incident may seem beyond control, some advocates say nursing homes could do a better job of reducing the risks of
Court Orders Tour of Nursing Home
Posted on February 21, 2009A court has ordered the inspection of an Illinois nursing home that allowed a resident to wander out into the cold and die in January. The inspection comes in connection with the wrongful death lawsuit that has been filed on behalf of 89-year-old Sarah Wentworth...
Man Sues Nursing Home After Mother?s Death
Posted on February 20, 2009A man who lost his mother to a serious fall at a nursing home has decided to bring the elderly negligence to the attention of lawmakers and health regulators. The man believes that the nursing home is responsible for the wrongful death of his mother...
Nursing Home Staff Lethally Drugged Patients
Posted on February 20, 2009Three elderly Alzheimer?s patients are believed to have died after being injected with psychotropic drugs by nursing home staff trying to keep them quiet. The state?s attorney general revealed the deaths after announcing the arrests of a nurse, a physician and a pharmacist from a nursing facility...
Legislative Update: Nursing Home Care Act
Posted on February 20, 2009The Nursing Home Care Act, House Bill 748, requires requires nursing homes to do a number of things within 30 days' admission of new residents and within one year for all residents. Residents, agents, and surrogates must be given (1) written information describing the facility's policies about DNR orders; (2) an opportunity to execute a living will or power of attorney for Health Care; (3) an opportunity to decline consent to life-sustaining treatment; and (4) provide the facility with the name of a preferred surrogate if the resident becomes incapacitated or impaired...
Charges Expected in Nursing Home Resident?s Death
Posted on February 19, 2009Criminal charges are expected in the case of a nursing home resident who was found frozen to death outside. Authorities now believe that that woman may have been the victim of elderly neglect and a cover-up. The three daughters of the woman have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Illinois nursing home...
Nursing Home Aide Charged with Patient Assault
Posted on February 18, 2009A former worker at a nursing home has been charged with sexually molesting a patient while another patient slept in that same room. Prosecutors said that the 46-year-old worker sexually assaulted the 62-year-old woman who had recently suffered a stroke at the nursing home...
Nursing Home Covers-up Neglect
Posted on February 18, 2009An employee at an Illinois nursing home was too absorbed by an episode of ?Dog the Bounty Hunter? to respond to a security door alarm sound. The alarm was most likely triggered by the electronic bracelet worn by an 89-year-old resident who wandered outside the nursing home...
Nursing Home Loses Medicare and Medicaid Funding
Posted on February 16, 2009After a nursing center was cited for numerous serious deficiencies from the state Health Department, the home lost their Medicare and Medicaid funding. The nursing home has been targeted by the nonprofit, patient advocacy group, A Perfect Cause. The agency offered a $2,500 reward for information about the alleged assault of a former resident...
Nursing Home Found at Fault in Death of 91-year-old Woman
Posted on February 15, 2009An investigative report released by a state?s department of health faulted a nursing home for the death of a 91 year old woman. The state investigation reached the conclusion that the woman?s death was preceded by a fracture of her cervical spine that could not occur without a violent incident of fall...
Family Files Suit Against Lemont Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and Care Centers, Inc.
Posted on February 14, 2009Chicago person injury attorneys Steven Levin and Margaret Battersby of Levin & Perconti have filed a nursing home abuse and neglect complaint in Cook County Circuit Court against Lemont Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Lemont IL and Care Centers, Inc...
Woman Freezes to Death outside Nursing Home
Posted on February 13, 2009The family of a nursing home resident who froze to death outside is looking for answers. While the police are currently investigating the death, her family is outraged. Her daughter states that her mother?s greatest fear was to be alone and cold, which is the way she wrongfully died...
Family Files Suit after Illinois Woman Freezes to Death
Posted on February 13, 2009A woman who was too frail to get out of bed or change her clothes without assistance ended up leaving her Itasca nursing home last week and freezing to death in the courtyard. The family has now filed a lawsuit alleging elderly neglect and abuse on the part of The Arbor of Itasca, the nursing home where the woman had lived for more than two years...
Lawyers speak out about Failing Nursing Homes
Posted on February 13, 2009A trial lawyer who was represented many victims of elderly abuse and neglect has seen enough in America?s 15,000 nursing homes. After a report by the Department of Health and Human Services found that 94% of America?s nursing homes violated federal and health safety standards it is obvious that the elderly are suffering and nothing is being done...
House Bill Will Protect Nursing Home Residents
Posted on February 12, 2009A bill was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives that will help put an end to unfair mandatory arbitration agreements. The bill, introduced by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), would put an end to pre-dispute arbitration agreements that nursing home residents and their family members are often forced to sign when completing nursing home contracts...
Nursing Home Caregiver Slept while Wheelchair-Bound man Wandered
Posted on February 12, 2009A caregiver at an assisted-living facility was arrested after police found a disoriented elderly patient wandering along a busy road. The 31 year old man faces one count of elderly neglect without bodily harm which is a third degree felony. Police said that he slept while a 78-year-old under his car escaped the nursing home and rode his wheelchair about a third of a mile to the road...
Three Employees Stand Trial in Nursing Home Assaults
Posted on February 11, 2009Three former employees at a nursing home will stand trial on charges that they abused an elderly Alzheimer?s patient. Authorities say the three women all physically abused one elderly patient at the nursing home. The alleged elderly abuse included punching the victim in the face and stamping on her feet over a six-month period...
Illinois Nursing Home Troubled by Violations
Posted on February 11, 2009A Berwyn, Illinois nursing home has been hit with additional serious health violations. The Illinois Department of Health released an inspection report showing that investigators found six violations at the Berwyn Rehabilitation Center. One such violation stated that the nursing home failed to quickly treat patients with wounds...
Illinois Woman Freezes to Death After Wandering from Nursing Home
Posted on February 10, 200989-year old Sara Wentworth of the Chicago suburb of Itasca was found frozen to death after wandering from her bed at a nursing home on February 5. Sara was found in the nursing home's courtyard. Sara's daughter noted that police informed her that her mother wandered through two doors before entering into the nursing home's courtyard...
Tips on How to Choose a Nursing Home
Posted on February 09, 2009The following tips can be used in choosing a good nursing home that has no record of elder neglect. First, review the home?s most recent annual inspection report, which must be posted at the facility. You may ask the nursing homes about previous inspection reports and complaint investigations...
Woman Sought in Elder Neglect Case
Posted on February 09, 2009Police are currently looking for a woman who they believe has committed elderly neglect. The woman is facing seven felony charges for her lack of care and economic exploitation of the man. According to investigators, the man lived at a nursing home where the woman worked...
Nursing Home Worker Arrested in Sex Assault
Posted on February 08, 2009An East Moline, Illinois nursing home employee is facing a felony sexual assault charge for an alleged elderly abuse incident involving an 82-year-old female resident. Police were called to the nursing home to investigate the alleged sexual assault. This alleged elderly sexual abuse took place at the Parkview Terrace nursing home in East Moline...
Elderly Woman Allegedly Raped at Nursing Home
Posted on February 07, 2009An Illinois man is behind bars after police say he sexually assaulted an 82-year-old woman at a Parkview Terrace nursing home. He was arrested after a nursing home employee saw him raping a woman. The court records show that a 57-year-old worker at the nursing home had sexual intercourse with an 82-year-old resident...
Illinois Nursing Home Changes Look
Posted on February 06, 2009Sunny Hill Nursing Home in Joliet, Illinois is changing its facility to allow their residents more independence. Schedules that once were set in stone are now more flexible and accommodating. The residents can decide when to wake up, when to bathe, when to exercise and what to eat...
Study Finds Family Members Likely to Abuse Elderly
Posted on February 06, 2009After surveying adult tending to relatives with dementia concluded that elder abuse should be viewed as a ?spectrum of behaviors rather than all-or-nothing phenomenon.? Also, the survey exposes an old myth that is untrue ? that abuse of elders happens at the hands of paid caregivers and not family members...
Crowd Demands Nursing Home Remains Open
Posted on February 05, 2009At a public hearing before the state Department of Social Services an angry crowd argued for more than an hour against closings a town?s only nursing home. More than 100 people jammed the hearing room contesting the nursing home?s closure. Genesis Healthcare sent a letter of intent to the Department of Social Services seeking permission to close the home...
Man Gets 6 Months in Jail for Elderly Financial Exploitation
Posted on February 05, 2009A former caregiver at a nursing home who was accused of stealing the checkbooks of two elderly residents was sentenced to six months in jail. The man was charged in an embezzling scheme and pled no contest to three felony counts of financial elder abuse...
Problems Found with Nursing Home Rating System
Posted on February 04, 2009Some believe that the five-star facility rating system may not be the best of the best. The system only compares the homes against the peers statewide, instead of against the 15,800 nationwide. The system also automatically assigns five stars, which is the highest possible, to the top 10 percent...
Woman Survives Cancer and then Dies in Nursing Home from Salmonella
Posted on February 04, 2009A 72-year-old woman had survived lung cancer and a brain tumor and was looking forward to being able to leave her nursing home for the holidays. Unfortunately, her family is now grieving the wrongful death of the woman who died from salmonella poising...
Nursing Home Directors See Pay Raise
Posted on February 03, 2009Directors of nursing homes saw a slight pay increase in the last year. The national average salary rose about 400 dollars from $60,000 in 2008 from $59,627 in 2007. Residential nurses and certified nursing assistants in nursing homes fared even better and received a 3...
Man Admits to Taking $400,000 from an Elderly Nun
Posted on February 03, 2009A financial planner admitted that he was stole nearly $400,000 from an elderly nun who entrusted him with her life savings before she suffered a debilitating stroke. The Illinois man faces up to 15 years in prison for felony theft. The nun died penniless at age 92...
Nursing Home Owner Convicted of Theft
Posted on February 03, 2009A former nursing home owner has pled guilty to two counts of criminal elderly mistreatment in connection with the theft of more than $58,000. The woman owned a nursing home that housed Alzheimer?s patients. She was sentenced to 12 months in jail and ordered to pay more than $50,000 in restitution...
Police Arrest Nursing Home Care Taker
Posted on February 02, 2009A nursing home care taker has been taken into custody and charged with stealing from an elderly couple at the home. The care taker defrauded the couple by using their debit cards at several businesses. She removed the card from the elderly couple?s room and went to three different locations...
Director of Group Home Faces Felony Abuse Charges
Posted on February 01, 2009A man with severe autism received second and third-degree burns while in the care of a group home. The 27-year-old was personally injured while staying with the group home. After a long investigation, the staff director of the group home admitted that she had burned the man with hot water in a nursing home abuse incident...
State Proposes Legislation that would Require Background Checks for Nursing Health Aides
Posted on February 01, 2009One state has a legislative proposal that would require background checks on home health care workers. The idea would require home health agencies to conduct criminal background reviews on all aids they employ and assign to clients? homes. The legislation would also prohibit agencies from hiring anyone convicted of a felony within the past 10 years...
2 Nursing Aides Charged with Abuse
Posted on January 31, 2009Two nursing home assistants were charged with elder abuse in separate incidents. One worker is accused of physical abusing an 88-year-old resident in his ribs while she worked as a certified nurse aid at a nursing home. The other nursing home aide is accused of using a 76-year-old resident?s nightgown to tie his neck and neck and legs leaving him unable to move...
Pressure Ulcer Infections Can Lead to Sepsis, Death
Posted on January 30, 2009Pressure Ulcers, which unfortunately occur relatively frequently as a result nursing home negligence, run a serious risk of infection, and worse; sepsis. Sepsis, a biological response to infections, can kill an adult within hours. Sepsis can form as a result of a skin infection, such as a pressure ulcer, and spread throughout the body shutting down vital organs...
Woman Dies in Nursing Home from Salmonella
Posted on January 30, 2009The relatives of a 72-year-old woman whose wrongful death seems to be linked to the widespread peanut butter salmonella outbreak are looking for answers. The complaint states that the woman had been temporarily staying in a nursing home died after being infected by a salmonella strain linked to the nationwide outbreak...
Nursing Home Caregiver Faces Battery Charges
Posted on January 27, 2009A certified nursing assistant is facing felony trial after she allegedly punched a 94-year-old nursing home resident in the mouth. The woman is charged with felony battery resulting in bodily injury to a woman who was an endangered adult at the time of the incident...
Nursing home aide to serve 30 days in jail
Posted on January 25, 2009A nursing home employee who was charged with elder abuse pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and will serve 30 days in jail. She was charged with elder abuse after she was accused of hitting the 74 year-old woman with a clipboard and an incontinence pad, as well as pulling her hair and slapping her...
