Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Two New York Certified Nursing Assistants have been fired from their jobs at Northgate Health Care Facility after compromising residents under their care.

Alicia Clemens and Gloria Maxwell reportedly cared for a married couple who shared a room at the facility. According to a state health department report, the women brought a wheelchair-bound woman into the married couple's room and placed her in bed between the couple and tried to get the husband to inappropriately touch the woman. The husband, who is legally blind and suffers from dementia, touched the woman on the shoulder, who immediately told him to stop. Clemens reportedly took cell phone photographs of the couple in bed.

Clemens and Maxwell were fired after the April 14, 2010 incident. A third nursing assistant, Heather Whitcomb, and a certified nursing assistant trainee, Jaclyn Cannon, were also fired. Whitcomb and Cannon saw the abuse occurring and failed to report it to their supervisors.

Elderly nursing home residents are easy targets for sexual predators since they often are unable, due to physical or mental impairments, to ward off a sexual attack. Sadly, their impairments often prevent them from even reporting a sexual assault. Families with loved ones in nursing home facilities need to be aware that sexual assault does occur in nursing homes and should be prepared for both prevention and detection of sexual assault. If you have a family member or loved one in a nursing home facility, protect your loved one by:

• visiting your loved one at different times, including occasional visits in the middle of the night. Don't be predictable. Most sexual assaults occur at night.
• opening the door to your family member's room if it is closed when it shouldn't be; don't be afraid to "barge in".
• knowing the name and habits of all employees with access to your loved one.
• watching for evidence of other residents who may be sexually inappropriate.
• talking to the facility administrator about whether proper criminal background checks were accomplished on all staff members.

Illinois Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney David Terry is experienced in handling cases of nursing home sexual abuse. If you suspect that a family member or loved one in a nursing home facility may be the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a facility staff member, contact David Terry for a FREE no-obligation consultation at 1-888-317-2525 or 314-878-9797.

To obtain a FREE copy David Terry's book, 5 Things You Must Know About Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect in Illinois, click here.

A recently released study by the Inspector General's Office of the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that, over the last two years, for-profit nursing home facilities have greatly increased the percentage of facility residents classified as needing the highest levels of care in order to collect larger Medicare payments.

The study, entitled "Questionable Billing by Skilled Nursing Facilities" found that from 2006 to 2008, the percentage of residents classified in the highest therapy groups jumped from 17 percent to 28 percent, despite little change in diagnoses or demographics. The result? A cost of an additional $5 billion cost to Medicare.

Costs incurred by individuals entering nursing homes after a hospitalization, which is paid for by Medicare Part A, are classified in a category known as a resource utilization groups (RUGs). The group the individuals are placed in is dependent upon how much therapy is needed and how much assistance with activities of daily living is required for the resident. The higher the RUG category, the more Medicare is required to pay.

For-profit nursing homes constitute more than 2/3 of nursing homes in the United States. Nearly 1/3 of residents in for-profit nursing homes were placed in the highest RUGs, while nonprofit facilities had 18% and government facilities had 13%. For-profit facilities were found to keep residents longer, up to 29 days opposed to 23 days at nonprofit facilities. According to the recently released report, "These billing patterns indicate that certain [skilled nursing facilities] may be routinely placing beneficiaries into higher paying RUGs...or keeping beneficiaries in Part A [stays] longer than necessary."

The Inspector General's Office made multiple recommendations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for improvement and referred the 348 worst offenders to Medicare officials for action.

Felicia Williams was arrested on August 25, 2010 on three third-degree felony counts of injury to the elderly or disabled by exploitation. As shocking as this is, this was not the first time she was suspected of abusing defenseless elderly residents.

Williams, a former CNA at Port Lavaca Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, had been investigated not two weeks earlier on suspicion of making "improper video recordings" of residents of the facility. According to the facility attorney, Paul Romano, "Port Lavaca Nursing and Rehabilitation Center deeply regrets that the rights of some of its residents were violated by a former employee's inappropriate use of a cell phone video recorder". Facility management discovered the video through an internal investigation and contacted local police.

Williams remains in jail on in lieu of a $130,000 bond.