Georgia Injury Law Blog

A state report blames a nursing home that failed to supervise two residents who had a history of altercations with each other, for a fatal fight that killed one of the residents. Unfortunately, nursing home abuse situations often arise due to inadequate supervision of residents and/or inadequate training of staff to evaluate the potential for resident-on-resident attacks. As nursing home abuse attorneys know, these attacks can often turn deadly.

Atlanta nursing home abuse lawyers have known for a long while that Georgia struggles with providing a safe environment for nursing home residents. In 2002, a report by the American Medical Association found that nursing home abuse problems in Georgia were at crisis levels. In fact, during this period of time, nursing home abuse claims in the state rose not just in frequency, but also in the severity of injuries involved. 

Often, elder abuse in nursing homes can be traced to a shortage of staff. Many nursing facilities deal with low reimbursement rates by cutting back on staff numbers, and therefore, eroding the quality of care. As a result, there are fewer numbers of staff members to pay individual attention to senior residents, many of who are in delicate health.

The decision to place a loved one in a nursing home is a difficult one. However, family members must ensure that they visit their senior citizens at the nursing home as often as possible, and must make sure that their loved one is being looked after well.

Posted By Robert Katz In Nursing Home Abuse | 0 Comments Permalink

According to a new exposé by ProPublica, an unknown number of senior citizens who die in nursing homes around the country may have died due to nursing home abuse. However, their families may never know because investigations into such a wrongful death are rare. Nursing home abuse attorneys are well aware of the serious nature of the problem. When investigating these matters, we often find that the nursing home has been active in trying to cover up the abuse, rather than conducting an honest investigation which uncovers the issue and provides useful information to improving the care they provide.

As part of the exposé, the team at ProPublicainvestigated coroner and medical examiner’s office records, and looked at the number of sudden and unusual fatalities at several nursing homes. They found in their investigations that in cases involving seniors who die suddenly, or under any kind of suspicious circumstances, there is no guarantee of any investigation into the death. ProPublicahas reached several conclusions that point to systemic flaws.

For instance, when a senior death is reported as natural, coroners and medical examiners very rarely investigate it. However, the fact is that very often, doctors make errors in judging whether a death is natural or not. In one study conducted in 2008, approximately 50% of doctors were not able to correctly identify the cause of death for an elderly patient who had died after a brain injury that occurred as a result of a fall accident. What this means is that an unknown number of deaths in nursing homes are probably being classified as natural deaths, when they are anything but.

Also, in many states, doctors are allowed to write out a death certificate without even seeing the body. In one case that the ProPublicateam came across during this investigation, a Pennsylvania doctor reported that a 83-year-old person had died of natural causes, when in fact, the death had been the result of beating by nursing home staff. The doctor never saw the patient, and never noticed the bruises on the man's body, that would've alerted him to the fact that this was not a natural death.

Posted By Robert Katz In Medical Malpractice , Nursing Home Abuse , Nursing Homes , Wrongful Death | 0 Comments Permalink

This week, elder safety groups and Atlanta nursing home abuse lawyers mark World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The Georgia Department of Human Services is asking all people to wear purple on Wednesday to raise awareness about elder abuse.

This week, family health agencies and elder safety groups in Georgia are asking all citizens to look out for signs of elder abuse. 

Signs of physical abuse of elders are easy to detect. 

·        Look out for bruises and wounds and cigarette burns. Also look for signs of unnecessary physical restraint like handcuff marks.

·        Look for a lack of physical grooming, like dirty and uncombed hair, dirty clothes, body odor and a generally unkempt appearance.

·        Elders who are being abused may show signs of malnutrition and dehydration. They may also have bed sores.

·        Make sure that the person is receiving his/her medications on time. Failure to offer medical treatment can also be a sign of elder abuse.

While physical abuse is easy to detect, mental abuse can be harder to spot. Often, elder may be subjected to emotional and mental abuse in nursing homes. Look for signs of anxiety, edginess, and fear. If your loved one looks jumpy or withdrawn, find out if there's a problem you should know about. Be alert if you find that your loved one's caregiver does not allow your loved one to speak.

A darker side of elder abuse is sexual abuse, which is much more common than Americans like to think. We all need to do our part to protect the elderly.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/state-hopes-to-raise-975688.html?cxtype=rss_news_81960

Posted By Robert Katz In Elderly , Nursing Home Abuse | 0 Comments Permalink

A report by the Department of Health and Human Services finds that a shocking 80% of elderly nursing home residents in the country have been administered antipsychotic medications, for off-label purposes. Because these medications have a high risk of deaths, it is statistically likely that some of the patients died as a result of the use of these medications. The off-label use of these medications raises the likelihood of claims for nursing home abuse, medical malpractice and product liability. Atlanta injury attorneys will need to closely monitor the developments in this area and will likely get calls from families of patients who were treated with these medications.

According to the report, out of 300,000 nursing home residents studied in 2007, approximately 90% received powerful anti-psychotic medications that are typically used for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. There are studies to prove that elderly persons who receive antipsychotic medications can be at a high risk of death. In spite of this, these vulnerable persons were overmedicated, and there is no reason to believe that things have changed dramatically between 2007 and now. 

Moreover, it seems highly likely that the pharmaceutical industry has been behind this overmedication of nursing home residents. One of the ways in which pharmaceutical companies increase their profits is by promoting off-label uses of their drugs. An off-label use of a drug is one which has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Doctors can prescribe a drug for off-label uses, but a company is not allowed to market the drug for these purposes.

However, as Atlanta nursing home abuse attorneys have noted in the past, that hasn't really stopped pharmaceutical companies from aggressively promoting off-label uses of their drugs, especially among elders. The more numbers of uses these drugs are prescribed for, the higher the profits for the company. 

In addition, the report also found that one in five residents in nursing homes have been administered these drugs in a manner that violates federal standards for their use. These patients were either given dosages that were too high or were on the medication for too long a period of time.

Posted By Robert Katz In Elderly , Medical Malpractice , Nursing Home Abuse , Nursing Homes , Product Liability | 0 Comments Permalink