Recent Blog Posts

• New Study States That Antidepressants Increase the Risk of Falls in Nursing Home Patients with Dementia A new study confirms that a large percentage of nursing home residents are prescribed anti-depressants, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). While in most cases, anti-depressants are beneficial to the well being of the residents, in patients suffering from dementia, they can significantly increase the risk of falls - leading to serious injuries, and even death. Researchers from the Netherlands recently reported that a study, which included 248 nursing homes, shows that anti-depressants were used on over 13,000 patients of which more than 650 sustained injuries. These falls occurred in 152 out of the 248 nursing homes included in the study. Additionally, 38 residents fell once during the time of the study, while 114 had multiple falls. Of those 650 falls, 220 resulted in serious injury, or even death. It is imperative that these facilities conduct interdisciplinary care meetings to ensure that the proper protocols are followed, in order to reduce the risk of ....
• Simple Tools to Prevent Bed Sores Found to be Cost Effective While nursing homes should always look to prevent bed sores – a painful and sometimes deadly condition – a recent study conducted revealed that the prevention of bed sores is also cost effective. Foam mattresses which reduce pressure were found to be cost-effective 82% of the time as opposed to using standard mattresses. This simple change could save on average $115 per resident. Additionally, foam cleansers for incontinence were found to be cost-effective 94% of the time, as opposed to traditional soap and water, which results in an average savings of $179 per resident. On average, roughly 10% of residents in long-term care facilities have a pressure ulcer. And for those residents, treatments are critical early on in order to prevent a serious, and even life-threatening condition. A better solution to this problem is prevention. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities can, and should, prevent these problems from happening rather than treating them after the fact. Most ....
• Corporate Interests Outweigh Patient Safety A recent article in the Star Ledger, Stronger safeguards needed in N.J. hospitals, nursing homes, asks the questions, “Should corporate lobbyists decide whether safe equipment and procedures are needed if you or a loved one have to go to a hospital or nursing home? Or should health care professionals make those decisions?” All too often high power corporate interests utilize lobbyists to cut corners, increase profits and put patients at tremendous risk. In this recent article, we see how this plays out in ways that not only harm nursing home residents and hospital patients, but also places healthcare workers at risk.    ....
• Suspicious Elder Deaths Rarely Investigated I have had cases where a person suffers from a bed sore that is so large the spinal column is visible, and yet the cause of death listed on the death certificate states, “natural causes”, or “dementia”, or “Alzheimer’s”.  While we may still pursue a claim to hold those responsible for the large and painful wound accountable, it is frustrating to the family that the bed sore is not listed on the death certificate.  We are currently prosecuting cases where had a resident not been taken to the hospital and died in the nursing home, the true cause of death would have never been discovered.  Unfortunately, this situation is far from unusual. As reported in ProPublica, suspicious elder deaths are rarely investigated.  According to the article, autopsies performed on seniors are increasingly rare even though the United States population aged 65 and older has grown. From 1972-2007, the number of autopsies performed on seniors ....
• AseraCare, a Hospice Company, Owned by Golden Living is the Subject of a Whistleblower Suit The Federal Government has joined in a Whistleblower suit, which alleges that AseraCare, a national hospice company owned by Golden Living, wrongly took advantage of Medicare’s hospice benefit by pressuring its employees to place people into hospice who weren’t dying. The suit states that AseraCare first recruited patients who are eligible for skilled nursing care for 20 days, for which Medicare pays the entire bill. After 20 days, when Medicare requires patients pick up a part of the tab, AseraCare had the nursing homes send the patients to hospice, according to the lawsuit. In hospice, AseraCare would collect a flat payment from Medicare for each day they are enrolled. We will follow this story on our blog and the recurring problem that appears to be growing on a national basis throughout both nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Here is an article relating to the government’s press release on the suit. ....
• How The Affordable Care Act & The Accountable Care Organizations Will Increase Quality Care at Nursing Homes and Hospitals With the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), this nation has seen the beginning of a dramatic shift in both the delivery of healthcare and the means by which payment is made for medical services.  Under the ACA, a new type of medical agency was created, known as Accountable Care Organizations (ACO). These entities are required to coordinate all levels of care in a fashion that is both more efficient and better focused on the provision of quality care. As we have written on our blog, hospitals will no longer be paid to rectify medical errors which have been deemed as “never events.” This is a class of medical error which non-profit research groups and the federal government alike have determined to be wholly unacceptable in the hospital context. ACO’s are being organized to help prevent the occurrence of never events. At present, we may be at a crossroads in terms of whether ACO’s will be lead by physicians or hospitals.  Either scenario has its ....