Nursing Home Faces $13 Million Lawsuit
Posted on January 25, 2009A family has filed a wrongful death suit against a nursing home claiming $10 million in punitive damages and $3 million in compensatory damages. Three daughters of a nursing home patient have filed the suit alleging instances of elderly negligence that they believed contributed to the woman?s death...
How to spot elder abuse
Posted on January 24, 2009Charges of nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect are rising across the country, but there are certain things that families of nursing home residents can do to spot elder abuse before it causes wrongful death or severe injury. Examine your loved one for bedsores and bruises...
Nursing Home Negligence Case Reaches $400 K Verdict
Posted on January 23, 2009Last year a jury faulted a nursing home for the wrongful death of a 94-year old woman and awarded the family $400,000 in damages. During the trial, one of the woman?s sons testified that his mother had been so badly neglected that it started to ?smell like an animal had died? inside his mother?s room during her stay at the nursing home...
Illinois caregiver gets 180 days for theft
Posted on January 23, 2009An Illinois woman caring for a woman with terminal brain cancer was sentenced to 180 days in jail for stealing money from the victim?s Illinois home. The caregiver was also placed on 2 years probation in this case of Illinois elder abuse. For the full article...
Illinois Citizens for Better Care Release a Guide to Admitting Loved Ones to Nursing Homes
Posted on January 22, 2009Illinois Citizens for Better Care (ICBC) has recently released an informational guide about the processes, rights, and procedures involved in the admitting of a loved one to a nursing home care facility. Most nursing home litigation results when the standard policies and procedures required by law are not followed stringently...
Jury Awards $1.25 Million in Nursing Home Negligence Suit
Posted on January 22, 2009A jury has determined that a nursing home patient?s death was caused by elderly negligence on the part of his caretakers. The court awarded the man?s daughter $1.25 million, ending a four-year elderly abuse lawsuit. The man was admitted to the nursing home at the age of 67 and had to go to the hospital a mere nine months later...
Man Sentenced in Nursing Home Sex Abuse Case
Posted on January 19, 2009A former night shift nursing home nurse was sentenced to 12 ½ years in prison after entering a plea of guilty to four count of sexual battery and one count of gross sexual imposition. The 50-year-old man was videotaped telling authorities that he abused about 100 patients at various nursing homes since the 1980s...
Elder Abuse Support Group Forms in Minnesota Abuse Case
Posted on January 16, 2009A support group for elderly people who have suffered abuse and neglect at nursing homes will start holding meetings. The group is called Families Against Nursing Home Abuse and it is coming together not only for emotional support, but to utilize the opportunity to turn a bad situation into a good outcome...
Case Law Update: State Rules Against Arbitration Agreement in Nursing Home Wrongful Death Suit
Posted on January 16, 2009Ward v. National Healthcare Corporation, No. SC89398 ruled that the family of Dorothy Lawrence can go forward with their wrongful death suit against a Missouri nursing home. Ms. Lawrence died while in the care of Beverly Manor due to injuries which she incurred after being dropped by employees...
Nursing Home Cited for Abuse and Neglect
Posted on January 15, 2009A nursing home has been cited for alleged abuse and neglect, prompting the federal government to halt the nursing home?s funding. The nursing home has been notified that it will no longer receive Medicare and Medicaid Services. The 83-bed facility has 166 residents who will be without funding due to the elderly abuse allegations...
Elderly woman with brain cancer financially exploited by caregiver
Posted on January 14, 2009In a case of elder financial abuse, an in-home caregiver from Maywood, Illinois was arrested last year for stealing about $300 from the home of a woman with terminal brain cancer. Elders in nursing homes and those being cared for at other facilities or their own homes are at serious risk for financial exploitation, a form of elder abuse...
CMS Puts Pressure on Nursing Homes to Prevent Bed Sores
Posted on January 13, 2009CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) has published new guidelines regarding pressure sores (decubitus ulcers). SNFs (Skilled Nursing Facilities), like nursing homes and long-term care facilities, are commonly cited for elder abuse and neglect...
72 year-old Man Starves to Death in Nursing Home
Posted on January 13, 2009A man suffering from dementia was starved to death by his nursing home staff. Since the 72-year-old man suffered from dementia, he required round the clock full-time professional nursing care. He had only been a resident for 21 days when his kidneys and brain shut down...
Nursing Home and Hospital Injuries and Errors May not be Covered by Medicare and Medicaid
Posted on January 12, 2009The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may increase the number of events they refuse to reimburse nursing homes and negligent hospitals for carrying out. Currently nursing home residents who develop pressure ulcers and urinary tract infections are not able to have Medicare and Medicaid cover their treatment costs...
It is a Nursing Home's Responsibility to Prevent Most Falls
Posted on January 12, 2009Elder abuse and neglect is widespread in today?s nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The failure to prevent falls among the elderly is one of the most common examples of negligence in nursing homes. Many of the falls that cause death or serious injury among elderly nursing home patients are, in fact, preventable...
Four accused of defrauding elderly men
Posted on January 11, 2009A sheriff?s office has made arrests in two separate cases in which elderly men reportedly were defrauded by people who befriended him. In one case, two women threatened to file a personal injury lawsuit against an 80 year-old man if he did not give them $5,000...
Family of woman found dead at nursing home want answers
Posted on January 10, 2009The daughters of an elderly woman found dead outside of a nursing home are demanding answers from the nursing home staff. The daughters said that the elderly woman suffered from Alzheimer?s and had wandered out of the facility only two days before. The family wonders whether the nursing home staff was negligent in not preventing the elderly woman from leaving the facility again...
Nursing Home Social Workers need to be Held to a Higher Standard
Posted on January 09, 2009Low federal standards and inconsistent state laws have created lapses in the qualifications of nursing home social workers. Social workers are integral to nursing home resident?s quality of care, yet a national survey shows that only half of all nursing home social workers actually have a social work degree...
Patient Wins Nursing Home Neglect Lawsuit
Posted on January 06, 2009A jury determined that the death of a nursing home resident was elderly neglect and abuse. The jury awarded the family $1.25 million, concluding a four-year nursing home neglect lawsuit over the care her father received at the nursing center. The lawsuit accused the nursing home of providing inadequate attention to the elderly man...
Lawsuit claims Sexual Abuse at Nursing Home
Posted on January 05, 2009An elderly abuse lawsuit claims that 61-year-old woman with dementia refused to eat and was prone to crying after a nursing home aide found her in the bed, naked from the waist down, while another resident was sexually abusing her. The elderly abuse lawsuit states that the director of nursing and an employee at the nursing home saw the woman half-naked with the same man next to her earlier that day...
Woman Sues Retirement Home for Negligent Care
Posted on January 03, 2009A woman is suing a nursing home for elderly abuse, claiming that the employees dropped her 65-year-old aunt onto the floor and this caused her to be wheelchair bound for life. The niece filed the eldery negligence suit on behalf of her mentally retarded aunt...
Family Sues Nursing Home for Wrongful Death
Posted on January 02, 2009A family filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against a nursing home for the death of their loved one. The man was admitted to the nursing home and within 20 days had lost more than 20 pounds and became agitated and combative. The man died in the hospital of dehydration, kidney failure and pneumonia...
Carbon Monoxide found at CHA Senior Housing Building
Posted on December 29, 2008High carbon monoxide levels were detected at a CHA senior housing building in the Lake View neighborhood of Chicago. The Mary Hartwell Cartherwood Apartments is a senior housing center operated by the Chicago Housing Authority. No one was personally injured by the toxic gas...
Nursing Home Lawsuit Leads to Constitutional Amendment Interpretation
Posted on December 24, 2008A constitutional amendment has been interpreted in a way to prevent nursing home residents and their families from the ability to check nursing home records for medical mistakes and physician misconduct. The interpretation occurred after a nursing home death occurred when a resident of a nursing home choked to death while eating in the facility...
Former Nursing Home Aide Arrested
Posted on December 22, 2008A former nursing home?s aide at a nursing home that is being investigated by state officials has been arrested and charged with wanton neglect. The nursing home aide was arrested and charged in connection with the alleged neglect of a former resident...
Levin Perconti files negligence lawsuit against Illinois nursing home for failing to prevent and treat pressure sores
Posted on December 22, 2008Steven M. Levin and Margaret P. Battersby of Levin & Perconti filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit against an Illinois nursing home last week. The nursing home lawsuit was filed in Cook County and brought on behalf of a 77 year-old woman. The Illinois nursing home lawsuit alleges that the nursing home failed to monitor and treat pressure sores that ultimately contributed to the 77 year-old?s death...
New nursing home ratings released
Posted on December 20, 2008A federal government website is releasing nursing home ratings. If it is a good nursing home with no indication of nursing home abuse, the home is rated five stars. More than 25% of Illinois nursing homes received only one star. This indicates that Illinois nursing home abuse is still prevalent...
Levin Perconti File lawsuit against Lincolnwood Place Nursing Home
Posted on December 18, 2008Attorneys Steven Levin and Margaret Battersby filed a lawsuit against an allegedly negligent nursing home. The case describes that the nursing home failed to prevent nursing home falls and the Plaintiff had sustained hip fractures and other injuries from falls at the nursing home...
Nursing Home Rating System Open to Public
Posted on December 18, 2008The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has created a new ranking system for nursing homes. The system which appoints between one and five stars to nursing homes will allow the public to review a nursing home before placing a loved one in the facility...
Choosing a Nursing Home in Illinois Made Easy-Part II
Posted on December 17, 2008The new Medicare Nursing Home Compare Website can be used by Illinois residents to pick a nursing home that they feel comfortable and secure placing their loved one in. Several Illinois nursing homes have received poor ratings on the new Medicare sponsored website...
Choosing a Nursing Home in Illinois Made Easy-Part I
Posted on December 16, 2008The new Medicare Nursing Home Compare Website can be used by Illinois residents to pick a nursing home that they feel comfortable and secure placing their loved one in. Several Illinois nursing homes have received poor ratings on the new Medicare sponsored website...
Elder Caregivers Need Stress Reduction Help
Posted on December 13, 2008Elder caregivers need at times just as much support as the elder individuals they are caring for. To ensure that no elder abuse or elder neglect occurs from loved one or from independent caregiver agencies it is necessary to know and care for the wellbeing of a caregiver...
Alzheimer's Disease Common in Nursing Home Residents
Posted on December 12, 2008Alzheimer's Disease is common in nursing home populations. Loved ones of a nursing home resident suffering from the disease need to ensure that the resident is properly cared for. Nursing home residents may be prone to wandering and elopement if they are suffering from the disease...
Nursing Home Workers Accused of Abuse
Posted on December 08, 2008Two nursing home workers have been arrested for crimes against elderly adults which include one nurse who is accused of pouring aftershave on a patient?s genitals. The women worked as licensed practical nurses in the nursing home. One of the employees was charged with two felony counts of eldery abuse of a vulnerable adult after being indicted by a grand jury...
Nursing home neglect alleged in case where mold was found in 65 year-old?s mouth
Posted on December 07, 2008A nursing home abuse investigation is alleging that an elderly man in a nursing home was so neglected that he had mold growing out of his mouth. The 65 year-old nursing home neglect victim lives at a nursing home. He cannot speak, but staff at a nearby medical center spoke up and complained about what they saw during a wellness examination and called the authorities...
Case Law Update: Involuntary Administration of Psychotropic Medications
Posted on December 06, 2008In re Jonathan P, No. 2-07-0610 (11-19-08) reversed the trial court?s decision because respondent's, review of petition for involuntary administration of psychotropic medications is capable of being repeated, yet escaping review, it is not subject to mootness doctrine...
Father Defends Teen Charged in Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on December 05, 2008The father of one of the teenagers charged with sexually abusing and humiliating numerous vulnerable nursing homes residents believes that the allegations against his daughter are not as distorted as they appear. The comments are the first made by anyone connected to the eight teenage girls who worked a the Good Samaritan Society nursing home, where the elderly abuse is alleged to have happened for several months early this year...
Elder Abuse Awareness Promoted by Famous Actor
Posted on December 04, 2008Elder abuse occurs not only within bad nursing homes nationwide but also due to negligent care givers. Elder abuse is a concept the nation should be aware of as the aging population is on the rise. Elder abuse can be prevented with awareness, preventive measures and most importantly love...
