His family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that Heartland of Charleston failed to properly monitor Mr. King. The suit alleges that "George King Sr. could not care for himself or be allowed to walk outside the facility and the staff of the facility at Heartland of Charleston was aware of this fact". The suit also alleges that facility workers failed to follow protocols for missing residents, failed to adequately supervise Mr. King, searched for him in the wrong area (because he was confused with another resident who had left the facility on a prior date), and and failed to utilize all available resources to locate him.

The facility reported the incident to DHS, but officials from the Long Term Care Investigations Unit did not open an investigation. A complaint about the assault triggered an investigation by officials from the Oklahoma Health Department. The investigation revealed sixteen serious deficiencies, two of which were failing to fully investigate abuse allegations and endangering patients' health.

The Health Department is recommending that the facility not be allowed to accept any new Medicare and Medicaid patients until the deficiencies are corrected. If the facility is not in compliance within six months, Medicare and Medicaid payments could be halted. Federal regulators are being asked to fine the facility $3,000 per day until the deficiencies are corrected.

The new Administrator of Whispering Pines, Sue Horton, has only been on the job for three weeks and has yet to read the 370 page report about these serious deficiencies.

Ms. Myers died on November 15, 2008 at Protestant Episcopal Church Home. Her family has filed a lawsuit against Blossom South alleging improper treatment of the fracture. Now, wrongful death is being considered as an addition to the lawsuit.

Blossom South Nursing Home and Rehabilitation, located in Rochester, New York, has a long record of penalties for violating patient care standards. In this instance, they were hit with a $2,000 fine - the maximum amount the health department can levy against the facility for each violation of state and federal regulations. The facility was also penalized for an April 2008 inspection in which it was determined that the facility had not corrected previously identified problems. The facility has been cut off from new Medicare and Medicaid admissions until all identified problems are rectified, the staff undergoes retraining, and the administrators file a plan of correction. The state has also recommended that the federal government levy heavier fines against the facility.

On October 15, 2007, an elderly 89 year old resident was served blueberry pancakes and sausage for dinner. A nurse's aide cut the meal into bite-sized pieces for the resident. Shortly thereafter, the aide noticed the woman's mouth was open, she was not breathing, and her lips were blue. The aide failed to call a "code blue", which is an announcement that alerts facility staff to the emergency and calls them to assist. It also is designed to activate the 911 system. Tragically, the aide also did not begin the Heimlich maneuver. An LPN who arrived at the scene did not perform either of the procedural steps. The registered nurse supervisor who came to assist also did not immediately call a "code blue" or 911.

The woman was subsequently taken to a hospital, where she died. An ensuing investigation revealed that the staff had not been properly trained on "code blue" drills, which put all residents in immediate jeopardy and placed the residents in harm's way.

In September 2005, a Cook County Grand Jury indicted companies, Forest Park, L.L.C. and Care Centers, Inc., doing business as The Pavilion of Forest Park and Jason Garti, the facility's former medical director and wound care doctor with multiple charges of gross neglect that led to Ms. Massey's death.

On November 18, 2008, the corporate owner of the nursing home plead guilty to the charges and was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and $75,000 in investigation and court costs.

The nursing home was sold to another company in July 2007.

Johnson faces up to 120 years in prison and a $300,000 fine.

Ralph Kasczmerak was a resident of Liberty Nursing Center for two years following a stroke. He went there for rehab but says he "spent two years of hell dealing with Liberty Nursing Center". Every time he asked for something, the staff made him feel as though he was creating problems for them. Worse yet, when an employee stole his pain medication. The facility had hired an employee knowing he had lost his nursing license and instead of investigating where the missing medication had gone, the facility chose to blame their resident. Kasczmerak was accused of selling his own pain medication!

Worse things were discovered in an inspection. Residents with mental illnesses were allowed to beat, bite, and push on each other, as well as other residents. The facility never reported this abuse to the State.

When the facility Administrator Carla Brumby was questioned why she allowed the abuse to go on, she said that her staff minimized the injuries appropriately. She also defended her decision to hire an individual whose nursing license had been revoked by stating, "I try not to judge people based on their past. I try to look to the future."

Ruth Louden was an active 89 year old woman, who lived alone in an apartment in Grinnell, Iowa. She still drove herself and had recently returned from a trip to California, where she traveled by herself to visit with her daughter. Unfortunately, on February 16, 2008, she fell at home, injuring her left ankle. The injury? A minor bone fracture. While any injury would be serious for a woman of her age, Ruth's injury was relatively minor and did not even require a cast. Instead, doctors put her leg in a medical stocking and a brace and sent her to Friendship manor for short-term therapy. Friendship Manor was where things began going wrong.

