New York Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Northgate Health Care Facility has fired two nurse's aides following a disturbing incident involving the employees and two elderly, mentally impaired residents of the facility. According to a NYS Department of Health report, the employees placed the two residents in the same bed together and told them that they were married, hoping to elicit a physical response from the residents. Security cameras captured the events. One of the residents is diagnosed with mild mental retardation, while the other is both blind and suffers from dementia. The workers are no longer legally allowed to work in similar nursing home environments.

As common sense and decency would dictate, if all allegations are true, the two employees involved in this incident are guilty of any number of violations of public health codes, as well as state and federal regulations. The residents' quality of life, personal rights, and safe living environment have all been severely compromised. Additionally, although the Department of Health has conceded that Northgate acted properly in reporting the incident, the home's hiring practices certainly must be questioned. Furthermore, reporting the incident and handling it in a timely fashion does not excuse the home from the violations. It is the responsibility of the facility to prohibit mistreatment and abuse of residents. In this case, it would appear that the facility failed in this charge.

Website Resource: Wheatfield Nursing Home Workers Fired Over Reported Abuse, Pete Gallivan, March 31, 2011

Carolyn Williams, a former certified nurse's aide (C.N.A.) at Meadowbrook Care Center in Freeport, NY was recently prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud Unit of the NYS Attorney General for endangering the welfare of an elderly person. While working at Meadowbrook Care Center, Ms. Williams allegedly attempted a Hoyer transfer without assistance any other nursing home personnel. The Hoyer lift fell upon the resident who received stitches to treat facial lacerations. Thankfully the resident was not more seriously injured. We have seen many cases where transfers gone awry have caused falls, fractures, and brain injuries. Making matters worse, however, Ms. Williams also apparently falsified the CNA accountability record (part of the nursing home chart) to conceal the fact that she attempted the transfer on her own.

As a result of the Medicaid Fraud Unit prosecution, Ms. Williams has been sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge with special conditions of surrendering her CNA certificate and refraining from caring for any incompetent person whether due to age, physical disability, or mental disease or defect.

We have handled many nursing home cases where records have been falsified. These types of entries call into question the integrity of the nursing home record as a whole, as well as the integrity of the staff members who made the entries. Further, it is clear that such entries would incite a jury should the case be tried.

Long-Term-Care Community Coalition Enforcement Archives, Spring 2011.