Rite Aid to Host Live, Online Chats for Caregivers December 3 -4
Posted on December 03, 2008On December 3 and 4, Rite Aid will host two free chats, broadcasted live online, featuring advice from geriatric experts and a Rite Aid Pharmacist. These chats, as part of Rite Aid?s ?Giving Care for Parents? program, are aimed at answering caregivers? questions and helping them find solutions to everyday problems...
Unstable Closets Lead to Dangerous Conditions
Posted on December 01, 2008State investigators recently concluded that dangerous conditions at a county-run nursing home have put residents? health and safety in immediate jeopardy. The report focused on the large closets found in each resident?s room, which tipped over when minimal force was applied...
6 Teens Charged in Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on December 01, 2008Prosecutors have filed a range of criminal charges against six teens accused of abusing elderly residents at a nursing home. The department of health released a report that showed that 15 elderly residents with Alzheimer?s disease or other dementia disorders were physically abused at the nursing home earlier this year...
Videotape Reveals Abuse at Nursing Home
Posted on November 30, 2008The family of an 84-year-old resident of a nursing home hid a video camera in the woman?s room after they discovered dozens of bruises all over her body and didn?t get satisfactory answers from the staff. The videotape shows nursing assistants physically abusing and taunting the woman and failing to feed and clean her...
Nursing Home Inspected after 11 deaths in 2008
Posted on November 29, 2008State health inspectors will increase their oversight and an independent review of the home for the disabled will be conducted in the wake of 11 deaths since January. The nursing home has been fined more than $37,000 by state inspectors including a fine that is tied to the death that was allegedly caused by nursing home negligence...
Nursing home employees steal resident?s ring
Posted on November 28, 2008In a case of a betraying nursing home abuse, two Midwestern nursing home employees have been accused of stealing a resident?s ring. According to the complaint, one nursing home employee took two rings and told the resident that she was going to get them resized...
Nursing Home is Fined After Employee Abuses Patient
Posted on November 28, 2008A nursing home was fined after state authorities began investigating a case of elderly abuse. Additionally, state authorities will not allow any new patients to be admitted to the home after the elderly abuse case surfaced. The story surrounds a nursing assistant who committed elderly abuse against a blind patient...
Nursing Home Agrees to Pay $17, 000 Fine
Posted on November 27, 2008A nursing home has agreed to pay $17,500 in civil penalties for more than two dozen violations, including to protect its resident from sexual abuse. The nursing home was citied for failing to report injuries to the state as required, including falls with cuts or broken bones...
Nursing Home Employees Charged with Theft
Posted on November 26, 2008Two employees from a nursing home have been charged with stealing and then pawning the engagement ring of an 89-year-old woman. The 27-year-old certified nurse aides were charged with the misdemeanor crimes of petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property in the fifth degree...
Former Resident Sues Now-Closed Nursing Home
Posted on November 25, 2008A man claims he was wrongfully discharged from a now-closed Iowa nursing home and dropped off in an unfurnished apartment with only $30 and four days worth of medications. He is now suing the nursing company alleging elderly negligence and recklessness...
Illinois Nursing Home Accused of Wrongful Death of Elderly Resident
Posted on November 23, 2008The daughter of an elderly woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against an Illinois nursing home, claiming her mother died after being attacked by a patient with violent tendencies. The lawsuit was filed in the Cook County Circuit Court against Lexington Health Care Center of Streamwood, Illinois...
Caretaker arrested after elderly woman?s savings go missing
Posted on November 22, 2008A caretaker was arrested on suspicion of stealing a great deal of savings from an elderly woman. In an awful case of elder abuse and neglect, the caretaker was arrested on suspicion of theft and obtaining property by deception. The woman was 79 years old and the caretaker was privately employed by the victim?s family...
Former caretaker gets 33 year sentence for raping elderly victim
Posted on November 21, 2008A former caretaker committed serious elder abuse and received a criminal sentence for it. He was found guilty of raping and sodomizing a mentally disabled woman when she was 70 years old. He was sentenced to 400 months in prison. The elderly woman had suffered brain injuries in her twenties from a car accident that killed her husband...
Changing Cultural Vital for Nursing Homes
Posted on November 21, 2008As a generation of elderly people resists the fate of nursing homes they?ve grown to dread, supporters of a cultural revolution say they are reforming an industry long tainted by images of neglected patients languished on soiled sheets. After nursing homes failed nationwide, some state?s are beginning a ?pay-for-performance? plan which sends higher Medicaid payments to homes that make changes from reducing bed sores to giving residents food on demand...
Nursing Home Caregiver Charged With Sexually Assaulting Residents
Posted on November 20, 2008Kurt Johnson, a 49-year-old certified nursing assistant of Golden Living Center in Wisconsin Dells, has been charged with three counts of second degree sexual assault. According to the criminal complaint, Johnson?s co-workers witnessed the sexual elder abuse...
Levin & Perconti Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Family against Chicago?s International Village Nursing Home
Posted on November 20, 2008Steven Levin and Margaret Battersby of Levin & Perconti filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County against International Village nursing home in Chicago. The complaint was filed on behalf of James Yearword who experienced elderly neglect while a resident at the nursing home in May 2008...
Family Sues Nursing Home for Wrongful Death
Posted on November 19, 2008The family of a man who was hit and killed by a freight train has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home he wandered away from. The lawsuit alleges that the nursing home negligently failed to supervise the patient who suffered from dementia...
Owner Pleas Guilty in Nursing Home Neglect Case
Posted on November 19, 2008The corporate owner of a Forest Park, Illinois nursing home pleaded guilty to felony gross neglect that resulted in the death of a long-term patient. The woman died at the Pavilion of Forest Park, owned by Forest Park LLC, in 2002. In September 2005, a Cook County grand jury indicated the company, along with its former medical director and wound-care physician...
Levin & Perconti files nursing home abuse lawsuit against Illinois nursing home
Posted on November 18, 2008An Illinois nursing home is facing a nursing home neglect lawsuit from a widow whose husband?s death was caused by a nursing home?s negligence. The law firm of Levin & Perconti filed a complaint on behalf of the victim?s family, stating that the victim died of renal failure and sepsis caused by dehydration...
State implements potential solutions to endemic nursing home abuse
Posted on November 18, 2008Nursing home neglect has been endemic with understaffing and poor funding, but some states are developing their own solutions. One has begun a ?pay-for-performance? plan for funding its nursing homes. Medicaid payments correlate with the residents? quality of life...
80 Nursing Home Residents Might be Displaced
Posted on November 17, 2008After the federal Department of Health and Human Services conducted many surveys it appears that one nursing home is closing, leaving 80 dependent patients with out a home. The findings included allegations of abuse and mismanagement that resulted in Medicare and Medicaid pulling funding for the nursing home...
Class-action Suit Filed Against Large Nursing Home Chain
Posted on November 17, 2008A class-action lawsuit has been filed against one of the nation?s largest nursing home operators alleging the chain implemented illegal admissions policies. According to the lawsuit, the chain sought to admit more seriously ill patients while decreasing its staff...
Levin & Perconti Sues East Moline Nursing Home for Negligence
Posted on November 15, 2008A nursing home is facing a lawsuit from a widow who is accusing the facility of negligence that led to her husband?s death in East Moline. Levin & Perconti filed the suit for the family of the victim against Parkview Terrace. The victim died of renal failure and sepsis caused by dehydration...
City Settles Suit with MS Patient
Posted on November 15, 2008A city and a home health care agency wrote a check for $600,000 to a woman with multiple sclerosis after she nearly died in their care. The settlement is for a negligence lawsuit alleging the woman was neglected in her wheelchair and was left for so long that she developed life-threatening bedsores...
Nun Dies In Nursing Home and Family Looks for Answers
Posted on November 15, 2008After a news investigation a family is now demanding an investigation to see whether or not the nun?s death was an accident. The 90-year-old nun was killed when a closet fell on her. The family was lead to believe that it was a freak accident however prior to the nun?s death; two other people were injured at the home by falling closets...
Settlement in Kankakee Nursing Home Sexual Assault Case Revealed
Posted on November 14, 2008A nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit against River Valley Supportive Living Residence in Kankakee, Illinois and its former employee was settled for $500,000, the facility?s insurance policy limit, by Steven M. Levin, of the Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti, and James Spiros of Spiros & Wall...
Winchester House Pays $1 Million to Levin & Perconti Client
Posted on November 13, 2008Lake County has agreed to settle a lawsuit with the family of an elderly Illinois woman who died in January 2005 at a nursing home in Libertyville. The settlement is for a $1 million. The seven-figure settlement to be paid to the family of an Alzheimer?s patient who died at the nursing home, is the largest settlement for a nursing home negligence case in Lake County...
Former Nursing Home Worker Charged With Abuse
Posted on November 12, 2008A former nursing home worker was charged with patient abuse for allegedly slapping an 85-year-old hospice patient only 10 days before she died at her nursing home. The 23-year-old employee allegedly slapped the Alzheimer?s patient. He had only worked there for approximately two months before he was fired two days after the allegedly physical abuse...
Falls Merit Complex Care in Elderly
Posted on November 11, 2008Once considered an inevitable part of aging, falls are now recognized as complex often preventable events in the elderly. Additionally, falls have multiple causes and consequences which call for a wide range of both psychological and physiological interventions that many patients never receive...
Lake County Pays Levin & Perconti Client $1 Million in Negligence Case
Posted on November 09, 2008One of Lake County?s largest nursing home negligence lawsuits ended this week with a $1 million payment to the family of a nursing home negligence victim. Lake County agreed to pay the seven-figure settlement to the family of an Alzheimer?s patient who died at 83 while a resident at Winchester House in Libertyville...
Levin & Perconti Settle Nursing Home Case for $1 Million
Posted on November 08, 2008One of Lake County, Illinois?s largest nursing home negligence lawsuits ended after the county agreed to a $1 million payment to the family of the woman. Lake County agreed to pay the settlement to the family of an Alzheimer?s patient who died at age 83 while she was a resident at the Winchester House in Libertyville...
US Agency Finds the Monitoring and Sanctioning of Deficient Nursing Homes Lacking
Posted on November 07, 2008The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a press release today indicating that it had created a new administration-transition website with a list of 13 ?urgent issues? requiring the attention of President-Elect Barrack Obama and the 111th Congress...
$1 Million Settlement in Illinois Nursing Home Case
Posted on November 06, 2008The relatives of a woman who died after repeatedly falling at the county-run nursing home in Libertyville, Illinois will receive $1 million under a finalized settlement. The case was settled out of court after mediation after the 2005 death of 83-year-old...
Levin & Perconti Files Lawsuit against Washington Heights Nursing Home
Posted on November 05, 2008On October 24,2008, a lawsuit was filed against Washington Heights Nursing Home by John J. Perconti, of the Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti, for nursing home abuse and neglect. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the family of Stanley ?Ted? Dancy, is for personal injuries that Ted sustained while under the nursing home?s care, which contributed to his death...
Autopsy Inconclusive on Death of Nursing Home Resident
Posted on November 05, 2008An autopsy on a 33-year-old said it cannot be proven from an examination of his exhumed body whether he died from a fall or a blow to the head. The case had been ruled a homicide. There has been a $35 million lawsuit against the nursing home, claiming the man, who was in a vegetative state, was killed rather than died of a seizure...
Wrongful Death of Nursing Home Resident
Posted on November 04, 2008A lawsuit has been filed for the wrongful death of a nursing home resident. The 33 year old victim, who had suffered a traumatic brain injury at a young age as a result of being beaten, died and the nursing home did not immediately inform the family...
Levin & Perconti Files Nursing Home Negligence Action against South Shore Nursing & Rehabilitation Center
Posted on November 03, 2008A nursing home negligence lawsuit was filed against South Shore Nursing & Rehabilitation Center by attorney John J. Perconti of Levin & Perconti on Friday, October 24, 2008. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the family of Lula Moore of Chicago, is for the personal injuries Lula suffered as a resident at South Shore, which lead to her death on November, 17, 2007...
Nursing Home Workers Charged with Mistreating Patients and Falsifying Records
Posted on November 02, 2008Four more workers at a nursing home, two of them caught on hidden camera, were charged yesterday with mistreating patients and falsifying records. The Attorney General?s records show that one resident of the nursing home had not showered for a month, an 84-year old female resident was rushed to the hospital because a nurse had failed to order routine blood tests; and an 84-year-old man was not turned to prevent sores...
Nursing Home Administrator Found to Verbally and Mentally Abuse Patients
Posted on November 01, 2008A state investigation of a nursing home found that residents were subjected to immediate jeopardy because of verbal and mental abuse by its former administrator. The state Health Department investigated after four complaints were filed about the specific administrator...
