I was shocked at conditions I witnessed there as a nursing assistant student and, later, as a nursing student. I wondered if the problems I saw there were isolated to that facility or part of a company-wide problem.
This pearl is for news articles and Web posts about the company.
I am interested in talking with nurses, aides, and clients about their experiences with LifeCare--positive and negative.
#159 Life Care Centers of America - Forbes.com. TN lawmakers give negligent nursing homes a break. When Dennis Matthews hears lobbyists and nursing home operators in Tennessee talk about the high cost of lawsuits and the need for tort reform, he can only shudder.
Matthews sued Tennessee-based Life Care Centers of America after his mother, Verdie, died from dehydration and malnutrition at one of the chain’s nursing homes in Cleveland, Tenn. After an 11-day trial, the jury found that the nursing home was negligent and awarded the family $11.5 million, but Bradley County Judge Ginger Buchanan threw out the verdict. She granted the nursing home’s motion for a new trial, saying that the evidence did not support the amount of the jury award. Matthews eventually reached a settlement with the nursing chain for a fraction of the jury award.
“It was horrible. I hate to even think about it,” Matthews said. A Tennessean review of laws, inspection reports and lawsuits has shown that for people such as Matthews who have lost a loved one in a Tennessee nursing home, things may be about to get worse. Patients, families often waive rights. While dozens of lawsuits are filed against Tennessee nursing homes in any given month, many cases never get to court or are thrown out and sent to arbitration boards where the awards, if any, are kept confidential.
The reason is that many nursing homes ask patients or their families to sign agreements waiving their rights to a trial before a judge or jury. The arbitration agreements, some attorneys and advocates contend, place an unfair burden on both family and patients during what is likely to be a stressful situation. “It happens all the time,” said Lisa Circeo, an attorney who had a case of hers tossed out of court. It was eventually settled. “Rarely do people realize that they are signing away their rights to a trial,” she said. Lawyers for nursing homes, however, say that the agreements are fully disclosed with key sections in boldface capital letters.
Davidson Circuit Court Judge Walter C. Kurtz declared the agreement “oppressive and unconscionable.” Judge Frank G. D. Maryville nursing home penalized for putting residents in 'immediate jeopardy' The Tennessee Department of Health said Thursday that it has suspended new admissions to a Maryville nursing home after a complaint investigation found violations that put residents in "immediate jeopardy.
" The state said 203-bed Colonial Hills, 2034 Cochan Drive, cannot admit new residents until the violations are corrected and has to post a copy of the order of suspension at its public entrance, "where it can be plainly seen. " But Colonial Hills administrator Rick Sharpe said the state has not notified him of the suspension, though he was aware of investigators' findings. Sharpe said the nursing home has submitted a plan to correct problems; the state is reviewing it. The most serious violations stemmed from April and May incidents when at least four patients taking the common blood thinner Coumadin (warfarin) were also given antibiotics that can cause serious side effects when given with Coumadin.
The state imposed a one-time fine of $3,000. MV nursing home accused of abuse - GoSkagit.com: News. A state agency has placed a hold on admissions at Life Care Center of Mount Vernon after an annual survey found “serious deficiencies” in care and cases of abuse at the facility, according to documents released Wednesday by the state Department of Social and Health Services. The nursing home will not be able to accept new residents until the “stop placement,” imposed March 21, is lifted. It is licensed for 120 beds and is one of two Skagit County facilities owned by Life Care Centers of America, which runs more than 200 facilities across the country. The corporation also runs Life Care Center of Skagit Valley in Sedro-Woolley. The statement of deficiency delivered to Life Care Center on Tuesday says the facility’s staff failed to ensure residents’ well-being by allowing two employees with records of abuse to continue working with residents while not fully investigating some claims of abuse.
Life Care losing residents | Chattanooga Times Free Press | Find Articles at BNET. In Search of..... - TV.com www.tv.com/shows/in-search-of Narrarated by Leonard Nimoy, In search of was a 30 minute syndicated show that covered a wide range of paranormal topics. It pioneered a lot of the methodology that ... Search Engine - Download.com download.cnet.com/s/search-engine search engine free download - GSA Search Engine Ranker, Nomao - The personalized search engine, Zoom Search Engine, and many more programs Google Search - Download.com download.cnet.com/s/google-search google search free download - Google Search, Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer, Google Search, and many more programs Star Search - Episode Guide - TV.com www.tv.com/shows/star-search-2003/episodes Star Search episode guides on TV.com. Pharmacy Choice - Pharmaceutical News - Shuttered nursing home donated to county [Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.] - June 26, 2011.
