An investigation by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) of complaints about the care at a nursing home in Kennebunk, Maine, led the agency to uncover multiple violations of federal and state regulations. Residents with incontinence were left in soiled bed linens without a change of linens. A resident was observed eating [...]

A California nursing home operator that failed to provide the state-mandated minimum staffing level of 3.2 nursing hours per day to each resident was recently held accountable by a jury that awarded former and current residents of its 22 nursing homes $677 million. In order to ensure the operator, Skilled Healthcare Group Inc., was able [...]

A recent report by the American Association for Justice highlights the role of the civil justice system in protecting the elderly when government regulations are inneffective. For instance, in a trend highlighted by the Government Accountability Office, nursing homes “yo-yo” in and out of compliance with regulations. The nursing homes escape sanctions by fixing problems [...]

A Kentucky jury recently awarded $42,750,000 in a wrongful death and negligence suit against a nursing home. The decedent, a 92 year old man suffering from cancer, was in the nursing home for only nine days. During that time, he developed disfiguring and painful sores on his body and became dehydrated, although he had a [...]

An international panel of experts recently released new definitions of malnutrition to help healthcare workers and others identify and treat malnutrition. Before the new definitions, there was little agreement about how to define the different causes and forms of malnutrition. A 2000 study found that 35% to 85% of nursing home residents could be considered [...]