Nursing Home Resident Files Class Action Lawsuit Alleging Fraud
Posted on October 31, 2008A nursing home resident filed a federal lawsuit alleging consumer fraud by a Milwaukee-based care chain with eight facilities in Minnesota. The suit was filed on behalf of as many as 1,400 residents of the eight Extendicare homes. The suit was filed by a woman who says Extendicare promises more than it can deliver, resulting in increased earnings yet poor care for residents and hundreds of rule violations in Minnesota...
Ex-nurse Sentenced for Abuse of Nursing Home Patient
Posted on October 30, 2008A former certified nurse?s aide was placed on probation for breaking an elderly woman?s hand and spraying foam into her mouth. The 22-year old nurse was sentenced to five years? probation and will also be placed on 90 days electronic home monitoring...
Families in Turmoil When Nursing Home Closes
Posted on October 29, 2008Many family members are scrambling to find placement for their loved ones after a nursing home is on the verge of closing. The nursing homes Medicaid contract will expire Nov. 1. State health officials met with family members to help with the process, and the state said that they are only required by law to give a 15-day notice to the nursing home...
Nursing Home Fined After Allowing Resident to Choke to Death
Posted on October 28, 2008Officials of a nursing home say they are appealing a $100,000 state fine for the death of a resident who choked on a ketchup packet. The state Department of Public Health issued the fine in July, after the man?s 2006 death. Investigators had found 85-year-old man often tried to eat inedible objects, yet the operators of the nursing home did not have a plan to keep the man safe from himself...
Nursing Home Fined After Falling Closet Door Kills Patient
Posted on October 28, 2008A nursing home was fined by the state after an elderly patient died when an unbolted closet fell on her head. The 90-year-old woman had suffered from dementia and heart disease. She was the third patient in less than a year to be injured at the nursing home by an unsecured closet...
10 Things to Know When Choosing An Assisted Living Facility
Posted on October 22, 2008Dr. Cheryl Woodson, a season geriatrician, has come up with 10 ways to navigate the care giving maze. First she tells us that assisted living is a myth and to avoid them because they are not permitted by law to provide medical care. The doctor also suggests that a nursing home properly assess the elderly patient?s physical and cognitive health before they admit them into an assisted living facility...
Woman Missing From Assisted Living Facility Found in Chicago
Posted on October 21, 2008A mentally and physically disabled woman who walked away from her assisted living residence in Missouri was found in Chicago. The woman was promptly returned to her nursing home back in Cape Giradeau, Missouri. The woman lives in a nursing home that allows clients to come and go, as long as they sign out and say what time they will return...
Toxins Force Illinois Nursing Home to Evacuate Residents
Posted on October 20, 2008Residents of Bourbonnais Terrace in Bourbonnais, Illinois were evacuated from their facility after the discovery of toxic asbestos. The building was forced to be temporarily closed due to the toxic asbestos. The nursing home has 197 patients, primarily mentally ill and immediate-care patients...
Former Care Home Workers Accused of Neglect
Posted on October 15, 2008Two certified nursing assistants at an assisted living center received summonses after an elderly woman fell out of a chair and spent hours sleeping on the floor covered in her own urine and vomit. The two nurses each face a misdemeanor charge of negligence for the alleged incident that occurred at the nursing home...
Nurse Found Guilty in Nursing Home Death Case Sentenced; Supervisor?s Sentencing Delayed
Posted on October 15, 2008Cammy Nye, a certified nursing assistant, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 700 hours of community service, and three years of probation after an Oregon jury found her guilty of contributing to the death of nursing home patient Linda Ober. Suzanne Ruddell, the nursing supervisor, was also found guilty but her sentencing has been delayed after her lawyer requested a pre-sentencing investigation...
Nursing Home Employee Had Criminal History
Posted on October 13, 2008A nurse who was convicted of child abuse and battery against her 17-year-old son and was arrested for allegedly threatening to kill patients at a nursing home was subsequently employed by a nursing home. The nursing home was never aware of these past convictions and allegations because they never fingerprinted the employee...
Families Need to Research When Choosing A Nursing Home
Posted on October 13, 2008Since reports issued claimed that 90 percent of nursing homes were sited for at least one deficiency this past year, it is important for family members to choose the right nursing home. Surprisingly, for-profit nursing homes are getting more citations that government run homes...
Nursing Home Violations Cause Concern
Posted on October 10, 2008The epidemic of poor care in nursing home, highlighted by a new government report, has people calling for better incentives for the nursing home industry as a whole. A bad incentive for the industry arises from the ability of nursing home facilities to shunt series cases of nursing home abuse or injury in into a secretive, industry-controlled arbitration system...
Celebrate Long-Term Care Resident?s Week
Posted on October 09, 2008Across the country resident?s of nursing homes will honor the individual rights of long-term care residents by celebrating Resident?s Right?s Week from October 5 to the 11th. Designated by the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, the week highlights the importance of resident participation in discussions about improving the quality of care in their long-term care facilities...
Extendicare Lawsuit Expanded to Include More Charges
Posted on October 08, 2008The class action lawsuit against Extendicare Nursing Homes has been expanded to include additional charges. The company, which owns 15 nursing homes accused of nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect has been charged with accepting patients regardless of if they had the ability to help them out in the way they required, for advertising care beyond what they provided and for violating a law that did not allow patients to sign waivers to keep them from suing for personal injuries or property loss...
Nursing Home Death Trial Wraps Up
Posted on October 08, 2008Closing Arguments are set in the case against two former nursing home workers accused of failing to get medical help for a patient who was dropped and suffered two broken legs. The patient, a 60-year old woman, was injured while getting transferred from a wheelchair to a bed...
Two Found Guilty in Nursing Home Death
Posted on October 08, 2008An Oregon jury returned guilty verdicts Monday in a criminal case against two nursing home employees involved in the dropping and subsequent death of a nursing home resident. Linda Ober, a 60-year-old resident at Gateway nursing home in Portland, Oregon, was dropped to the floor while being transferred from a wheelchair to her bed, breaking both of her legs...
Nursing Home Abuse Found After Employee Revealed Information to Family of Victim
Posted on October 07, 2008A resident of a nursing home died suddenly, at the end of last year. The wife of the victim did not suspect any foul play, until she received a call from the mother of an employee of the nursing home informing her that her husband had died after repeated physical abuse...
Violations At Nursing Home Prompts New Reporting System
Posted on October 06, 2008Federal investigators stated that more than 90% of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year. In response to this alarming number, the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services has issued a compliance guide for nursing homes that says some homes ?have systematically failed to provide staff in sufficient numbers with appropriate clinical expertise to serve their residents...
More nursing home abuse allegations face elder care operator
Posted on October 05, 2008An amended complaint has been filed by nursing home attorneys in a class action lawsuit against an elder care operator. The original complaint alleges nursing home abuse and neglect in cheating elderly residents and misrepresenting itself to prospective residents...
Medicare Won?t Pay for Medical Errors
Posted on October 05, 2008Medicare has put 10 ?reasonably preventable? conditions on its initial list of reasons why it will stop paying hospitals for the added cost of treating patients who are injured in their care. Medicare has stated it will not pay when patients receive incompatible blood transfusions, develop infections after certain surgeries or undergo a second operation to retrieve a sponge left behind from the first...
Man Charged With Raping Dying Nursing-Home Patient
Posted on October 04, 2008Police have charged a man with raping a dying 70-year-old nursing home patient with Alzheimer?s disease and a brain tumor. Doctors had determined that the woman has less than six months to live. The man is being held for trial on 15 counts of rape and related charges...
State?s Governor Sings Senior Protection Bills
Posted on October 03, 2008California?s Governor has signed a package of bills that will ensure care facilities for the elderly are prepared during disasters and power outages, provide law enforcement with more tools to ensure criminals who victimize the elderly are prosecuted and further protect against different forms of financial abuse...
Nurse Told Co-Owner About ?Angel of Death? in Nursing Home
Posted on October 01, 2008A report found that a nurse repeatedly told administrators that she feared a coworker was improperly drugging patients to keep them quiet during her shift. The Illinois Department of Public Health report states that the administrators did nothing to stop it...
Report Finds 90 Percent of Nursing Homes Had Violations
Posted on September 30, 2008Federal Investigators reported that more than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes. About 17 percent of those nursing homes had deficiencies that caused ?actual harm or immediate jeopardy? to patients...
Investigation of Nursing Home Reveals Deaths
Posted on September 29, 2008A state report issued after there were six mysterious deaths at a Chicago, Illinois nursing home shows that the deaths may not have been mercy killings. The report indicates that the nursing home residents were killed because they were too difficult to deal with...
Abuse of Elderly Goes Undetected Too Often
Posted on September 28, 2008Statistics show that elder neglect can be hidden, hard to prove and even underreported. A state?s Department of Children and Families found that adults make up about 18 percent of their abuse cases. Most of those involved the elderly or people who looked senior...
Former Nursing Home Employee Convicted of Theft
Posted on September 27, 2008A former nursing home employee pled guilty to first-degree theft of $14,373 from a nursing home. The employee was sentenced to two years, which was suspended, placed on probation for five years, ordered to pay full restitution and fined $500. The employee opened a Sam?s Wholesale Club credit card account while employed as an account?s payable and payroll clerk in the name of the nursing home...
Caretaker of woman found in suitcase jailed
Posted on September 26, 2008In an awful case of elder abuse and neglect, police are reporting that a woman used the credit cards of the elderly woman she was supposed to be caring for days before the woman was found dead in a suitcase. Now, the caretaker is facing theft charges in an unrelated case...
Report States Nursing Home Deaths Were Not Mercy Killings
Posted on September 26, 2008A report has found that the death of six elderly patients at a nursing home in 2006 may have been the work of a nurse overdosing patients she found to be troublesome or believed had lived long enough. A 130-page report from the Illinois Department of Public Health claims that the nurse told co-workers she gave restless patients drug cocktails to keep them calm and flatly stated that ?she made sure? one patient would not make it through the day...
Family Looking for Answers After Nursing Home Patient Found Covered in Bruises
Posted on September 26, 2008A family is looking for answers after a member of their family was found covered in bruises while she was a patient at the nursing home. The employees of the nursing home informed the family that she was injured when she fell, but this story does not seem believable...
McHenry County, Illinois Nursing Home Fined Nearly $360,000 in Angel of Death Case
Posted on September 26, 2008A McHenry County, Illinois nursing home was fined nearly $360,000 after regulators alleged that an employee used drug cocktails to ensure residents ?would not be bothering her during her shift.? These fines were imposed after the Illinois Department of Public Health concluded that improper use of drugs like morphine sulfate contributed to the deaths in 2006 at the Illinois facility...
Nursing Home Employee Mixed Drug Cocktails to Quiet Resident
Posted on September 25, 2008An employee of a McHenry County, Illinois nursing home is at the center of an investigation into suspicious deaths is accused of mixing drug cocktails to make sure that troublesome residents ?would not be bothering her during her shift.? A 130-page report of an investigation by the Illinois Department of Public Health says that improper use of drugs such as morphine sulfate contributed to five suspicious deaths in 2006 at the Woodstock, Illinois nursing home...
Family Claims that Nursing Home Contributed to Patient?s Death
Posted on September 25, 2008A veteran?s family is trying to understand how their father wrongfully died shortly after he arrived at a nursing home. The family states that the nursing home?s lack of attention was the issue that finally killed him. The victim, a US veteran, was described as very compassionate, caring, gentle and full of integrity...
Patient Death Raises Questions as to Nursing Home Negligence
Posted on September 24, 2008The deaths of two patients at a nursing home has trigged a state attorney general?s investigation and the forced sale or shutting of the facility. It is not known when the deaths at the nursing home occurred or the details surrounding those specific patients...
Second Suit filed in ?Angel of Death? case
Posted on September 22, 2008The family of a former Chicago area nursing home resident has filed a lawsuit against the nursing home for his wrongful death. The suit claims that he received an ?unnecessary? dose of morphine and died one day later as a result. This case is of particular interest because it was filed just a couple weeks after the family of another nursing home resident from the same home filed a wrongful death case for the death of their family member...
Nursing Home Fined in Connection with Patient Death
Posted on September 22, 2008A nursing home received a $21,000 fine for violations that led to the wrongful death of one of their patients. The victim died of complications related to dehydration. He had lived at the nursing home for 4 months and the nursing home had been neglecting his needs by failing to monitor his fluid intake, leading to his dehydration and eventually his wrongful death...
Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act Important
Posted on September 22, 2008In nursing homes across the countries, employees were hired who had criminal backgrounds for numerous felons. By hiring these employees, the nursing home had placed their patients into a dangerous situation. This reason alone is why the U.S. Senate Finance Committee?s Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act is so important...
Senate Finance Committee Approves Two bills to Help Prevent Elderly Abuse
Posted on September 21, 2008The Senate Finance Committee approved two bills that seek to prevent neglect and abuse of elderly patients. One bill would authorize $777 million to establish state and local training and assistance programs for long-term care employees. The legislation would establish a database used to identify and track elder abuse cases...
State Will Prosecute Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on September 21, 2008A state?s Attorney General?s Office will prosecute the adults who took part in physical and sexual nursing home abuse. The Attorney General?s office will take over because the county?s relationship with the girl?s family. The government felt that a third party outside of the community would be better suited for carrying out the task...
Nursing Home Worker Accused of Drug Thefts
Posted on September 19, 2008A nursing home employee has been arrested for stealing pain medication from elderly patients. The employee stole medication from at least two patients who were 92 and 97. Although there are only two known victims, there may be more. The nursing home employee was arrested on suspicion of two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and two counts of first-degree theft...
Second Lawsuit Filed in ?Angel of Death? Case
Posted on September 19, 2008A second wrongful-death lawsuit has been filed against the former owners of a Woodstock, Illinois nursing home. Two former nurses are at the center of a police investigation into suspicious deaths in the home. The mother of a 52 year old resident who wrongfully died at the nursing home filed a suit that her son was given lethal doses of morphine...
Alzheimer?s Patients Respond Well to Effective Communication
Posted on September 19, 2008Studies have found that those who care for patients with Alzheimer?s disease should not talk to them like children. A report issued at the 2008 Alzheimer?s Association International Conference found that adults with Alzheimer?s in nursing homes who were talked to like children were more resistant to care...
Levin & Perconti Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Nursing Home Patient?s Family
Posted on September 17, 2008Levin & Perconti has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family of a Chicago area nursing home patient, against the nursing home where he was a patient, for negligence and wrongful death. The lawsuit states that he was neglected while in the nursing home and that his health deteriorated while he was under their care which eventually led to his death...
State?s Attorney General?s Office Reviews Allegations of Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on September 16, 2008An investigation aided by the attorney general?s office has been launched after allegations of sexual abuse at a nursing home were reported. The details of abuse allegations surfaced after four teenage girls were released from a nursing home. The girls were accused of verbally, sexually and emotionally abusing the residents at the nursing home...
Residents Frantically Look For Housing as Assisted Living Home Loses License
Posted on September 16, 2008A state decided to suspend an adult care home?s license after inspectors concluded that conditions put residents in imminent danger. This decision sent 60 residents scrambling to find new homes, mostly assisted living homes. State legislators found that the home was not properly supervising residents in terms of their comings and goings...
Feds Probing Complaint at Illinois Nursing Home
Posted on September 14, 2008An anonymous complaint brought federal investigators to an Illinois nursing home. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent investigators from a Medicare/Medicaid fraud unit to the nursing home. The unannounced visit is part of an ongoing investigation which arose from an anonymous complaint...
Nursing Home Denies Rights to Residents
Posted on September 14, 2008Health deficiencies continue to be found at a nursing home where residents are not being informed of their legal rights. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspected the nursing home and gave it an overall rating of needing corrections...
Legislation To Protect Elderly Patients From Abuse
Posted on September 13, 2008Recently the Senate Finance Committee passed the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act which establishes a nationwide system of background checks to stop criminals from working in nursing homes and other long-term care settings. The bill is now going before the full Senate...
Extendicare Responds to Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Them
Posted on September 12, 2008A class action lawsuit was filed last month against Extendicare, a company that owns 268 nursing homes throughout North America. Extendicare is one of the largest long-term and short-term care facilities in North America. Extendicare has just responded to this lawsuit by claiming that the allegations being made are ?false and misleading? and that they will be defending themselves against the lawsuit in court...
Family Sues Nursing Home for Negligence
Posted on September 12, 2008The family of a woman that passed away while a patient at a nursing home has filed a lawsuit against the nursing home for negligence. The patient removed her own catheter line, fell on the bathroom floor and remained there without the hospital staff finding her until after she had bled to death...
Nursing Home May Hire Consultant/Manager to Improve Care
Posted on June 13, 2008The Champaign County Nursing Home Board of Directors may hire an out-of-state firm to either consult or manage the home. The number or residents at the home has been consistently dropping since the State of Illinois barred new Medicare/Medicaid residents after a series of inspections last year...
June 15th is World Elder Abuse Day
Posted on June 13, 2008June 15th is World Elder Abuse Day, a day to increase awareness of issues related to the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older individuals. The day was established in 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and consists of a variety of activities such as professional conferences and community outreach events...
Nursing Home Arbitration Bill Aids Potential Victims
Posted on June 12, 2008Many, if not most, nursing homes currently require potential residences to sign arbitration clauses as a prerequisite to moving into the home. This essentially means that residences are prevented from bringing a conventional nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit, and instead must submit any complaints to a private arbitrator, who is both chosen and paid for by the nursing home itself in non-public proceedings where awards end up being much smaller than equivalent jury verdicts...
81 Year Old Trapped in Van During Scorching Heat
Posted on June 11, 2008An 81 year-old man suffering from Alzheimer?s was trapped in a van on Friday during a heat wave as result of his adult day care facility's negligence. John McCallin, a patient at SarahCare adult day care facility, was trapped inside the facility?s van for two and a half hours, just outside SarahCare?s front doors...
Settlement Reached Following Appalling Conditions at Four Personal Care Homes
Posted on June 11, 2008An owner and operator of four personal care homes that provided ?appalling? care reached a $700,000 settlement agreement whereby she agreed never to operate any such facility. Following the closing of the last of her four personal care facilities, the owner reached a settlement that is merely a drop in the bucket for the multimillionaire, especially considering the severity of the allegations...
Suspect named in Murder of Wandering Nursing Home Resident
Posted on June 11, 2008Nursing home abuse victim, Maratta Walker, was found after wandering from nursing home in a local Chicago, Illinois motel slain to death. Police investigations on the alleged nursing home negligence case have turned up a suspect in the brutal slaying...
American Geriatrics Society's New Report on Assited Living Facilities
Posted on June 10, 2008The American Geriatrics Society has promulgated a new position statement regarding nursing home care. The American Geriatrics Society believes that Assisted Living Facilities may benefit seniors over the care offered at long term nursing homes. Nursing home abuse, nursing home neglect, nursing home failure to supervise and other concerns have prompted a need to look at alternative care facilities...
Wandering Nursing Home Resident Found Brutally Murdered
Posted on June 10, 2008A nursing home lawsuit is to be filed by the family of a woman who was prone to nursing home wandering. The woman, a 46 year old, with a history of seizures and brain injuries was found naked in a motel in Chicago, Illinois after wandering off from an alleged negligent nursing home...
Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti Presents to Long Term Care Ombudsmen in Arlington Heights, IL
Posted on June 09, 2008Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti recently presented to the volunteer long term care ombudsmen in Arlington Heights. Illinois has an excellent general ombudsmen program where state employees and volunteers enter Illinois nursing homes and help advocate for residents...
Steven Levin Will Present at NAELA Teleconference on Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect
Posted on June 09, 2008Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti will present on nursing home abuse and neglect for the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) training teleconference on June 25, 2008 from 2:00pm-3:30pm EDT/1:00pm-2:30pm CDT as part of their national training program for elder law attorneys...
Levin & Perconti Will Sponsor Chicago ACS Lawyer Chapter for 2008-2009 Year
Posted on June 09, 2008Levin & Perconti will sponsor the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy?s Chicago Lawyer Chapter this coming year. ACS, an organization of national lawyers, judges, law professors, law students, seeks to ensure that the principles of human dignity, individual rights, equality and justice continue to hold their central place in American law...
Those Seeking Trust & Solace in Nursing Homes Often Disappointed
Posted on June 09, 2008Those Seeking Trust & Solace in Nursing Homes Often Disappointed Nursing home complaints are sweeping the nation as Nursing Homes fail to provide adequate care and prompt responses to patient?s medical needs. The struggles faced in such homes and nursing home blunders associated with patient care have been chronicled extensively...
Resident?s Leg Amputated Following Nursing Home Negligence
Posted on June 07, 2008Following gross negligence by a nursing home staff, a resident admitted for short-term rehabilitation at the facility had her leg amputated. The resident was admitted following surgery on a fractured ankle. The nursing home failed to take the resident to a follow-up appointment on time, and when they finally did take her, surgeons discovered that her wound was not healing correctly...
Nursing Home Denies Wrongdoing in Response to Lawsuit over Death of Resident
Posted on June 06, 2008Joyce Earline Bigelow, a patient at MontVue Nursing Home, died last October after taking a fall in the nursing home. Bigelow suffered complications after she fell while trying to use the restroom without assistance. The fall came after repeated instructions from Bigelow?s family to the nursing home staff that she required assistance when using the bathroom...
Settlement to Move Brain-Injured Out of Nursing Homes
Posted on June 05, 2008Following a lawsuit that alleges a state leaves too many residents with brain injuries trapped in nursing homes, as many as 2,000 patients will be moved to homes in the community. The settlement comes after a class action lawsuit showed the state neglected too many of its residents in violation of federal law...
Wandering Nursing Home Resident Struck by Car
Posted on June 05, 2008A nursing home lawsuit was filed on behalf of a man whose mother was killed after wandering from a nursing home. The nursing home failures included a failure to ensure its residents were kept safe and cared for within the home. The wrongful death nursing home lawsuit follows after the man?s 94 year old mother became a car accident casualty after the nursing home failed to keep her within its premises...
Boy Dies from Neglect by Mother and Nurses
Posted on June 02, 2008On May 15 a 13-year-old Illinois boy died at University of Chicago Hospital after being brought there with very severe signs of neglect including ulcers, one of which was seeping pus, a black crusted patch on his tongue, and hair, skin, and nails that were flaking and dirty...
Nursing Home Nurses Accused of Neglect in Deaths
Posted on May 30, 2008Penny Whitlock, a former nurse and director of nursing at the Illinois nursing home, Woodstock Residence, now called Crossroads Care Center of Woodstock, requested that three charges against her related to nursing home abuse and neglect be thrown out...
Nurses Declare Lack of Staff at Nursing Homes and Hospitals
Posted on May 30, 2008A new survey has revealed that nurses working at nursing homes feel that there are fewer staff members than needed. Nearly three-quarters of nurses surveyed declared that at the nursing homes and hospitals they worked for, the staff numbers were inadequate...
Jury Awards $1 Million in Suit Against Nursing Home
Posted on May 30, 2008A jury awarded $1 million in punitive damages to the family of a 104 year-old who died after a brief stay in a nursing home operated by Sunrise Senior Living. The jury found that the nursing home?s abuse and neglect led to her developing pressure ulcers...
Antipsychotic Drugs Dangerous for the Elderly: Study Shows Increased Rate of Hospitalization and Death
Posted on May 28, 2008A recent study shows that elderly people with dementia who are prescribed antipsychotic medications like Haldol (haloperidol), Zyprexa (olanzapine), and Risperdal (risperidone), even for a short time, faced increased risks of ending up in the hospital and dying...
Nursing Home Fire Lawsuit Filed in Chicago over Death of Two Nursing Home Residents
Posted on May 22, 2008The Chicago nursing home fire that lead to the death of two nursing home residents has resulted in a nursing home wrongful death lawsuit in Chicago. The surviving family members have filed the nursing home wrongful death lawsuit alleging that the nursing home failed to ensure the residents? safety...
Nursing Home Voluntarily Closes after Five Months on Federal List of Worst Nursing Homes
Posted on May 21, 2008A nursing home has closed its doors voluntarily after five months on a federal list that catalogues the worst nursing homes in America. The federal list contains nursing homes that have repeat violations and that routinely lag behind federal standards...
Community Opens an Elder Abuse Shelter to Protect Victims of Elder Abuse
Posted on May 21, 2008Seniors now have a place to turn for advice and shelter when tragedy strikes. A community has now opened a senior abuse shelter and abuse hotline for seniors who need assistance. The community recently reflected that teenagers, women, and children have hotlines but not seniors...
