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GLENS FALLS--The dining room was crowded with elderly and disabled residents and as usual, the facility was short-staffed.
The aide was laughing and tee-heeing, engaging in horseplay with the other aides as she carelessly lifted a heavy stool over the head of a resident who was slumped over in her chair, either asleep or comatose.
Wham! The casters of the stool slammed into the elderly patient, striking her on side of her head, nearly missing an eye and causing the resident to cry and hold her head in pain.
No doctor was called. "Sorry", the aide said and continued on, virtually ignoring the woman.
A second aide casually walked over and reassuredly said to the resident, "you'll be okay".
Another resident was trying to gain the attention of an aide because she wanted to go back to her room to go to the bathroom. "You'll have to wait until we get everyone fed", she was told. "You've got a diaper on. You'll be okay".
The resident was humiliated. The staffer laughed and continued her conversation with the other aides, talking about last night's date and shopping at Wal-Mart.
Earlier in the day at breakfast, a resident was having trouble feeding herself in her room but the aides refused to assist her, resulting in a loss of nutrition and hydration to the resident. Another staffer observed the neglect and got someone to help the resident.
There are 40 residents on a floor in the four story building at 170 Warren St. in Glens Falls known as the Eden Park Health Care Center which has a capacity for 120 patients. On holidays and weekends there are frequently only three or four staffers per floor to care for each floor's 40 residents What would ever happen in the case of an emergency, how would the 40 residents per floor be evacuated or would the staffers think first for themselves and abandon the patients?
Two unreliable elevators serve the four story building and on a recent weekday, once again one of the elevators went out of service, nearly trapping one of the staffers in the car. Fortunately there were no residents being transported to therapy or recreational activities. No signs were placed on the out of service elevator and it left only one car to serve 120 patients, staffers and visitors.
But the kitchen help picking up dishes on the third floor didn't want to wait for the elevator when he got ready to take his dish cart back to the kitchen. So he locked the elevator open, meaning that there was no elevator service for anyone in the building for more than 10 minutes.
And when he got his cart of dirty dishes back on the elevator to head down to the first floor kitchen, he wasn't about to let on any of the visitors or residents who were waiting to use the elevator.
Some residents who are cognizant but physically disabled say they are being overmedicated, that they are being shoved into bed each night at 6:30 p.m. so that the staff doesn't have to take care of them.
And then they're left until morning.
That's not just one day at the Eden Park Health Care Center at 170 Warren St., in Glens Falls, that's pretty much the norm.
A corporation known as Eden Park Health Services Inc. based in Albany owns and operates numerous Eden Park facilities throughout New York State including those in Glens Falls, Utica, Poughkeepsie, Catskill and Cobleskill.
There are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States that currently care for 1.6 million residents, a figure expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050.
With those kinds of numbers, it's a potential for abuse, not only for Medicare and Medicaid abuse by physical and emotional abuse of the residents those nursing homes serve.
Eye witness accounts and surveys show that nursing home abuse and neglect is a serious problem and significant underreporting of problems. Major underlying causes of elder mistreatment, according to findings of the National Academy of Sciences Panel to Review Risk and Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect are stressful working conditions, particularly staff shortages, staff burnout, inadequate staff training.
And sadly, in many cases, the staff simply doesn't care, it's a paycheck. Punch in, punch out.
The National Center On Elder Abuse in the United States, regularly collects data and information about nursing home residents and any instances of nursing home abuse. They scrutinize such data and then publish nursing home abuse statistics regarding abuse of the elderly in nursing homes and other care giving facilities in America, according to their website.
According to these statistics, more than 30% of all nursing homes in America indulge in some form of resident abuse, with the numbers on an ever increasing trend. As per published statistics, more than 50% of all nursing homes are short staffed and do not have enough staff to help care for the residents. Due to this, the existing staff is often overburdened, which in turn leads to nursing home neglect and also abuse.
The nursing home abuse statistics have caused much alarm in the minds of Americans who have their loved ones living in nursing homes. The published statistics are already high enough so as to cause concern, the center says, but add to that the fact that these statistics do not account for all nursing home abuse cases. The statistics show that only about 20% of nursing home abuse ever gets reported, and thus, the majority of instances do not even figure in nursing home abuse statistics.
Nursing home abuse statistics show that residents of nursing homes are not just abused by the staff at such facilities, but also by other residents and occupants, the center says. The statistics reveal that nursing home abuse consists of different forms of abuse such as, physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological distress, malnutrition and neglect.
In Mineral Ridge, Ohio, a 48-year-old nursing home resident died and two employees were treated for smoke inhalation after a fire erupted in the resident's room. A staffer discovered the fire and two employees used fire extinguishers on it. Other residents were moved to other parts of the nursing home.
If such an emergency were to occur at Eden Park, it's unlikely the residents would be safely moved, especially if the kitchen employees decided to lock open all the elevators. Elevators shouldn't and couldn't be used in the event of a fire or power outage and moving 40 residents down a stairway or evacuating them out the windows with staffing of three or four per floor would be impossible and likely fatal.
