A nursing home owned by Valley Health System has been fined $100,000 and issued a AA citation after a patient died two days after suffering a blow to her head. Both the fine and the citation are the most severe that officials with the California Department of Public Health could issue to a nursing home.

Two nursing homes in Rochester, New York have been fined after Medicare inspectors reported extremely poor care. Several infractions were listed, including one instance where a resident died after choking during her evening meal.

The New York State Department of Health and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has brought fines against 16 nursing homes that did not comply with minimum standards of care during the second quarter of 2008.

Penalties against nursing homes that did not comply with quality care requirements were brought against 8 nursing homes, some of which reaching $76,050. Fines of up to $8,000 were brought against eight other nursing homes.

I found an article in the Edmonton Journal that discusses the summer heat and its negative effects on nursing home residents.

Sylvia Van Haitsma says that it was a problem last summer and it is problem this one as well. Her mother sits in horrible heat at the Jubilee Lodge Nursing Home in Edmonton and she is concerned as the temperatures skyrocket.

Sun-Mar Health Care Inc will be paying $2 million to residents who previously lived in their Southern California nursing homes, as the result of a class action lawsuit that alleged poor care of residents.

The lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court and claimed that the company did not provide the care that it advertised to potential clients.

Reports of sub-par care at several nursing homes in Donegal, Cork and Kerry (Ireland) have been outed by the website RTE news.

These reports were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and document complaints from families over the past few years in public and private nursing homes.

One family complained that socks were put on their father's hands and then tied together, and that he was turned to face the wall. Two nurses admitted to tying up the man.

August 20, 2008

The cost of assisted living facilities has risen by 13% in the past two years, according to a survey. Nursing homes have raised their prices by 7% over the same time span.

The same survey finds that the average daily cost of an assisted living facility is about $108 per day, according to the 2008 long term care cost study, which was released by Prudential Financial on Monday.

Lawmakers have been working to put together legislation that would make sure nursing home patients are treated with respect even after they die.

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week that a dead body is not protected under a statute meant to deter patient abuse in nursing homes. The case involved Lillian McIntyre, who died in the Cherrywood Nursing Home in October 2004.

Three nurses aides who were supposed to prepare McIntyre to be moved to a nursing home manipulated her body into different poses and took pictures of it.

A resident of the Calvin John Care Center in Bellevue is suing for nursing home abuse after he sustained injuries that required the removal of his left testicle.

I've noticed that many nursing home abuse cases over the past few weeks have been occurring in the U.K. Just today, a story came across the wires that really got my attention.

Mary Devine was a resident of Greenbank Nursing Home when she broke her neck after falling from her wheelchair. She later died of pneumonia caused by complications. She was 89-years-old when she was admitted to the nursing home in 2002. Her relatives said that it was just too difficult to care for her.