$900,000 Verdict in Nursing Home Resident?s Lawsuit Against Police for Loss of Dignity
Posted on May 20, 2008A jury has awarded a $900,000 verdict in a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit to an 86-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease after she suffered a loss of dignity when police forced her to the floor of her nursing home and handcuffed her. The nursing home called for an ambulance to aid the resident, but the police answered the call as well when the nursing home stated that the resident was abusive and dangerous...
Ventas, an Industry-Leading Nursing Home and Hospital Corporation, Will Move to Chicago
Posted on May 20, 2008Ventas, once one of the poorest performing corporations in the health care business, has now turned its company around to be one of the most profitable. Ventas will move its corporate headquarters to Chicago, bringing a $10 billion portfolio of nursing home, assisted living, and health care facilities...
GAO Report Finds Faults with Current Nursing Home Compliance System, Recommends Changes
Posted on May 19, 2008The GAO has released a study on the results of federal monitoring surveys of state inspections in nursing homes. The federal government often contracts with state employees to perform annual compliance surveys which are a prerequisite to Medicare and Medicaid funding...
Steven Levin to Present at Upcoming Continuing Legal Education Seminar on June 5th at JAMS
Posted on May 19, 2008Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti will speak on nursing home abuse and neglect issues at an upcoming continuing legal education (CLE) seminar presented by JAMS during their CLE day on June 5th. The event is free and counts for 2 CLE credits. The panel discussion is entitled ?Nursing Home Litigation, Insurance, and Beyond? and will be headed by Hon...
New GAO Report Shows that State Nursing Home Inspectors Fail to Report Violations
Posted on May 18, 2008A new report from the GAO has concluded that state nursing home inspectors are not reporting incidents of nursing home abuse and neglect, are failing to document them, and may be understating deficiencies at national nursing homes. The report comes as Congress considers a bill to increase fines to nursing homes that violate federal standards for nursing home care...
Hidden Camera Proves Nursing Home Abuse; Operators Now Barred from Operating Care Facilities in the State
Posted on May 17, 2008A hidden camera has caught nursing home abuse and neglect on tape and the footage was used to prove that a nursing home resident?s pressure sores were not adequately cared for. Per the doctor?s orders for pressure sore treatment, the resident was supposed to be turned every two hours...
20% of Nursing Homes Deliver Dangerous Care to Nursing Home Residents
Posted on May 17, 2008The US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on nursing home care this week. During the hearing, a government official told lawmakers that 20% of US nursing home care is directly harmful to nursing home residents...
Trial Court Grants $300,000 Verdict in Nursing Home Fall Death
Posted on May 17, 2008A jury has granted a $300,000 verdict in a nursing home abuse and neglect case against the county that runs the nursing home. The victim, an elderly resident of the home, died in the nursing home after a fall. An error in the installation of a toilet seat and inadequate staffing caused the woman?s fall...
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lead to Amputation
Posted on May 16, 2008A Hillcrest-West resident has had her leg amputated after extensive nursing home abuse and neglect. The resident?s leg initially suffered from deep pressure sores which worsened because of the nursing home resident?s malnutrition. Apparently, nursing home staff neglected some of her feedings and failed to administer proper foods to help the pressure sore heal...
Assisted Living Facility Rape; Both the Accused and the Victim are Residents of the Facility
Posted on May 16, 2008A southern assisted living facility may now face a state investigation after the police arrested a 54 year old man who resides at the facility for nursing home attempted rape of 89 year old resident of the facility. Police records show 273 police calls from the facility over the last two years, resulting in 30 crime reports...
Family Wins $6 Million Verdict for Morphine Overdose in Nursing Home
Posted on May 15, 2008A family has won a $6 million verdict for the loss of their family member in a nursing home morphine overdose. The lawsuit was filed against Manor Care, the corporation that owns the nursing home, after the nursing home resident died. The lawsuit revealed that the resident was prescribed 15 milligrams of morphine per day and then received a subsequent prescription for 30 milligrams...
Hampton Plaza Nursing Home Update: Nursing Home Fire in Niles, IL
Posted on May 15, 2008The Hampton Plaza nursing home fire in Niles, IL that killed two nursing home residents and injured others continues to raise questions about for-profit nursing home facilities. The Hampton Plaza nursing home is a for-profit facility that contains 152 beds according to the Illinois Department of Public Health...
Video of Niles Nursing Home Fire Victim Available Online
Posted on May 15, 2008A local news affiliate has posted video of firefighters attempting to revive one of the victims of the Niles nursing home fire outside of Chicago last night that claimed two lives and critically injured other nursing home residents. The firefighters can be seen performing CPR on one of the victims...
Niles Nursing Home Fire Extra: Nursing Home Had Previous Fire Safety Deficiencies
Posted on May 15, 2008The Niles, IL nursing home fire that claimed the lives of two residents and critically injured two other nursing home residents has unearthed more information on the nursing home?s safety record. The nursing home was inspected in 2007 for fire safety and three minor deficiencies were found at that time...
Nursing Home Fire in Niles, IL Claims Two Lives
Posted on May 15, 2008A nursing home fire has killed two residents in north suburban Niles. The nursing home residents were killed by the fire which started shortly after 11:00pm in a third floor room. According to early reports, it appears the two men may have died from smoke inhalation in the nursing home fire...
Investor-Owned Nursing Homes Provide Worse Care Compared to Nonprofits or Public Homes
Posted on May 14, 2008A recent study released in the American Journal of Public Health found that investor-owned nursing homes provide worse care and have higher instances of nursing home abuse and neglect compared to other home owners. Investor-owned facilities averaged 5...
Underpaid Nursing Home Staff Has Double Dangers: Resident and Staff Abuse
Posted on May 13, 2008Nursing home staff members are the front lines of long term care in the national nursing home system. However, nursing home staff members are often underpaid for their jobs and some nursing home staff members are not sufficiently trained to be safe and effective caregivers...
Levin & Perconti Files a Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawsuit Against Care Center and Helia Healthcare
Posted on May 12, 2008Levin & Perconti has filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit and wrongful death lawsuit against Care Center and Helia Healthcare for the death of a nursing home resident due to osteomyelitis. The resident developed osteomyelitis, which is a bacterial infection of the bones, while in the nursing home?s care because her pressure ulcers and nutrition were not properly supervised...
Levin & Perconti Files a Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawsuit Against South Shore Nursing Home
Posted on May 12, 2008Levin & Perconti has filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit and wrongful death lawsuit against South Shore Nursing Home for the death of a nursing home resident due to sepsis. The resident developed a sacral ulcer while in the nursing home?s care that was not properly treated and became septic...
AFSCME Urges Illinois Governor to Raise Long Term Care Facility Wages
Posted on May 12, 2008The AFSCME, a union that represents state, county, and municipal employees is taking on Springfield to seek a raise for Illinois disabled care workers. Currently, staff wages for Illinois disabled care facilities lag almost 2 dollars behind private employers, making it very difficult for state agencies to retain talented staff to care for the disabled...
Useful Publications: Analysis of State Adult Protective Services Laws
Posted on May 12, 2008The National Center on Elder Abuse has put together a very useful set of charts and information about various state laws governing adult protective services. This resource is especially useful for attorneys who practice in nursing home abuse and neglect or handle other legal matters for nursing home residents who may need to consider state resources for clients who may lack capacity...
Attorney General Seeks Out Home Healthcare Staffing Problems and Medicare Fraud
Posted on May 07, 2008Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has joined the fight against fraud in home health care by exposing a large Medicare fraud led by a major home health care corporation. The corporation provides in-home nursing services. In-home nursing service abuse is a growing problem and is often harder to identify than nursing home abuse and neglect...
Nursing Home Murder Suicide Raises Questions About Attention to Resident Mental Health
Posted on May 07, 2008An elderly couple has died in a nursing home, apparently the result of a nursing home murder-suicide. The husband of the nursing home resident, who often spent time with his wife in the nursing home, apparently shot her in the head before killing himself...
Medical School Studies Possibility of Opening Elder Abuse Center
Posted on May 07, 2008The Weill Cornell Medical School, part of Cornell University, has received a grant to study the feasibility of opening a center on elder abuse. The center, if established, will study ways to educate doctors on identifying and responding to signs of nursing home abuse and neglect...
What Does It Take for a Nursing Home to Lose Medicaid Funding? Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect.
Posted on May 06, 2008A nursing home in Canton, Ohio has lost its federal funding for having too many violations. According to inspectors, each time they went to the facility there was another problem. Unlike large corporate facilities, many smaller homes survive on Medicare and Medicaid to supplement what individual residents can pay to live in the home...
Nursing Home Employee Arrested and Charged with Theft After Taking Prescription Drugs from Residents
Posted on May 06, 2008A nursing home employee has been arrested and charged with theft of medications from nursing home residents. The employee apparently switched prescription pain relievers with over the counter pain relievers and then gave the wrong medication to the nursing home residents...
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Releases its Action Plan for Nursing Home Improvement
Posted on May 06, 2008The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its action plan for nursing home improvement. CMS is responsible for establishing standards for national nursing home care by developing the standards, inspecting homes, and collaborating with other organizations to help ensure standards are met...
Support the Nursing Home Transparency Act in Congress Now: Call In and Speak Out
Posted on May 05, 2008The National Citizen?s Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR), in conjunction with the SEIU, has set up a toll free hotline to get people in touch with their Senators about the importance of S. 2641, the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act of 2008...
Medicare May Cut Nursing Home Payments to Trim Budget
Posted on May 05, 2008The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has threatened to cut its payments for nursing homes by 0.3%. Though the percentage seems small, the economic consequences in the nursing home industry will be much larger. This cut could usher in a total of $4...
Nursing Home Abuse Knows No Age: 20 Year Old Girl Dies in Nursing Home
Posted on May 05, 2008A 20 year old girl with terminal kidney disease has died in a nursing home after crying for help for six hours. According to news reports, the nursing home staff ignored her cries for help for six hours before finding her dead. A nurse quoted in the news article said that the girl begged to see a doctor because something was really wrong...
Levin & Perconti Files a Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawsuit Against Summit Assisted Living Naperville North
Posted on May 02, 2008Levin & Perconti have filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit against Summit Assisted Living Naperville North for the wrongful death of an 87-year old woman under the Illinois Assisted Living Act. The woman entered the Summit Assisted Living center in 2005 with a condition called Meniere?s disease which disrupts a person?s normal balance in the inner ear, making her more susceptible than a normal resident to falls and losing her balance...
Levin & Perconti Founder and Senior Partner John Perconti Interviewed on ABC News about Rosewood Nursing Homes
Posted on May 01, 2008Levin & Perconti Founder and Senior Partner John Perconti was interviewed Chicago?s ABC affiliate about the dangers of uninsured nursing homes. The report focused on Rosewood Nursing Homes, specifically the Rosewood Inverness nursing home where a resident died after falling while abandoned in a washroom for an extended period of time...
Mental Health Nursing Home Frequently Troubled by Poor Sanitation and Resident Suicide
Posted on April 30, 2008A mental health nursing home has made the news for two colossal problems: frequent resident suicide and unsanitary conditions. Multiple residents in the past year have attempted suicide and the state inspectors believe mental health nursing home abuse and neglect may be the culprit...
Uninsured Nursing Homes Plague Nursing Home Residents and Families Nationwide
Posted on April 29, 2008A recent article highlights the dangers of residing in and placing family members in uninsured nursing homes. Uninsured nursing homes are extremely dangerous for residents because there is no way that residents can get fair and reasonable compensation for their injuries and families can recoup fair and reasonable compensation for their loved one?s wrongful death in a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit...
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Adds New Website to Disclose Bad Nursing Homes
Posted on April 25, 2008The Centers Medicare and Medicaid Services Nursing Home Compare website has added a new section that allows viewers to see information on nursing homes and identify homes that have drawn increased federal scrutiny for complaints and other forms of nursing home abuse and neglect...
Illinois Nursing Homes at Risk with Threats in Medicaid Reductions
Posted on April 25, 2008Proposed changes to federal funding for Medicaid could cost Illinois more than 10,000 jobs and over $400 million in lost wages. Over the next five years, Illinois could see upwards of $2.5 billion in lost funding. Critics of the federal plan warn that reductions in Medicaid funding will shift the bill to the state in an already shaky economy...
US Senate Begins Consideration of Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act
Posted on April 25, 2008The US Senate has begun consideration of a new act that would raise the bar on nursing home care nationwide and attempt to curb nursing home abuse and neglect. The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act, S. 2641, would shed light on the quality and operation of nursing homes and implement new standards for care...
