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Nursing Home Faces Fines For Residents With Dehydration, Malnutrition
by Lisa Chedekel | Feb 17, 2012 12:25 pm
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A New Haven nursing home faces $2,260 in fines from the state Department of Public Health for lapses in caring for two residents who suffered from malnutrition and dehydration.
A state inspection of the Paradigm Healthcare Center found several violations of patient care rules, including not properly ensuring that a resident who suffered from significant weight loss was receiving adequate nutrition. The resident, who had Parkinson’s disease, dementia and a history of malnutrition, was supposed to be on a special diet that included nutritional supplements through a feeding tube.
State inspectors found that the facility “failed to administer the proper amount of tube feeding as ordered by the physician for 2.5 months” last summer. The resident’s weight plummeted.
In a second case, the facility was cited for failing to take action to unclog the feeding tube of a resident who was at risk for dehydration. The tube was clogged for several days in 2011, during which the resident “failed to receive any fluids” orally or via the tube, a state report says.
Two other nursing homes also were cited by the DPH recently for lesser violations. The William & Sally Tandet Center for Continuing Care in Stamford faces a $780 fine for failing to properly secure the building to prevent residents from leaving unsupervised.
Chesterfields Health Care Center in Chester faces a $580 fine for an incident in October in which a resident with a history of falls fell and broke a hip, after climbing out of bed. An alarm on the bed that should have been in use was not functioning at the time, a state report says.
Tags: Paradigm Healthcare Center, nursing home fined, health
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posted by: Gemma Joseph Lumpkin on February 20, 2012 1:07pm
Great coverage Lisa. We almost never hear of these issues until something awful happens on a large scale. I hope from this coverage, families and friends of those confined to nursing homes will learn to continuously pay close attention and ask questions about the care of their loved ones.
It is appalling that the most vulnerable of our elderly population is subjected to this extremely poor quality of care. The incidents reported in this article should never occur in the United States of America.
If this poor quality of care occurs when the State is investigating—it begs the question, what is really happening to our vulnerable elderly in these facilities when no one is paying attention?
posted by: Elaine Braffman on February 22, 2012 7:55pm
It seems the fines are a mere slap on the wrist. Basically the nursing home was starving a patient to death. Maybe not intentionally but none the less it happened. This could have cost the patient his life. I am glad this was published because these are the sort of situations that need to be monitored by family if they notice a serious drop in weight. And this type of article draws attention to the nursing home and really puts them on notice that someone is watching.
posted by: dorje najung on March 12, 2012 5:55am
Here is a list of bills in the current legislature pertinent to Nursing Homes that deserve support. One would have administrators of Nursing Homes as criminally liable for abuse and neglect of patients (SB177.) I agree with the sentiments of the commenters. The oversight provided by the Department of Health is limited and they are slow to act. Many issues don’t get addressed - (such as dentures being lost) which can lead to weight loss as well. The facilities say they have no responsibility unless the person in unable to move. Connecticut has one of the lowest staffing ratios in the country which leads to many of these problems. Fines levied by DPH are far less than what is budgeted by the facilities for attorney fees. Most people don’t like to think of nursing homes because, they don’t want to imagine that option for themselves or there relatives, but the people there are still capable of unnecessary suffering and deserve our vigilance. There needs to be a lot of sunlight in the cost cutting climate for anything approaching true reform to occur. See testimony of the State’s Ombudsman: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/AGEdata/Tmy/2012SB-00137-R000228-Nancy Shaffer State LTC Ombudsman-TMY.PDF and http://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/AGEdata/Tmy/2012SB-00137-R000228-Nancy Shaffer State LTC Ombudsman-TMY.PDF. Thanks again for all the great coverage.