The staff at Friendship Manor had written orders to monitor the circulation in Ruth's leg and to check her skin every shift for signs of redness or swelling. Ruth complained to facility staff of "horrible" and "excruciating" pain for the next four weeks. The staff provided Ruth with pain medication but never pulled back her stocking to examine her leg and never evaluated the cause of the pain.

On March 20 - a month after Ruth's fall - a physical therapy aide noticed that Ruth's leg smelled like "rotting meat". Blood was seeping through the stocking. Ruth was taken to the hospital and physicians there found that the wound dressing that had been put on a month earlier looked like it had never been touched. Ruth was diagnosed with gangrene and doctors wanted to amputate her leg. It was her leg or her life. Ruth's leg was amputated below her knee, however, she died on June 24, 2008.

Iowa's Department of Inspections and Appeals investigated and found that during Ruth's stay at Friendship Manor - 25 days - no one ever removed her stocking to check her leg and no physician ever examined her. Sadly, Ruth's doctors told state inspectors that Ruth's bone fracture was nearly "nonexistent" and that her amputation was avoidable. The owners of the facility were fined $4,050 for each day of Ruth's stay at the facility and, due to other problems, a $150 per day fine was imposed for 76 days that the facility failed to correct identified problems.

Friendship Manor is no stranger to serious problems. In May 2007, the facility lost its Medicaid funding and it was fined $2,500 after a resident was injured in a fall. In February 2008, the facility was slapped with a $350 fine for failing to provide rehabilitation services to residents due to short staffing.

Friendship Manor is owned and managed by two for-profit South Dakota companies. Their president is Tim Boyle. Boyle, a real estate developer, has appealed the fine arguing that the facility was under doctors' orders to keep the stocking on Ms. Louden's leg. Doctors informed state inspectors that facility staff would be expected to understand that temporary removal of the stocking would be necessary to examine the leg.

Interestingly, Boyle is the board president of The Iowa Healthcare Association and is using his position to tell legislators that the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals is "too aggressive in its enforcement of health and safety regulations". He has prepared written presentations for legislators and using his position as board president, is stating that the "inspections department is flogging nursing homes and blocking seniors' access to health care, in part by imposing huge fines against the owners and prohibiting new admissions until care problems are addressed". The executive director of The Iowa Healthcare Association, Steve Ackerson, is using the incident involving Friendship Manor as part of the pitch to Iowa legislators - while omitting Friendship Manor's alleged negligence that triggered the record-breaking fine.

Friendship Manor is claiming financial hardship stating that "this fine threatens the existence of the facility", but has failed to provide any financial information to back up that claim.

The investigative team had nine inspectors from Tallahassee, Miami, and Fort Myers. One incident of abuse involved a 39 year old HIV patient, who reported to surveyors that he had been hurt by two nursing assistants while being washed. The AHCA representatives reviewed the incident, confirmed that it represented abuse, and noted that the incident was improperly documented. The report read "this system failure jeopardized all the residents in the facility." The patient's condition is such that he is provided morphine twice a day and Lortab as needed. Both are very strong painkillers. The facility Administrator, Mark Hunter, said the patient had several large, open sores on his body and was covered with fecal matter. "You've got to keep them clean. That's a fine line between abuse and neglect..."

Mark Hunter, the facility Administrator, said of the investigation, "It sure felt like they were down here to shut us down. They were pretty much on an agenda." He said, "The only hope that we have right now is to hand this building to another operator."

The facility closure will affect 80 residents, most of whom are life long residents of Key West, Florida. The nearest convalescent center is twenty miles away on Plantation Key and only has approximately 20 beds available.

Wes Bledsoe and A Perfect Cause have been working to increase accountability at state-regulated nursing homes. It seems that Oklahoma is listening.

As of July 2008, the Oklahoma Health Department requires that nursing home employees call law enforcement if any criminal activity is suspected. The new requirements will make sure that abuse is documented and those committing criminal acts will be held responsible.

Henry Hartsell of Oklahoma Protective Health Services says, "It is a self-reporting requirement...but there's a facility license that's potentially at jeopardy if the facility fails to report as required." Doctors, nurses, and other licensed workers are also at risk for having their licenses suspended or revoked for failure to report.