Profitability of Nursing Home Real Estate Investment Trusts on the Rise
Posted on April 23, 2008Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have grown in popularity as the managing or owning entity for Illinois nursing homes. The REIT purchases and manages the nursing home facility as an investment property, usually as part of a larger portfolio of other nursing homes and hospitals...
Nursing Home Lobbyists Want to Limit Nursing Home Residents? Access to the Justice System
Posted on April 21, 2008The debate over arbitration agreements for nursing home residents now has a new voice: the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, two lobbying groups for the nursing home industry, now argue that arbitration agreements would improve nursing home resident care...
Nursing Home Staffers and Doctors Underpaid Compared to Counterparts
Posted on April 19, 2008A recent article on the growing numbers of US seniors highlights a major problem with the US nursing home and senior care industry: nursing home staff members are woefully underpaid despite providing essential life assistance for nursing home residents...
What to do in a Nursing Home After an Earthquake
Posted on April 18, 2008After Illinois experienced an earthquake today, it is important to know what nursing homes should do in the event of an earthquake to ensure resident safety and prevent nursing home injuries. The Central United States Earthquake Consortium has a useful publication on nursing homes and earthquakes...
Husband?s Vigilance Ensures Quality Nursing Home Care for Wife
Posted on April 18, 2008A recent article on a Santa Barbara man provides an excellent example for Illinois families with loved ones in nursing homes. The man?s wife is confined to a nursing home facility because her MS is advanced. Her husband has become her most important advocate and lifeline, maintaining constant contact with the nursing home facility, providing oversight of the staff?s care, and often butting heads with the nursing home?s management to prevent nursing home abuse and neglect...
Police Arrest Assisted Living Facility Staff for Using Facility as a Drug Front
Posted on April 16, 2008A southern police department has arrested five assisted living facility staffers after reports that staff members at the facility were selling drugs. The staff members were arrested while two seniors were in the facility. Increasing reports of staff misconduct and nursing home abuse and neglect at nursing homes and assisted living facilities have raised consumer awareness about the safety and security of their family members...
Nursing home lawsuit will be filed after two nurses are indicted at Woodstock Residence
Posted on April 14, 2008Attorney Steven M. Levin will file a nursing home neglect lawsuit in Cook County on behalf of the family of a 78-year-old woman who died at Woodstock Residence. Two nurses from the facility were criminally indicted for elder abuse and neglect. See the full press release here.
Incidents of Abuse at Assisted Living Facilities on the Rise
Posted on April 14, 2008Assisted living facility residents are increasingly in danger as incidents of assisted living facility abuse and misconduct by their fellow residents are more common. Recently, an assisted living facility saw two residents arrested in the same day. One resident was arrested for sexual abuse of an assisted living facility resident and the other was arrested for conspiring to sell drugs at the assisted living facility...
Nursing Homes Hope to Limit Residents? Rights; Congress May Take Action
Posted on April 14, 2008Increasingly, nursing home operators seek to get their new residents to sign mandatory arbitration agreements that make it mandatory for residents to arbitrate outside of a courtroom any disputes over their nursing home care, nursing home abuse, or even wrongful death...
Licenses for 2 charged nurses targeted after suspicious Illinois nursing home deaths
Posted on April 13, 2008Investigators have asked the state to examine whether the professional licenses should be suspended or revoked for two former nurses at an Illinois nursing home charged with Illinois nursing home neglect after a string of suspicious deaths. The family of a 78 year-old resident, represented by Levin & Perconti?s Steve Levin, announced plans to file an Illinois nursing home neglect lawsuit...
Nursing home industry tries to hinder justice in nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits
Posted on April 12, 2008Recently, lawmakers debated whether or not to limit damages on nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuits. Families of victims of nursing home abuse and neglect traveled to Capitol Hill to voice their opposition against a bill that would limit damages from nursing home abuse lawsuits...
Former nursing home employee claims she was fired for reporting nursing home sex abuse
Posted on April 12, 2008Former nursing home administrator has filed a lawsuit saying she was fired because she complained that the executive director?s 91 year-old father was sexually assaulting a demented nursing home residence. Her lawyer states that this is a classic whistleblower case where the administrator was fired for sticking up for a patient suffering nursing home sexual abuse...
Some State Laws Block Public Access to Records of Nursing Home Abuse
Posted on April 11, 2008A recent state law change highlights the need for family members to stay current with their loved ones? care in nursing homes. Previously, an Iowa state law effectively blocked public access to state nursing home inspector findings and reports of nursing home abuse...
Illinois Elder Abuse on the Rise; Illinois Responds with Task Forces
Posted on April 10, 2008Elder abuse in Illinois has increased by 53% since 1993 according to the Illinois Department on Aging. In 2007, 9,489 complaints of elder abuse were reported. Unfortunately, the department estimates that upwards of 90,000 cases of elder and nursing home abuse go unreported each year...
State House Would Remove Minimum Care Standards for Nursing Homes
Posted on April 09, 2008In some states, legislators attempt to alleviate budget concerns for eldercare by repealing laws that provide for minimum standards of care for nursing home residents. In response to a recent $4 billion dollar budget cut, a state legislature now threatens to turn back the clock...
Elder Abusers Increasingly See Jail Time and Criminal Fines
Posted on April 09, 2008A man who has been accused of running an illegal nursing home facility now faces up to six years in prison and $12,000 in criminal fines. The man is accused of abusing an elderly man in his care at the illegal nursing home facility. The reports of abuse included a tennis ball sized ulcer resulting from a bed sore, extreme weight loss and malnourishment, dehydration, withholding medication, and canceling doctor appointments...
Elder Abuse: One Crime Against the Elderly Every 2.7 Minutes
Posted on April 08, 2008One elderly person is victimized every 2.7 minutes in the United States, according to a recent ?crime clock? by the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime. Common types of elder abuse include physical nursing home abuse, financial abuse and exploitation, and other crimes...
Family of Woodstock Residences Nursing Home Victim to File Suit
Posted on April 08, 2008Steven Levin of Levin & Perconti will represent Virginia Cole?s surviving family members in a nursing home abuse and wrongful death lawsuit. Virginia Cole was one of the victims at Woodstock Residences, the Chicago-area nursing home at the center of a pending criminal trial...
Ex-Nursing Home Employee Arrested
Posted on April 04, 2008An ex-nursing home employee from Illinois has been charged with neglect and unlawful distribution of morphine in connection with the deaths of six residents. This follows after investigators suspected morphine was involved in the death of six residents in the past three years...
Nursing Home Residents File Lawsuit for At-Home Care
Posted on April 02, 2008Residents forced by state policy to live in a nursing home filed a lawsuit against the state for at-home care. The state policy essentially mandates that Medicaid beneficiaries live in a nursing home instead of providing them assistance while allowing these residents to live in, for example, subsidized housing...
Early research into nursing home care can lower likelihood of nursing home abuse and neglect
Posted on March 25, 2008A Midwestern woman recently faced a decision that nobody hopes to ever face: which nursing home should I put my mother in?? Nursing homes are under increased scrutiny after several heart-wrenching nursing home abuse and neglect incidents. This daughter recommends visiting nursing homes and spending time with staff, residents, and other visitors...
Nursing Home Bill proposes mandatory insurance
Posted on March 20, 2008Illinois nursing home advocates are not alone in their quest for ensuring that Illinois nursing homes are properly insured against injuries that occur in their facilities to residents from wrongful conduct. This week, an Oklahoma submitted an amendment to mandate that nursing homes in that state carry at least $250,000 of liability insurance...
Congress Seeks to Improve Level of Care at Nursing Homes
Posted on March 19, 2008A bill to increase nursing home transparency and improve overall quality was recently introduced in Congress and is set to be heard by the Senate Committee on Finance. The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act seeks to reform the ailing nursing home industry that appears to be providing a perpetually deteriorating level of care...
DSS Employee Charged With Failure to Report Abuse
Posted on March 17, 2008A Department of Social Services employee was taken into custody due to her failure to report the abuse and neglect of a vulnerable patient. The DSS employee observed an elderly woman starving to death and living in deplorable conditions but did nothing to report or prevent the patient?s continued deterioration...
Nurse Gives Wrong Medication to Nursing Home Resident
Posted on March 14, 2008A civil claim was filed against a nursing home charging that one of its nurses negligently contributed to the death of a resident. The resident died about two days after he was given the wrong medication by a nurse at the facility. The nurse acknowledged her error, once she realized that she had given the wrong medication to the wrong patient...
Nursing home fined $100,000 for preventable death of resident
Posted on March 12, 2008State health authorities have fined a California nursing home $100,000 in the death of a 91 year old resident who choked on food. The ?AA citation? is the most severe penalty for nursing home abuse under state codes. The state assessed the fine for failing to find out what was wrong with the patient while he was choking, not providing emergency care, and failing to use procedures such as the Heimlich maneuver to try to save the resident...
Levin and Perconti File Wrongful Death Suit After 63-year-old Man Neglected At Nursing Home
Posted on March 12, 2008Steven Levin of Levin and Perconti has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Chicago nursing home for the death of a patient who developed pressure sores while under their care. The family chose the facility believing a promise that the staff would provide the best care for the deceased after he had just undergone extensive hip surgery, consequently requiring assistance from the nursing staff with all the tasks of daily living...
Illinois Nursing Home Bill will vindicate residents' rights
Posted on March 12, 2008Today great progress was made in advancing the rights of Illinois nursing home residents and their families. The good news comes in the form of House Bill #5213, which has the potential to improve nursing home care in Illinois by demanding accountability from Illinois nursing homes and long-term care facilities as a prerequisite to obtaining and retaining a license...
Nursing home abuse lawsuit charging inadequate staff settlement
Posted on March 11, 2008A recent nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit was settled just days before the trial was set to begin. The lawsuit charged that the nursing home resident suffered fractures, infections, bruises, skin tears, and verbal abuse during his stay at the facility...
Illinois nursing home abuse lawsuits going to mediation
Posted on March 10, 2008Those who file an Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit will now be forced to submit the case to a mediator before moving on to trial. This new mediation mandate is part of an amendment to a new Illinois medical malpractice rule that was approved this week by the Illinois Supreme Court...
Medicaid changes announced by Bush administration could affect nursing home residents, family members, and nursing home employees
Posted on March 09, 2008A recent Kaiser Report examined the rush of media following the Bush administration proposed changes for Medicaid could affect states. Florida journalists argue that the funding reductions will hit nursing homes in particular because Medicare does not pay for extended nursing home care...
Institutional Change Necessary to Prevent Pressure Ulcers
Posted on March 07, 2008New research suggests that the fight against pressure ulcers, commonly known as bed sores, will be most effective where facilities take a team approach to prevention. Estimates suggest that two million Americans suffer from pressure ulcers every year, many of which occur in nursing homes and similar facilities...
Massive Nursing Home System Overhaul Proposed
Posted on March 02, 2008A bipartisan bill introduced by Republican Senator Grassley and Democratic Senator Kohl seeks massive reforms of the nursing home industry. The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act is being haled as the largest reform of the nursing home system in nearly 21 years...
Court Finds Nursing Home Arbitration Agreement Unconscionable
Posted on February 28, 2008A state district court has ruled that a nursing home?s arbitration agreement was unenforceable because it was unconscionable. The nursing home, in response to a lawsuit alleging deprivation of a resident?s rights and wrongful death, sought to compel arbitration pursuant to a provision contained in the facility care contract...
Wrongful death lawsuit filed against nursing home for leaving pressure sores untreated
Posted on February 24, 2008A wrongful death lawsuit was recently filed against a nursing home where a 76 year-old?s pressure ulcers were left untreated until it ultimately caused his death. The family of the nursing home abuse and neglect victim said that the nursing home stopped giving her father physical therapy, which would have prevented the bedsore...
Neglected resident, and boxing legend's sister, found frozen to death outside of assisted-living facility
Posted on February 21, 2008Due to the neglect of facility staff, boxing legend Joe Louis's sister was found frozen to death just outside of the assisted-living center where she was a resident. The 92-year-old resident suffered from Alzheimer's disease, an illness often causing patients to wander, requiring constant supervision...
Neglected nursing home residents wonder why Atria Senior Living CEO gets multi-million dollar raise instead of providing better care
Posted on February 12, 2008Atria Senior Living is a chain of nursing homes with 130 facilities across the country. The nursing home chain is owned by Lazard Ltd, a corporation that has just given its CEO Bruce Wasserstein a new contract where he will be paid over $41 million for 2007 and over $100 million overall...
