Articles Posted in Elder Care

November 6, 2014

California Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program

Who looks out for aging Californians who do not have relatives our outside caregivers to keep an eye out for the signs of elder abuse? The California State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is in place to make sure that older adults receive proper care in long-term care facilities across the state. What is a long-term care facility? Examples in California include: nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, and residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs).

San Diego residents following the latest news about RCFEs know that many of these facilities in our state have fallen under much scrutiny in recent months, along with many assisted-living facilities. The Long-Term Care (LTC) Ombudsman program specifically “investigates elder abuse complaints” at facilities such as these.

Services Offered by the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program

October 29, 2014

Elder Care Risks and Quality of Life

by Walton Law Firm

Is elder care in America working, or do we need a new system to ensure better nursing home quality of care for seniors? According to a recent article in Forbes, the system as it currently stands just is not working. Indeed, the author suggests that the disproportionate attention to caution and safety results in risk aversion, which actually may diminish the quality of care that the elderly receive at nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Does Risk Aversion Result in Lower Quality of Life?

Why would risk aversion result in seniors experiencing a lower quality of life? The article explains that many assisted-living facilities are particularly concerned about accusations of neglect. As a result, each time a patient complains of pain or falls, staff at the facility will call an ambulance.

October 1, 2014

Nursing Homes and Federal Reporting Requirements for Elder Abuse

by Walton Law Firm

Are nursing homes in California abiding by federal regulations for reporting allegations of elder abuse or neglect? According to a recent report released by the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), not all facilities are reporting incidents of nursing home abuse.

Reporting Requirements and Increasing Rates of Elder Abuse

The HHS report emphasized that about five million elderly Americans (or ten percent of the elderly population) sustain injuries from physical abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. However, these crimes are not always reported.

September 24, 2014

Elderly Conservatee Rights Violation

by Walton Law Firm

A recent article in the Examiner alleges that Scott Phipps of Phisco Fiduciary committed elder abuse against a senior conservatee, Elinor Frerichs. Elder advocates argue that Scott Phipps kept Frerichs “confined and isolated” at Lakeside Park, her assisted living facility in Oakland. If true, the fiduciary may have violated the rights provided to conservatees in the state of California.

Conservatee’s Rights in California

According to the Notice of C onservatee’s Rights, our state makes clear that, when an elderly person becomes a conservatee, they do not lose all rights to handle decisions. Indeed, “he or she does not necessarily lose the right to take part in important decisions affecting his or her property and way of life.” The conservatee is entitled to “ask questions and to express concerns and complaints about the conservatorship and the actions of his or her conservator.”

September 3, 2014

Behind the Medicare Star Rating System

by Walton Law Firm

History of the Star Rating System

A recent New York Times article discussed the danger of trusting the Medicare star rating system, providing as an example a five-star nursing home facility in California with a history of elder neglect violations. Last week, we discussed the star rating system and the Rosewood nursing home in the Sacramento area. In sum, the rating system is not helping consumers in the way it claims. How did this rating system rise to prominence, and why are so many Americans willing to trust it without additional investigation?

According to the article, the five-star rating system began in 2007, when Oregon Senator Ron Wyden posed the following question at a congressional hearing: why is it easier to shop for washing machines than to select a nursing home? Two years later, Medicare officials developed the star rating system, “a move that was applauded by consumer groups, who hope that more transparency would lead to greater accountability.”

August 27, 2014

Medicare Star Ratings and Quality of Care

by Walton Law Firm

Five-Star Nursing Homes May Not the Best Indicator of Care

Are Medicare star ratings good predictors for the quality of care at nursing homes? According to a recent article in the New York Times, a facility with a five-star rating may not be what one would expect. In fact, many five-star facilities have received fines for injuries related to nursing home neglect.

Rosewood Post-Acute Rehab, a nursing home located in a Sacramento suburb, received a five-star rating from Medicare. The nursing home “bears all the touches of a luxury hotel, including high ceilings, leather club chairs, and paintings of bucolic landscapes.” According to the article, getting a five-star rating—the highest possible—is not easy. Only about one-fifth of all nursing home in the U.S., about 3,000 total, hold this distinction.

August 20, 2014

Assisted Living Reforms Are Not Enough, Some Advocates Say

by Walton Law Firm

Many of us have heard about assisted living facility reforms pending before the California legislature, as well as those aimed specifically at residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs). But are those reforms sufficient to ensure that California seniors are safe from elder abuse? According to a recent story from KQED’s State of Health, many elder justice advocates in California do not believe the reforms are going to do enough.

Recent History of Elder Abuse in San Diego

According to Deborah Schoch, an advocate with the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting, the number of assisting living facilities in our state essentially doubled over the last 25 years. For whom are these facilities designed? According to Schoch, they are intended for older, healthy adults who are “relatively independent.” Yet many of these facilities have taken in patients who require much more extensive levels of care, and assisted living facilities “are not designed to deliver skilled nursing care.”

August 11, 2014

California Needs a Tech Upgrade: Online Information and Assisting Living Facilities

by Walton Law Firm

It’s no secret that California assisted living facilities have been in the national news due to reports of nursing home abuse and neglect. Indeed, over the last year, elder rights advocates have emphasized the need to make information about nursing homes and assisted living facilities readily available to older adults and their loved ones. Without such information at our fingertips, how will we know which facilities are safe and can provide a high quality of care for our elderly parents? According to a recent story from KPBS San Diego Public Radio, this kind of information remains pretty difficult to access.

Lacking Internet Information About California Assisted Living Facilities

According to the recent KPBS story, it’s not easy to access information about the quality of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Southern California. For example, Lorid Macri’s mother suffers from dementia, she told KPBS. At the beginning, Macri cared for her mother. However, the stress of caring for a dementia patient became “overwhelming.” And when Macri herself needed hospital care, she realized she needed to find an assisted living facility where her mother could receive quality care.

July 10, 2014

Getting Elder Care Benefits at Work

by Walton Law Firm

With more than two out of five Americans caring for their aging parents—many of whom do so because they cannot afford to pay for other elder assistance—it’s often difficult to find time for both work and caregiving. Indeed, according to a recent article in Forbes, many children who act as caregivers worry that, without assistance from their employers, their aging parents may face nursing home neglect. Lately, however, more employers are “now providing help for employees who feel that they just have to ‘suck it up’ in managing this care and their careers.”

What’s the relationship between elder abuse and workplace assistance? Many factors could play into this correlation, including:

When employees don’t have time to properly locate elder care resources, they make uninformed decisions about nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, or even in-home nurses. Help from an employer can mean the difference between a care facility with a strong patient record and one with a history of nursing home abuse violations.

June 18, 2014

Criminal Record Disclosure and Effects on California Nursing Home Services

by Walton Law Firm

A recent article in Reuters reported that the mayor of Los Angeles has declared his support for “a new state law barring public agencies from refusing job applications from people convicted of a crime.” But could such a law place residents in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities at greater risk of nursing home abuse and neglect?

No Outright Criminal Background Checks for Employees?

The California law isn’t intended to put California residents at risk, but rather to encourage social rehabilitation. According to Reuters, Garcetti’s support of the law comes with a deep concern “that millions of people who have been to prison, particularly from minority communities, have little prospect of landing a job once they admit to a conviction.” The law isn’t just for nursing homes or other care facilities for older adults. Rather, it’s part of a larger movement to make criminal background checks less of a priority at the start of an interviewing process at many public agencies across the state of California.

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