We knew the Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home had substandard care, but today’s news is both terrifying and disheartening. It seems that a team of state inspectors are investigating why nine people living in the facility’s Alzheimer’s unit tested positive for strong pain-control opiate drugs that they weren’t supposed to be receiving. As we posted earlier this week, one patient died.

What the heck has been going on? Three possibilities come to mind:

1.  The staff may have been using the drugs to “chemically restrain” the residents—medicating them into silence;

2.  There may be rogue, out-of-control employees who are acting without proper supervision;

3.  There may be severe medication errors or medication control issues in their facility.

No matter what the explanation, we take these issues seriously, even if the Britthaven of Chapel Hill employees don’t. Based on our dealings with this facility in the past, this is not the first time that there have been medication problems—they have been cited by the state on multiple occasions in the past.

Prior to these most recent events at Britthaven of Chapel Hill, the nursing home had already been identified by the Centers for Medicare Services as a “Special Focus Facility,” which means that they have a history of persistent poor quality of care.  Their lapses have resulted in more frequent inspections and monitoring by Medicare. In addition, Britthaven of Chapel Hill has been given the rating of 1 Star by the Centers for Medicare Services, the worst rating possible, further proof its services are much below the national average.

But all those warnings and reprimands didn’t prevent this latest atrocity.

HensonFuerst is currently investigating cases involving patients receiving opiate medications, when they are not prescribed for Alzheimers patients.  If you have any information to assist in our investigation, or if you are concerned about a loved one who resides in Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home, please give us a call.  We want to help.

You can reach our nursing home abuse team by calling 1-800-4-LAW MED.

One patient from the Alzheimer’s unit of Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home died…six more have been hospitalized after opiates were found in their system…three others were hospitalized as a precaution. You know what happened to the staff? According to a report in the Raleigh News & Observer, they were put on paid leave. Paid. Kind of like a vacation.

Managers from Britthaven’s corporate offices were brought in to investigate. We truly hope that some drastic action will be taken, but we’re not holding our collective breath. This nursing home is one of the facilities that failed to show significant improvement after being tagged by Medicare as a “Special Focus Facility,” which is a gentle way of saying that they provide substandard care, and that serious problems persisted for a long time. (See our earlier blog about this rating.)

According to the newspaper, criminal investigation has not been launched.

We’ll keep you posted on further developments.

Will your loved one end up with a feeding tube? According to an article in a recent issue of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), the answer may depend more on money than on desire.

In patients with advanced dementia, doctors know that careful feeding by hand is safer and more comfortable for the patients. But because it takes more time, some nursing facilities decide to insert a feeding tube instead. Here’s the kicker–they do it even if patients had previously signed directives asking not to be tube-fed.

Hospitals were more likely to use feeding tubes if they were for-profit hospitals, or if they had a large number of patients. The authors of the study compiled a list of hospitals and feeding tube usage (view it here), so you can look up your facility. In 2003, the New York Times published an article that detailed race also plays a role: Feeding tubes are more likely to be used if the nursing home resident is black or Asian.

Both these articles clearly illustrate how some nursing homes pursue profits at the expense of our most defenseless family members. They are trading compassion and humanity for dollars. This is what we find ourselves fighting against every day.

Croasdaile Village retirement community has been hit with an outbreak of the highly contagious Norovirus. According to a report in today’s News & Observer, the campus has been closed to visitors for at least a week while workers scrub down the place.

The Norovirus lives on hard surfaces, so it can be picked up by touching a doorknob, handrail, table, or other object. Once infected, a person can experience nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea for about 24 hours. While that is inconvenient and debilitating for an average healthy person, it can be devastating in an older person.

To read the full N&O story, click here.

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Relying on a star rating system usually works well for choosing a movie for an evening’s entertainment. But even then, we’ve all learned that some 5-star movies leave us cold, and that no one review can perfectly address our personal preferences and needs.

When choosing a nursing home, the ratings are even less helpful. A recent article by Jack Gillium highlighted the pros and cons of trying to take advantage of the Medicare rating system. Among the insights:

• Year after year, 1 in 5 nursing homes receive and maintain poor ratings…with no virtually no consequences
• Many of the homes with the lowest ratings had no competition–they are the only facility for miles
• Nearly all the nursing homes that performed poorly year after year–those consistently receiving 1 or 2 stars–were owned by for-profit corporations

The article also describes how Medicare decides stars, and gives a link to search for ratings.

We know how difficult it is to have someone in a nursing home, and we are fighting to make sure that people have all the information they need to make sure that their loved ones are well taken care of. That means knowing general star ratings, but also levels of insurance coverage by the facility, who the owners are, and their history of complaints of abuse or neglect. Levels of care should never be a mystery.

(To read more about how to choose a nursing home, visit our website.)

A heartbreaking article in the New York Times (“Long-Term Care Hospitals Face Little Scrutiny”) reveals a disturbing level of patient neglect…sometimes to the point of leaving the helpless elderly to die in pain and alone. It highlights once again what we have seen ourselves: that for-profit long-term care hospitals provide significantly inferior care to traditional, not-for-profit hospitals.

The long-term care hospitals collect money–a projected $4.8 billion this year–from Medicare, and yet they face little or no oversight. Medicare has never closely examined the care given, and Medicare doesn’t penalize the facilities financially if they don’t provide data on the quality of care. State inspections reveal that these facilities are cited for serious violations of Medicare rules at least twice as often as regular hospitals.

The article describes how hospitals play the Medicare system to gather the most money possible, at the expense of patient care.

“Under Medicare, hospitals receive a payment for a patient based on the patient’s diagnosis, not the cost of care. Patients who recover quickly are profitable, but those who languish are not.” (excerpt from the NYT article)

This article should be required reading–it might help you understand how hospital decisions are made…and what red-flags you should look out for. It’s a powerful–if painful–story.

It’s a case of adding insult to injury–literally.

HensonFuerst, a North Carolina injury law firm, successfully fought on behalf of Marine veteran Joe Cooper, who was severely and permanently injured due to abuse and neglect he suffered at the hands of people who were supposed to care for him. Countryside Villa assisted nursing facility in Cumberland county had been ordered by a judge to pay $1.2 million in damages.

According to an article in Raleigh’s News & Observer, the owners of the abusing facility, John and Janice Weeks, filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Countryside Villa is still open and operating. Business as usual. So it was a case of justice properly served, but with no beneficial outcome for the Cooper family. No peace of mind.  No compensation. No punishment for the abusers.

I wanted to bring attention to the fact that I placed my dad in a facility expecting them to treat him like a human being.

(Victim’s daughter, Barbara Cooper, as quoted in the News & Observer newspaper.)

This was not a minor case of abuse.  In a single January 2003 incident, Joe Cooper suffered a head injury and concussion, respiratory failure that required a breathing tube, and the loss of several upper and lower teeth.

The take-home message for those who need to place their loved ones in a nursing facility:  Ask whether the facility has adequate liability insurance…and ask for proof! At a bare minimum, they should carry $1 million in liability coverage. Good nursing homes carry $10 million or more. If the facility won’t or can’t show proof of coverage, go somewhere else.

(News & Observer article can be read in full here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local_state/v-print/story/314783.html)