• Study Shows Low Staffing Equals Poor Quality of Care at Largest For-Profit Nursing Home Chains When first selecting a nursing home, the majority of people I meet have very little knowledge of how nursing homes work, how they operate, and how they are regulated.  Making this situation worse is the fact that selecting a nursing home must often happen quickly. With a lack of knowledge, many people choose a nursing home solely because it looks clean and may have some modern amenities.  While these are factors a person may consider, the most important thing regarding any nursing home is that there is adequate staffing – with enough good and caring people to do the work.  Some excellent facilities are simply plain buildings with cinderblock walls and outdated furniture.  A new study that confirms lowered staffing equals poor quality of care at some of the country’s largest for-profit nursing homes was reported in a recent article.  The results were certainly not surprising and already known by most people working in the industry.  So, why are ....
• Royal Health Gate Employee Arrested for Sexually Assaulting Resident Good employee hiring practices and proper resident supervision is an important part of running a successful nursing home. When these components are missing, seriously terrible things can happen. One piece of advice I give to those with family members in nursing homes is to get to know the staff and make sure there are enough people in the building – especially on nights and weekends. A nursing home employee of Royal Health Gate in Trenton was arrested over the weekend after a witness reported seeing the worker sexually assaulting a 56 year-old resident. Police Sgt. Steve Varn stated, “Apparently he did this to the same victim a couple of times.” According to an article in The Times of Trenton, the employee “faces four counts of aggravated sex assault for the alleged string of rapes."   ....
• Stark & Stark Attorneys Aid Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Visit Stark & Stark's Facebook page during the month of October and "like" us. For each "like" we receive in October, Stark & Stark will donate $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. October is breast cancer awareness month. Stark & Stark would like to aid Susan G. Komen for the Cure® in their mission to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find cures. ....
• Be Careful of Arbitration Clauses When Selecting a Nursing Home in New Jersey Here is a typical scenario: An elderly woman falls at home and fractures her hip for which she has an entire hip replacement. The family is surprised when the day after the surgery, mom begins her rehab and there is a visit from the social worker asking about where mom will go for either rehab or to permanently reside in a nursing home. The family – who has no experience picking a nursing home – is handed a list of nearby places, visits a few of them, and picks the best they can in the span of a few days.  Usually, there is a long contract the family is presented – sometimes over 20 pages – in addition to numerous other documents.  Somewhere, buried in the middle of all this, in complex legal terms, is the arbitration clause.  A paragraph that effectively waives a person’s rights to have their case judged by a jury if something terrible happens.  In New Jersey, these clauses used to be illegal, presumably because a person putting a ....
• Triad Tangles with FDA on Recall Earlier this year, I reported about the potential dangers posed to senior citizens (and others) who were potentially exposed to bacteria from antiseptic wipes. Reports indicate that a child may have died from such exposure and we are aware of seniors who appear to have potentially met the same fate.  Now, Federal regulators say that although Professional Disposables International (PDI) of Orangeburg, New York promised to recall the product this past June, it has since failed to launch that recall nearly four months later.   The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a second statement last Wednesday saying the agency was not backing down on its assertion that PDI failed to follow through on its promise to conduct a recall in June. A follow up story from the Journal Sentinel Online addresses some of the recent developments in the enforcement action.   ....
• A New Way to Combat "Never Events": Obama Administration May Penalize Nursing Homes That Unnecessarily Admit Patients to Hospitals The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have recently designated certain injuries in hospitals “never events” – or injuries that should not happen. These injuries include Stage III and IV bed sores and falls with fractures. The penalty to hospitals when these injuries happen is that CMS will not pay for treatment rendered for these injuries. The result is that many hospitals are reporting the incidence of these events has gone down, and in some places tremendously. Now, the Obama administration is doing a similar thing to nursing homes according to an article in Forbes magazine. According to the article, a recent study showed that 25% of nursing home hospital admissions may be preventable. A further congressional review panel estimates that 14% of hospital patients sent back to nursing homes return to a hospital for a preventable condition. The Obama administration wants to penalize nursing homes that have unnecessarily high hospital admissions for ....
• New Jersey Ranks Poorly On Long-term Nursing Care A recent article in The Bergen Record, New Jersey ranks poorly on long-term nursing care, discusses the fact that New Jersey nursing-home care is less affordable and patients are more likely to suffer bedsores or need trips to the hospital than in many other states. New Jersey ranked in the second tier of states — 22nd — for choice, affordability, quality of care and support for family members who take care of the elderly and disabled at home. I recently wrote a post on my firm’s Facebook page discussing the implications this article, and these new findings, could have on the health care industry in New Jersey.   ....
• The Role of Physicians in Nursing Home Litigation David R. Cohen, Chair of Stark & Stark’s Nursing Home Litigation Group, authored the article, The Role of Physicians in Nursing Home Litigation, for the September 12, 2011 edition of the New Jersey Law Journal. The article discusses a common mistake made my personal injury attorneys when litigating nursing home cases: discussions with the physician. Although federal regulations concentrate on the role of the medical director in relation to the care of and operation of the nursing home, these standards are often times far from the truth. In the article, Mr. Cohen states, “72% of all medical directors spent less than one to four hours per week at facilities, and 70% indicated that the role of medical director constituted somewhere between 1 and 10% of their medical practice.”   ....
