In mid-August, Families for Better Care released its first “Nursing Home Report Card,” which is part of a “project that analyzes, compares, and ranks states’ nursing home quality.” On the California report card, our state only earned a “C” grade, coming in at 28th place in the United States. In…
It’s not an area of care that we typically associate with nursing homes, but is your loved one getting access to sufficient dental care? Dental hygiene in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities is no small matter. Indeed, poor dental care can lead to serious health problems. When nursing centers don’t…
Earlier this summer, we told you about a $23 million jury verdict in a bed sore case from northern California. The victim, Joan Boice, had been a resident at the Emeritus at Emerald Hills in Auburn, California before she suffered from painful bed sores and died as a result of…
A recent survey on health and aging reported by the Los Angeles Times suggested that nearly ninety percent of older adults in the Los Angeles area are “confident they will keep up the quality of their lives as they age.” Yet, most of these elderly persons aren’t doing what they…
Earlier this summer, National Public Radio (NPR) aired a news story about the “Green House Project,” urging nursing homes to “move over” since “there’s something different” in town. Over the past ten years, according to NPR, more than 140 alternative nonprofit nursing homes have been built across the U.S. in…
Coming in close proximity to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) featured an article about LGBT rights in the nursing home. According to the Washington Blade, the Department of Health and Human…
Earlier this month, the California Department of Public Health fined a Sacramento nursing home for the choking death of a patient. The nursing home received an $80,000 fine after Mary Yip, an 86-year-old patient with swallowing difficulties, “choked on a piece of meat during a lunchtime outing with staff members,”…
A recent article in UT San Diego broke the news that Palomar Health will be closing its Escondido nursing home in October 2013. As a result, more than 80 residents will be displaced, and 130 staff members will face layoffs. What led to the decision? According to an official at…
Last month, the California Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in a Superior Court of Los Angeles County case that involved a nursing home fall. The case involved a 79-year-old resident, Samuel Nevarrez, who suffered from falls at San Marino Skilled Nursing and Wellness Centre, a facility in Pasadena.…
Just last week, a South Dakota court granted a nursing home abuse defendant access to the victim’s medical records, according to a news release from the Nursing Home Abuse Center. Heather Lynn Laird, a 36-year-old former employee of the Dell Rapids Nursing and Rehab Center, was indicted last December for…