Sister Mary's family was led to believe that it was a horrible accident until an Eyewitness News investigation revealed the cover up of previous accidents involving the closets. Two other individuals were previously injured in two separate incidents after the closets fell off the wall due to the facility's negligence in failing to bolt the facility's 300 closets to the wall. These incidents were not reported to the health department and Sister Mary's family was not told of the them. Ironically, after other individuals were injured, still no one bolted the closets to the wall. Daniel Murray, Sister Mary's guardian, said, "It went beyond negligence. It was more of a callous disregard of the safety of the most vulnerable among us, the elderly and the infirmed."

No one at Summit Park has been disciplined, although the State Department of Health fined the facility $17,000 due to "immediate jeopardy to resident health and safety". When Eyewitness News Investigator asked the Administrator of Summit Park Nursing Home why it took the death of Sister Mary to get the closets bolted down, the Administrator refused to answer.

The Rockland County District Attorney's Office has handed the case over to the attorney general for review.

The Goal of FAST is to go after criminals and warn people through education about potential scams. FAST relies on the assistance of volunteers, such as bank tellers, postal employees, federal agents, and mental health specialists, as well as the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services employees. These volunteers watch for elderly people doing things out of their normal routine, such as coming into banks regularly to make withdrawals with the assistance of a non-relative who does all of the talking or making unexplained withdrawals from savings accounts. These are signs that the elderly person may be taken advantage of. The scam artists find their prey by first working the telephones to locate vulnerable elderly people.

A financial crimes investigative team compiles the evidence and prosecutes the crimes. One such prosecution was the case of Mildred Patterson. In early 2004, Ray Patterson, Mrs. Patterson's son who lives in California, began to suspect that her caregiver, John Hartley, was taking money from his mother. Patterson alerted the authorities, but there was nothing in place at the district attorney's office at that time to prosecute a quick investigation. John Hartley was arrested in January 2008. Foulston's office estimates that he had taken as much as $67,000 from Mrs. Patterson through the use of her credit cards and taking items from her. He pled guilty and is currently on probation.

Kansas residents can contact FAST via email at FAST@sedgwick.gov.

In August 2008, an inspection of the facility revealed that many of the facility's window air conditioning units in the residents' rooms did not work. In fact, the inspection found that air conditioners in sixteen of the thirty-two rooms showed "significant and visible mold growth". The home had broken toilets, the units were dirty and poorly maintained, and there was evidence of "mold spores everywhere". Employees were also being paid approximately two weeks behind. A physician provided the State of Iowa with a written statement in which he said it was "appropriate" that the residents be placed elsewhere.

The facility faced a $5,000 state fine due to the mold problem.

The facility also faced significant problems in 2007. It was fined $11,500 for a series of alleged incidents involving inadequate care and/or supervision for a resident's broken arm, a second resident's broken ankle, a serious head injury sustained by a third resident, and a hip fracture sustained by a fourth resident.

Larrabee is due in court on November 24, 2008.

The Des Moines Register reviewed eight bonus programs in seven states. These states do not disqualify a facility from receiving a bonus that is directly related to quality of care if it has received violations for state or federal regulations. A prime example is Grace Living Center in Norman, Oklahoma. This facility received nearly $96,000 in bonuses in the past year and apparently is considered a "five-star" nursing home by the State of Oklahoma. Ironically, federal records show that the facility has been cited for more violations than is the state and national average. Additionally, Medicare ranks the facility as below average on eleven of the nineteen national quality measures. A Eufaula, Oklahoma nursing home scored zero on a scale of one to five for compliance with federal and state regulations, but Oklahoma's Focus on Excellence program awarded the owners with a $50,000 bonus after the program gave the facility "three stars".

The Register also reported that sixteeen of twenty-three Iowa facilities that received major fines last year qualified for bonuses from Iowa's Medicare-Medicaid program. Two of the facilities were on the federal list of the nation's worst nursing homes and a third facility had been threatened with loss of license for substandard care. Iowa officials have since begun revising the program. Today, homes that have caused "actual harm" to residents are to receive smaller bonuses and homes that have put residents in "immediate jeopardy" of death or injury are ineligible for bonuses.

The Iowa Department of Human Services tried to do away with the bonus program last year. They felt that the state should not pay nursing homes additional funds to do what is expected of them. The bonuses will continue at least through June 2009.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid said that the law does not require that Medicaid-funded bonuses be linked to quality of care and therefore, the agency cannot require it.