Chattanooga: 'Extremely troubling' violations found at Life Care Center of Chattanooga. An annual quality survey at the Life Care Center of Chattanooga found such severe violations that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has decided to end its contract with the facility, a state health department official said today. The contract ends Friday, officials said. All residents whose services are paid in part or in full by Medicare and Medicaid must be relocated to a new facility within 30 days, unless their families choose to pay out-of-pocket for services at Life Care Center, said Andrea Turner, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Health. “An annual survey found circumstances that were apparently extremely troubling to CMS, to the extent that they’re basically not even giving them the opportunity to correct the deficiencies,” said Ms. Turner in a phone interview today.
Admissions to the 153-bed nursing home also have been suspended, in addition to the termination of the Life Care Center’s contract with CMS, Ms. American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Nursing Home Abuse: Nursing home corporation faces manslaughter charges | Beasley Allen. Black woman awarded $415,000 in racial discrimination case. - Jet | HighBeam Research - FREE trial.
Your Source for Whistleblower Information - Qui Tam Help. Friday, December 23, 2005 Georgia Nursing Home to pay $2.5 Million to resolve False Claims Act Allegations Life Care Centers of America Inc., the operator of a skilled nursing facility located in Lawrenceville, GA, known as Life Care Center of Lawrenceville, and two investor companies have agreed to pay $2.5 million to resolve multiple allegations of federal False Claims Act violations for billing for services that either were not provided or were deficient. According to a press release from the US Department of Justice, the original complaint, filed by five whistleblowers in November 2002, alleged a systemic failure by Lawrenceville to provide appropriate nursing care to its residents and also alleged that such failure resulted in the premature deaths of several residents. The three private citizens who originally filed the qui tam action and who remain parties to this case will receive a total of $400,000 for their efforts.
Posted by Quitam Help Admin on 12/23 at 06:49 AM • Permalink. Jury compensates family for nursing home's neglect : South Carolina Nursing Home Blog. A jury found Life Care Centers of America guilty of negligence. The jury awarded $1.5 million in compensatory damages to the family of a former resident who died as a result of the nursing home's neglect and negligence. Life Care Centers of America was sued by Dennis Matthews, son of the late Verdie Matthews. He proved the nursing home allowed Mrs. Matthews to develop severe dehydration and malnutrition which caused her death. Thomas Hornbuckle, attorney for Matthews, alleged the nursing home intentionally acted recklessly by falsifying fluid and nutrition records of Mrs. Mrs. Attorney Steve Hornbuckle confirmed the jury found Life Care Centers guilty of negligence in contributing to the death of Mrs. The jury will reconvene Monday morning to deliberate on awarding punitive damages. Jury will decide punitve damages.
Life Care hit with $10 million in punitive damages (07/01/08 Cleveland Daily Banner) By Linda Womack Mrs. The trial lasted for 11 days. Throughout the trial, Mr. Mrs. Lawsuit claims two nursing homes are deliberately understaffed | InjuryBoard Orange County. The allegations are in a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court against Life Care Centers of America, the corporate parent of Life Care Center of Escondido and Life Care Center of Vista. The article states that between September 2004 and November 2006, the Escondido home received 31 “notices of deficiencies” by state regulators for providing substandard care and violating residents rights, according to the lawsuit. The Vista home received 23 similar notices over the same time period. The lawsuit, filed March 15, did not list the specific issues regulators found with the homes. Attorneys are seeking class-action status to represent more than 3,000 residents who live in the 13 nursing homes that the Tennessee-based company operates in California.
The company operates more than 260 facilities in 28 states, according to its Web site. The lawsuit alleges that the company purposely kept staffing levels lower than mandated by the state. WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST NURSING HOME - Wyoming Tribune-Eagle | HighBeam Research - FREE trial. Lawsuit targets Life Care Centers - Orange County Register. A national chain of nursing homes with three care centers in Orange County is being accused of systematically neglecting its patients.
A lawsuit filed this week in Orange County Superior Court claims the 13 Southern California nursing homes owned by Life Care Centers of Americafailed to hire enough doctors, nurses and others to adequately care for its acutely ill patients. The suit, which lists the family of a Lake Forest woman, Consuelo Deburger, as its client, is seeking class action status. Calls to Life Care's headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn., and to the hospitals listed as its Orange County operations, were not returned.
The company's attorney was not listed on the complaint. The suit claims the company owns Orangegrove Rehabilitation Hospital in Garden Grove, La Habra Convalescent Hospital in La Habra and Lake Forest Nursing Center in Lake Forest. A 2006 report on Medicare cases filed by the U.S. Thirteen Life Care Southern California nursing homes accused of elder abuse and fraud. Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Life Care Centers of America, State's Highest Court Rejects Criminal Prosecution of Nursing Home Facility. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts indicted Life Care Centers of America, a nursing home corporation, based on its staff's alleged failure to act to protect a resident from known life-threatening harm.
