New York Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Two nursing homes in Missoula have settled a wrongful death lawsuit for an undisclosed amount with the family of a man that died while under nursing home care in 2005. The lawsuit claimed that both Riverside Health Care Center and the Village Health Care Center were negligent in failing to provide adequate care for Ralph Seewald. The family alleges that the care given to Seewald did not meet the standards promised by the nursing homes.

More specifically, the family contended the Mr. Seewald fell and fractured his neck during a transfer from his wheelchair, an accident that left him bedridden. He then developed severe pressure ulcers (bedsores, decubitus ulcers) that worsened over a period of months, and led to a fatal case of gangrene in his leg.

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Family settles suit against nursing homes, Billings Gazette, Tristain Scott, February 28, 2010.

In an effort to improve response time in investigating nursing home complaints, the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services has created teams tasked only with looking into those claims. Based on Texas statistics, only about 35 percent of complaints categorized as having a "high potential of harm" were investigated within the required 14-day window over the past few years.

Chris Traylor, the department's new commissioner, has made to improved response times a priority. Traylor explains, "While we're doing a good job responding to the most serious complaints and incidents, I'm concerned about our ability to respond quickly to every complaint and incident. We need to do all we can to ensure the safety of Texans in nursing homes."

In February, the department says they plan on investigating more that 1,500 complaints at 330 facilities.

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State creating teams to investigate complaints about nursing homes, Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Darren BarbeeFebruary 15, 2010.

More than 400 facilities called long-term acute care hospitals have opened across the national in the last 25 years. They specialize in providing care to seriously ill patients. Few of these institutions have doctors on staff, and most are owned by for-profit companies.

As As Alex Berenson of the New York Times reports, many of these for-profit hospitals have been scrutinized for their wide profit margins and lack of on-staff doctors during off-peak hours. Select Medical Corporation is a corporation that owns 89 long-term care hospitals nationwide. These facilities have been cited at a rate almost four times that of regular hospitals for serious violations of Medicare rules. Medicare inspection reports of many of these hospitals reveal preventable patient injuries, including bedsores (pressure sores decubitis ulcers) and deaths, as well as inadequate staffing numbers with high turnover.

Website Resources:

Long-Term Care Hospitals Face Little Scrutiny, New York Times, Alex Berenson, February 9, 2010.