My Elder Advocate

Study Reveals Black Nursing Home Residents More Likely to Develop Bed Sores

A study by researchers at the University of Iowa, reported on by Reuters, found that black residents of long-term care facilities are more likely to suffer from pressure sores. The difference in care is not a result of nursing homes providing better quality care for white residents, but rather that residents were more likely to develop pressure sores in nursing homes where a majority of the residents are black. Like many types of nursing home abuse or neglect, this could be a result of understaffing or fewer resources.

http://news.healingwell.com/index.php?p=news1&id=654736

Antipsychotic drug use among elderly nursing home residents in the United States

Background: Antipsychotic utilization in elderly nursing home residents has increased substantially in recent years, primarily due to the use of atypical antipsychotic agents. However, few studies have examined antipsychotic utilization patterns in nursing home residents in the United States since the introduction of atypical agents in the 1990s.

via www.ajgeripharmacother.com

There is an upward trend in over-medicating nursing homes. This is inhumane and in many cases the sole purpose is to chemically manage these residents.

If you visit as many nursing homes as I do you will notice residents who are just sitting there totally zombied out. It's criminal. If what this article describes is happening to your loved one, you need an advocate to stop this insanity.

Prescription Abuse Seen In U.S. Nursing Homes

In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, AIDS drugs or medicine to treat high-blood pressure.

One reason: Nursing homes across the U.S. are giving these drugs to elderly patients to quiet symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

How Much is the Life of a 90 Year Old Nun Worth?

By Jack Halpern

According to the federal government, only $17,000. The inept and corrupt NY State Department of Health had a major role in her death. They did not put a gun to her head, stab her, or throw her off the roof. However they are guilty of depraved indifference in her death.

A 90-year-old Roman Catholic nun died after an unbolted closet fell on her head at a nursing home.

Rockland County, which runs the Westchester County home, was fined more than $17,000 by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, according to Claire Pospisil, a State Health Department spokeswoman.

Hidden Camera Reveals Abuse at NY Nursing Home

Murder, She Writes

Read this comment by a reader of My Elder Advocate Blog. Hospitals are complicit in the murder and destruction of our elderly nursing home patient's. WHEN WILL THIS HOLOCAUST END!

A new comment from “Carmen ” was received on the post “A Typical Monday Afternoon at Sheepshead Nursing Home” of the weblog “My Elder Advocate”.

Calfornia Nursing Homes Kill Residents

That is correct...it is not a misstatement. I did not mean to say that two residents died as a result of neglect or abuse.

The nursing homes at issue are located near Sacramento, California. The nursing homes at fault are English Oaks and Marysville Care Center and here is what happened. At English Oaks a 91-year-old resident was choking on fruit and no one at the home provided the Heimlich maneuver - he died! At the Marysville Care Center an 84-year-old resident's head became stuck between the bed and a railing - she died. Both reports come from the California Department of Public Health. English Oaks also was fined in 2001 for not monitoring the feeding tube of a patient who got an infection and died. These facilities have a long history of serious violations.

Both facilities were owned by the same company, which received a "double citation" for these tragedies. A double citation...you have got to be kiddin me...someone needs to go to jail!
SEE NEWS STORY

Nursing home patients restrained, greed is not

By Saul Friedman-Newsday

Politicians and other soothsayers tell us how as a nation we honor and care for the oldest generation, our parents and grandparents, many of whom are ill or frail and need some comfort, security and dignity in their last years.

Fighting Bedsores With a Team Approach - New York Times

Link: Fighting Bedsores With a Team Approach - New York Times.

A Typical Monday Afternoon at Sheepshead Nursing Home

By Jack Halpern

I recently came to know a nice elderly woman, who we shall call Mrs. Rothman. Her husband, Alan was placed in Sheepshead Nursing Home in Brooklyn after a recent hospitalization. This nursing home, although mediocre at best is near Mrs. Rothman’s home. Sadie is in her eighties and very frail herself. I had the opportunity to place her husband in a better home, but she would not get the opportunity to visit him.