The indictment charged the corporation with involuntary manslaughter and neglect based on its collective knowledge and conduct of a number of the corporation's employees, without singling out any one employee for indictment. This was the first time in Massachusetts that a corporation had been indicted criminally for manslaughter and neglect in a nursing home setting without the charging of an individual, and the question of whether a corporation can be held liable under such a theory was taken up by the state's highest court. Unfortunately, the court declined to find a criminal prosecution proper against the corporation, ruling that the alleged criminal responsibility could not be supported under state law. The Case Julie McCauley was 73 years old at the time of her death.
AARP's Brief. Shington State Courts - Opinions. State survey of Colonial Hills nursing home, conducted May 24-26, May 31 and June 13-17. LifeCare Hospitals Settles EEOC Lawsuit for $100,000. LifeCare Hospitals of Pittsburgh will pay $100,000 to settle an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit charging the hospital with firing an employee because she had cancer. For a Limited Time receive a FREE HR Report "Critical HR Recordkeeping. " This exclusive special report covers hiring records, employment relationships, termination records, litigation issues, electronic information issues, tips for better recordkeeping, and a list of legal requirements. Download Now According to the lawsuit, when a business manager with a history of good performance at LifeCare was diagnosed with cancer, LifeCare initially granted her request for accommodations to undergo surgery and chemotherapy.
In August 2007, however, a regional director allegedly demanded that she return to work full-time without restrictions. LifeCare did not admit liability in the consent decree. The Herald - Circleville, OH > Archives > Opinion > Wage-loss compensation. When Maria Marrero was injured while working at Oakridge Home, a nursing facility owned by Life Care Centers of America, Inc., her request for wage-loss compensation eventually brought her workers’ compensation case before us – the Supreme Court of Ohio. Maria’s injury prevented a return to her former position as a nurse’s aide, but it didn’t prevent her from doing light-duty work. She soon began working a light-duty job at Oakridge. Over the next several months, however, Maria rarely worked a 40-hour week. That resulted in a weekly income that was less than it had been before her injury. Based on her diminished earnings, Maria sought to make up the difference and applied for wage-loss compensation.
The Bureau of Workers’ Compensation granted Maria’s application, but Life Care appealed that decision to the Industrial Commission of Ohio, which handles such matters. Is a good-faith job search important? Maria conceded that she hadn’t performed a job search. . – By Paul E. Supreme Court. LIFECARE HOSPITALS OF PITTSBURGH WILL PAY $100,000 FOR FIRING EMPLOYEE BECAUSE OF CANCER. Hospital Settles EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh hospital has agreed to pay $100,000 and furnish other equitable relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged the hospital with firing an employee because she had cancer. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit against LifeCare Hospitals of Pittsburgh, Inc., former business manager Diana Altieri-Hand, of Murrysville, Pa., needed a reasonable accommodation for her disability after she had surgery for cancer and underwent chemotherapy.
Altieri-Hand was a longstanding employee of LifeCare Hospitals of Pittsburgh or its predecessor and had a good performance record. LifeCare Hospitals of Pittsburgh, a free-standing hospital facility managed or operated by LifeCare Management Services, LLC, initially provided a reasonable accommodation to Altieri-Hand. Katrina deaths at hospital spawn lawsuits. The deaths at Uptown's Memorial Medical Center during the stifling, dark hours after Hurricane Katrina have spawned more than the highly publicized arrests of a doctor and two nurses on murder charges. A predictable thicket of civil lawsuits has also sprouted, records show. Two suits filed at Orleans Parish Civil District Court concern the deaths of five patients at Memorial, some of them on the same acute care ward that is the focus of Attorney General Charles Foti's probe. But none of the deceased patients named to date in the civil lawsuits is among the four alleged by Foti to have been killed on the floor leased from Memorial and operated by LifeCare Hospitals of New Orleans LLC, attorneys said.
Nevertheless, some trial lawyers predicted the unfolding criminal case would have an effect on the civil lawsuits. "None of our clients' (relatives) were euthanized, and frankly I don't think any of the other four were either, " Holley said. Suit targets Tenet, LifeCare Stunning argument. Georgia.gov - Attorney General Baker and United States Attorney Nahmias Announce Major Patient Protection Settlement With Lawrenceville Nursing Facility. Days May be Numbered for Some Residents and Workers at the Life Care Facility of Chattanooga. Life Care Center in good standing, awaits trial - Boxborough, MA - Wicked Local Boxborough. Wyo. Nursing Home Sued for Scalding of Vegetative Patient (Forensics Talk) 13 nursing homes accused of abuse, fraud in suit. SJC-10546, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Oral Arguments. Slate Follows Up on Our Katrina Hospital Investigation—And We Follow Up Too.
How peculiar Medicare rules contributed to the Memorial Medical Center tragedy during Hurricane Katrina. - By Josh Levin. GILMORE v. LIFE CARE CENTERS OF AMERICA, INC. - October 27.