How to aviod elder financial exlploitation by a caregiver
Posted on February 10, 2008Financial exploitation and abuse is the most common form of elder abuse reported and investigated in Illinois. Recently, the caregiver of an 83-year-old man was found forging checks in the man's name. Workers at the Sugar Grove, Illinois bank noticed the irregularities in the checks and notified police...
Nursing home abuse and neglect on the rise; worse in homes acquired by private firms
Posted on February 09, 2008Nursing home abuse and neglect has been consistently on the rise, and the rapidly aging population in the United States only makes this serious problem more worrisome. A recent study has found that from 2000-2006, there was a 22% rise in the serious reprimands nursing homes received for dangerous conditions such as medication errors, physical and sexual abuse, financial exploitation, and allowing patients to sustain injuries by falling or developing pressure sores; these are only a few examples...
Kane County IL sets a good example, but elder abuse and neglect laws need to be stronger
Posted on February 09, 2008Kane County, Illinois employs a prosecutor assigned mainly to cases of elder abuse including one of the most prevalent problems, financial abuse and exploitation. Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti has said that he hopes to improve community outreach as well and that elder abuse should be viewed like child abuse, where the very vulnerable can be taken advantage of...
Levin & Perconti files nursing home neglect lawsuit
Posted on February 07, 2008Steven M. Levin and Michael F. Bonamarte of Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti have recently filed a nursing home neglect lawsuit on behalf of a 78-year-old resident neglected at Lincoln Home in Belleville, Illinois. Lincoln Home nursing home was also cited by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) for improper nursing care and injury of a resident...
Quincy, Illinois elder services officer investigates abuse and protects elderly
Posted on February 07, 2008The police department of Quincy, Illinois has a well-established Senior and Family Resource Center that has recently appointed a new elder services officer, Detective Tom Liesen. Elder abuse and neglect, home repair fraud, and financial exploitation of elders are some of the areas that Detective Liesen investigates...
Chicago elderly woman robbed by cleaning service employees
Posted on February 06, 2008In an instance of elder financial abuse and exploitation taken to the extreme, an 86-year-old woman was pepper-sprayed and robbed by her cleaning service workers. A Cook County District court set $150,000 bond for the two cleaning workers from Naperville and Chicago, Illinois...
Elders susceptible to financial abuse and fraud due to neuropsychological deficits
Posted on January 30, 2008Elder financial abuse and fraud is one of the most common types of abuse and neglect inflicted upon senior citizens. New evidence has shown that aging of the brain, and not gullibility, loneliness or intelligence, can make elders vulnerable to financial exploitation...
Levin & Perconti sues Lincoln Home in Belleville, IL for neglecting resident who falls, wanders, and develops pressure sores
Posted on January 29, 2008Steven M. Levin and Michael F. Bonamarte of the Chicago law firm Levin & Perconti recently filed a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit against Lincoln Home in Belleville, Illinois in the Circuit Court of Cook County on behalf of a man who was neglected at the nursing home...
Suspicious deaths at McHenry County, Illinois nursing home spur investivation
Posted on January 24, 2008Suspicions at Woodstock Residence, a McHenry County, Illinois nursing home, have spurred an investigation of whether morphine overdoses contributed to the deaths of six elderly residents of the facility. Whether the claim of nursing home abuse is founded is yet to be seen, as tests are still being performed on the exhumed bodies of three of the victims and the investigation by the Illinois State Police continues...
Sexual abuse charges brought against nurse at Chicago area nursing home Evergreen Park
Posted on January 24, 2008Chicago area nursing home Evergreen Park has suspended an employee who has been accused of the sexual abuse of a 53-year-old resident of the facility. Chicago police arrived at the nursing home after being alerted that the nursing home assistant was found kissing a disabled patient on the cheek, as discovered by a fellow nurse...
License of Illinois nursing home East Peoria Gardens director's license suspended after numerous citations of nursing home abuse and neglect
Posted on January 22, 2008After reports of nursing home abuse and neglect, the nursing home East Peoria Gardens Health Care Center has been heavily fined by the Illinois Department of Public Health and its director's administrator's license has been suspended by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation...
IDPH Cites Halsted Terrace Nursing home and Levin & Perconti file Illinois nursing home lawsuit
Posted on January 18, 2008Steven M. Levin and Jordan S. Powell from Levin & Perconti filed a nursing home negligence lawsuit on behalf of Stephen Maurice Crawford. Mr. Crawford was a resident of Halsted Terrace beginning in July, 2006. He required care and treatment that his family was unable to provide...
Nursing Home Abuse: What you can do to make sure your loved one is not a victim
Posted on January 18, 2008At the North Shore Senior Center in Northfield, Illinois, Steve Levin spoke to a group of senior citizens on the dangers of Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect. Addressing the Men's Club at the Center, Steve advised the seniors to take care in choosing the right nursing home...
Democrats seek release of the names of more bad nursing homes
Posted on January 15, 2008Knowing which nursing homes are bad can be valuable information for a family seeking long-term care for an elderly loved one but concerned about issues like nursing home abuse and neglect. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the names of 54 nursing homes that had ranked as one of the worst in their state...
Kane County caregiver charged with financial exploitation of an elderly person
Posted on January 14, 2008A caregiver in Sugar Grove, Illinois has recently been charged with financial exploitation of an elderly person and is currently in the Kane County Jail. He was found stealing from his elderly client, an 83-year-old man, after cashing 12 checks at a bank in Sugar Grove...
Be aware of the many types of elder abuse and neglect to help keep seniors safe
Posted on January 13, 2008There are many different forms of elder abuse and neglect and it is important to watch for signs of abuse in order to protect loved ones. Anyone over age 60 can be a victim of elder abuse. Elder abuse and neglect comes in many forms: -Physical abuse -Emotional abuse includes verbal assaults, threats, intimidation and harassment -Confinement is restricting an elderly person without their consent...
Medicare & Medicaid fraud prevalent in nursing homes
Posted on January 12, 2008A new study by Americas Watchdog's Corporate Whistleblower Center shows that "things have never been worse" in the realm of Medicare & Medicaid fraud. All aspects of health care are included (click here to read more) but nursing homes make up a large portion of fraudulent behavior, magnifying the problem of nursing home neglect...
New law makes nursing home and hospital patients at risk for falls less likely to be injured
Posted on January 11, 2008A new law passed recently makes nursing home and hospital patients with a risk of falling safer. The law acknowledges problems with the handling and care of patients. Many lawsuits each year are brought on behalf of patients who are injured because the higher level of care they required when being transported or lifted was not met...
Geneva, Illinois sisters indicted after charges of abuse and neglect of their elderly mother
Posted on January 10, 2008Two sisters living in Geneva, Illinois have been indicted in the death of their 84-year-old mother on two counts each of criminal neglect of an elderly person, reported the Kane County Chronicle. Paramedics responded to a 911 call and discovered a scene typical of elder abuse and neglect in the home; the woman was found covered in ants, urine and feces which caused a sickening stench...
McLean County, Illinois - Heritage Manor Nursing Home: $17,000 awarded to fired whistleblower
Posted on January 09, 2008Heritage Manor Nursing Home in Colfax, Illinois lost a legal battle in a lawsuit where a former employee was awarded $17,000 after reporting sexual assault of an older resident. The whistleblower claims that she was fired after she reported suspicions that sexual abuse of an elderly resident of Heritage Manor was being ignored...
20th anniversary of nursing home reforms reevaluated
Posted on January 08, 2008Twenty years ago, Congress passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) and it is now time to review its successes and failures in order to improve the quality of nursing home care. OBRA regulates inadequate nursing homes by either shutting them down or allowing well-performing nursing home care providers to take over substandard facilities...
Register Now for Andrews 2008 Nursing Home Litigation Conference Featuring Lawyers from Chicago Law Firm Levin & Perconti
Posted on January 07, 2008Chicago nursing home attorneys Steven M. Levin and Michael F. Bonamarte will be featured speakers at the Andrews Nursing Home Litigation Conference this February in Sanibel Island, Florida. Steven M. Levin, Founding Partner at Chicago-based Levin & Perconti is the Co-Chair and moderator of the conference...
Nursing homes and state facilities reject Chicago-area mentally ill patient
Posted on January 07, 2008A 68-year-old man with dementia and mental illness is being rejected by nursing homes all over the state of Illinois due to frequent violent outbursts and cannot find a permanent home. The man was arrested at a Veteran's facility after hitting a nurse, and is temporarily hospitalized until further arrangements can be made...
Nursing home patient's wound infected with maggots; three employees sentenced
Posted on January 05, 2008Three employees of a Pennsylvania nursing home have been arrested and sentenced to probation and fines after an investigation of nursing home abuse and neglect. The former nursing director, the facility's former administrator and the manager of the nursing unit were arrested after 50 maggots were discovered in a resident's head wound...
Nursing home cited in resident?s death
Posted on January 03, 2008State regulators recently issued a $100,000 fine to a nursing home in the March death of a resident in a serious case of nursing home abuse . The citation was issued to the California nursing home for failing to provide patient safety after a 91 year-old woman was dropped on her head...
Jury awards $2.5 million in nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit
Posted on January 02, 2008A jury recently awarded the family of a nursing home abuse victim $2.5 million in a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit. The victim died at a Connecticut nursing home after he was administered the wrong food. The nursing home abuse victim was given food meant for someone on a regular diet, although he was supposed to be administered a soft diet...
Illinois nursing home faces nursing home abuse lawsuit over resident?s death
Posted on January 01, 2008An Illinois nursing home abuse victim?s daughter is asking an Illinois jury for more than $100,000 in damages in an Illinois nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the victim entered the Illinois nursing home for rehabilitation and died of acute toxicity from oxycodone and opiates...
California nursing home sued in death of resident from acute dehydration
Posted on December 31, 2007The family of an elderly woman who died in hospice care is suing a local nursing home in a nursing home abuse and neglect lawsuit, charging the staff?s nursing home neglect resulted in acute dehydration that crippled the victim. The complaint alleges that the nursing home did not feed or provide enough fluids for the resident, leading to her acute dehydration...
Northwest Indiana nursing home accused of discriminating against pregnant employee
Posted on December 30, 2007A lot of our blog posts concentrate on abuse of nursing home residents, but we also realize that nursing home employees must be treated well in order to continue to provide adequate treatment to residents. Nursing home employees should receive equal treatment...
Related Law Articles
Nursing Homes
Types of Retirement Facilities and Payment Options
House Closing
Sealing a home sale
Related Law Questions
My situation is somewhat difficult to describe, but about two months ago planes began arriving at an airport near my house and an organized stalking effort began. As I'm driving to and from home, cars will begin encircli
I would like this person 'anonymous' to get in touch with me. Question...
What is the statute of limitations in New york State as to how long a person may claim heirship?
who has paid the taxes for the last 7 to 11 yrs ? you can take a house by openly...
How to learn content of deceased parent's will?
go to the court house where your father died or the county he lived in. It is pu...
What role does financial means determine which parent gains custody?
was(am) a single male that gained custody of my daughter when she was three. Thi...
Can a creditor/collection agency call other employees at your place of work AND call your adult children who live in another state?
A creditor can call you at home, several times a day if you aren't answerin...
#1 Online Legal Resource
On 08-28 at 21:13PM
Ten months later, Fed must reveal names of emergency lending recipients #FOIA
On 08-25 at 19:02PM
Squeaky Fromme, would-be Ford assassin and Manson devotee, released from prison
On 08-14 at 15:19PM
Likely unintended consequence of cash-for-clunkers stimulus is dampening of 2010 spending
On 08-14 at 14:34PM
Palm seeks to halt Palm Pre Android theme on copyright and trademark ground
On 08-12 at 17:30PM
Congressional investigation demonstrates Karl Rove lied about his active role in US attorney's firing
On 08-12 at 16:20PM
Family of New York City swine flu victim to sue city for failure to secure school #nyc #swineflu
On 08-12 at 12:59PM
Real Network's DVD copying software deemed to break DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions
On 08-12 at 12:57PM
Prepaid funeral operators indicted for $100 Million fraud
On 08-12 at 12:53PM
NY Jets join Cincinnati, Dallas, Green Bay, Houston & Seattle #NFL teams offering branded state lottery games
On 08-12 at 12:43PM
Are you the author of this blog? Adding USLaw.com to your Blogroll increases relevance. You qualify to display a USLaw Network badge.
Suggest changes to this blog's description or nominate another for inclusion. Register for updates.