• Gloucester Manor Nursing Home Administrator Charged as "Fugitive of Justice" and Faces Additional Charges in Pennsylvania We have noted many times on this blog the importance of screening employees of nursing homes before they are placed in the role of caring for elderly and infirm residents. In this story, a nursing home employee with what appears to be a long and difficult history, along with multiple aliases, was somehow given the highest position in the facility.   All studies show, and regulations confirm, that nursing homes have a responsibility not only to check the criminal background of employees, but also to ensure that they are of good moral character. This is a critical step in protecting our most vulnerable citizens.  ....
• Hopeful Report Indicates Reduction of Anti-Psychotic Medications in the Elderly Many times I’ve written about the over-medication of the elderly – especially with anti-psychotics. Despite the fact that anti-psychotics are supposedly only for a small percentage of the elderly, many nursing home residents with dementia are given these drugs even though some have FDA warnings of an increased risk of death.  This overuse of anti-psychotics was confirmed in a recent government audit.   It appears that the message is finally being heard.  A recent article reports that nursing homes are beginning to reduce the use of anti-psychotic drugs. This is a positive development. Instead of chemically controlling people, nursing homes are beginning to use alternative methods to treat Alzheimer’s and dementia. These therapies are in many cases reported to be more effective.   Chemically controlling residents for the sake of convenience or punishment is illegal in New Jersey.  Knowing what medications a resident is taking is ....
• Read the Fine Print When Working with Nursing Home Placement Agencies Picking a nursing home or assisted living facility can be a very difficult process.  Most people know very little about these facilities, how they are regulated, and how they operate.  Some people find themselves turning to free referral or placement agencies for their expertise.  These agencies are businesses that allege to help people find the right facility for their loved one. This recent New York Times article points out the problem with some of these agencies. While some of these agencies are free to the users, they may get paid by the facilities they refer to – in some cases sub-standard facilities.  Another enlightening article in the Seattle Times reports that some “[p]lacement companies, which rely on commission-only sales people, funnel the aged only to facilities that have agreed to pay thousands of dollars in finders' fees. In addition, most placement companies do not screen homes for past violations. As a result, many have referred seniors ....
• Nursing Homes Exposed solely as "Reliable Investment Streams" for Investors - Quality Care Seemingly Irrelevant Recently, the government encountered an 11.1% mistake in Medicaid money paying for nursing home residents – taxpayers are overpaying nursing home companies and the government is fixing the mistake. Interestingly, complaints about this came from Wall Street. This trend is disturbing.   A recent article reported that “the Government Accountability Office last year found private investment firms have been buying nursing homes the past several years — resulting in a lack of transparency that make it impossible to know who is ultimately responsible for a home. Just as troubling was why they were buying homes: They are “reliable investment streams,” according to government investigators.”   The problem is with viewing nursing homes solely as “investment streams”, as the article points out, is that as residents “deplete their life savings to spend their final days in these homes, the financial sector looks on them as gold ....
• Anti-Psychotics Continue to be Administered to the Elderly for Parkinson's Disease Despite Known Dangers According to The Wall Street Journal, new study published in Archives of Neurology, “showed that about half of elderly Parkinson's patients with psychosis were prescribed an antipsychotic.”  This is despite the fact that in 2005, the FDA issued a “black box” warning to antipsychotics due to an increase in risk of death in older dementia patients.  “Black box” warnings are the strongest warnings given by the FDA and are placed on drugs where medical studies indicate that a drug carries a significant risk of serious or life threatening adverse effects. You can read the entire article here. Additionally, in some instances, side effects of some anti-psychotics actually worsen the shaking and stiffness that comes with Parkinson’s.   According to New Jersey law, using medications for the convenience of the staff or in quantities that interfere with a resident’s normal living conditions is illegal. This is why knowing a ....
• Hot Coffee Debunks Many Tort Reform Myths For many years, large corporations have spread baseless myths about our country’s jury system  – to avoid accountability for injuries caused by corporate greed.  Nowhere is this more visible than in the famous McDonald’s hot coffee case.  Most people think that as a result of “jackpot justice” somebody ripped off the system by getting millions for spilling coffee while driving.  This was actually a well executed false spin on the truth. On June 27, 2011, HBO premieres Hot Coffee, a documentary that exposes the truth of corporate manipulation of the real facts: The injured consumer, Stella Liebeck, was 79 years old.  She was a passenger, not a driver…and the car was stopped.  The coffee was served at 180 degrees – well above a temperature that would be fit for human consumption.  In fact, the coffee was so hot that when it spilled in her lap, she suffered severe burns and needed skin graft surgery.  ....
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