Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

The State of Alabama revoked the nursing home license for ConsultAmerica, a nursing home facility located in Birmingham, Alabama, after a "string of really bad incidents".

Among things the facility was cited for was neglect, abuse, and unsupervised residents, including a female resident who tried to elope forty times in twelve days and succeeded twice.

Witnesses told state investigators that a CNA at the facility cursed at the residents, jerked at a resident using a walker, and pinned a female resident's arms down on a table after the resident struck her. A facility investigation into the "pinning" incident, found that the CNA was "disrespectful and discourteous to residents, not abusive" and only terminated her after the state became involved through an investigation.

Investigators also found a male resident with a sore on his wrist that exposed the bone. When it was discovered, a new sore was already developing on his other wrist.

The female elopement resident managed to successfully leave the facility twice and was found once on a parking lot near a busy alley and once several blocks away and had to be chased by facility staff members. The resident, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, apparently realized that if she ducked low enough she could exit the facility without triggering the alarms. According to a state report, after the administrator learned about the resident's second escape, she said, "Oh God, we are screwed."

In October 2000, a male nurse was charged with the sexual abuse of an Elmore County, Alabama nursing home resident suffering from dementia. The case ended in a mistrial a year later when the victim was unable to identify her attacker. In fact, she identified the judge presiding over the trial as the man that attacked her.

The same nurse was again indicted in August 2005 for abuse of an aged adult in Autagua County, Alabama. That trial ended in acquittal on December 12, 2006.

In both cases, abuse occurred, but the victims could not identify their attacker. This male nurse deliberately preyed on the defenseless knowing that they could not identify him.

A bill is pending in the Alabama legislature that would let families request surveillance cameras in their loved ones' rooms. The state nursing home association alleges that the bill would violate patients' privacy, but proponents of the bill state that there would be no privacy concerns because family members would have to make the request. It would protect both the patient and nursing home staff.

Representative Mac Gipson (R) is sponsoring the legislation and acknowledges that it will face stiff opposition. He is trying to get both bill advocates and the state nursing home association to hammer out a compromise.

South Haven Nursing Home employee, Anne Marie Jones, stole $97,036 from residents of this Montgomery, Alabama nursing home. As an accounts payable clerk, Ms. Jones wrote checks on the nursing home patient trust fund and stated that resident personal needs were the reason for the expenditures, all the while depositing those funds into her personal bank account. She was also cashing checks that were sent to the nursing home for resident needs and depositing the funds into her personal bank account.

South Haven Nursing Home discovered the thefts after finding problems with the facility's patient trust fund. They turned over the information to the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. On April 30, 2008, Ms. Jones pled guilty to two counts of first degree theft and one count of second degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and has been sentenced to ten years in prison. She will serve three years actual time in state prison and five years of supervised probation. She also must pay restitution to her victims.