Just this past week, a corporation operating a Cortland County Nursing Home has been indicted on charges alleging patient neglect and falsifying medical records. The indictment was brought by the same grand jury that previously indicted employees of the same facility, captured on surveillance cameras neglecting their patients.
The state should install surveillance cameras in all such facilities, to be maintained not by the facilities, but by outside security firms, to protect the safety and welfare of the residents.
The corporation, Highgate LTC Management LLC, owns and operated the Northwoods Nursing Home where the abuse occurred. It also has interests in five other facilities in Upstate New York and is now charged with six counts of willful violation of health laws and three counts of falsifying business records in the second degree.
In this case, the video surveillance at the nursing home showed numerous instances in which Highgate employees failed to deliver services required by the patient's care plan and numerous instances where those employees nonetheless falsely recorded in the patient's medical records that the services had been given.
Highgate got caught. Much of the same type of abuse is ongoing in other nursing homes across the state and going undetected, unreported and unaddressed.
At Eden Park in Glens Falls, when previous alleged acts of patient neglect, actual patient injuries and abuse were reported to the state, the nursing home retaliated against the reporter, refusing to provide any information to the person about her family member and ultimately refusing to admit another family member because he had designated the person to be his health care proxy with durable power of attorney.
Under the direction of nursing home administrator Lloyd Cote, retaliatory steps were taken by the nursing home to remove the whistleblower, the person who had reported the abuse, from being her mother's health care proxy, shut her out of all decisions and information concerning her family member and refuse to admit the other family member until she was removed as his guardian because the nursing home didn't want to be answerable or "have to deal" with the guardian.
Although such a move was against the wishes of the resident, she was afraid not to agree to the coercion of the administration, fearful of being subjected to mistreatment or even more retaliatory acts.
Other problems and incidents of abuse and neglect at Eden Park went unreported because the resident was afraid of more retaliation if family members voiced their concerns.
In September, The New York Post reported that dozens of New York City nursing homes were "houses of horrors", that "residents die from shoddy care, women are sexually abused and lax security endangers dementia sufferers who wander way.
The Post investigation found that the state Health Department had found 48 facilities in violation in the last year and that eight of the city's nursing homes were at the highest level of risk, "immediate jeopardy" because of "substandard quality of care".
The investigation showed that staffers at some nursing homes didn't know how to properly perform the Heimlich maneuver, there was a lack of care in some of the facilities, some were cited for letting residents disappear from the grounds and that several of the nursing homes were filthy and infested with vermin.
At the Glens Falls Eden Park nursing home, residents and staff members report seeing mice on the third floor. The third floor---how'd they get there, in the elevator on the food cart from the kitchen?
The inspection reports for the Glens Falls facility show a pattern of mistreatment, lack of quality care, resident rights deficiencies and pharmacy deficiencies. In 2002, the facility was found to have improperly restrained residents, denied them their right to choose activities, failed to meet their nutritional needs and didn't keep drugs properly stored.
Inspection Results: EDEN PARK HEALTH CARE CENTRE INC GLENS FALLS
The latest inspection report of Eden Park Health Care Center in Glens Falls, reporting an inspection of October 2005, a standard federal survey, indicates that the corrections were shown as being needed in dietary services; that significant corrections were needed in the quality of care and that corrections were needed in providing residents rights.
The state's overall rating for the Eden Park Health Care Center in Glens Falls was that "significant corrections were needed", just one step below the "immediate jeopardy" rating.
A rating of immediate jeopardy indicates that a facility has deficiencies that have caused or are likely to cause serious harm, injury, impairment or death if not immediately rectified.
The state health department states that anyone having questions about the current quality of service delivery at any nursing home in the state should contact the facility and request a copy of the latest survey inspection report. The facility is required to post the report in a public area of the nursing home. However, the report was not allegedly readily available to the public at Eden Park.
Anyone who requests to see the report and the nursing home refuses to provide it should call the New York State Nursing Home Complaint hotline at 1-888-201-4563.
The inspection results for the standard life safety code survey showed that corrections were needed in Eden Park's physical environment and that the overall rating was deficient with corrections needed.
A "corrections needed" rating means that a facility has deficiencies that have the potential to cause harm or compromise the resident's ability to maintain or improve health status.
A "significant corrections needed" rating such the state rendered Eden Park means that the facility has deficiencies that have caused actual harm or compromised the resident's ability to maintain or improve health status.
A follow-up inspection in November 2005, a year ago, found that the nursing home "in compliance".
It doesn't appear that Eden Park in Glens Falls is currently in compliance.
Abuse, neglect and facility deficiencies aren't new for the Eden Park facilities according to public records and reports of the state health department. In June 2003, the Attorney General's office announced the arrest of a registered nurse at the Eden Park facility on Holland Avenue in Albany. She was charged with unlawfully withholding medication and treatment from five elderly patients aged 60 to 91, each suffering a variety of maladies, and then falsifying the patients' medical charts to cover up her crime.
In April, 2006, it was announced that the state Department of Health was investigating the125-bed Eden Park Health Care Center in Cobleskill, looking into patient care issues.
The state had found that Eden Park owned facility was in "immediate jeopardy" based on a Medicare and Medicaid survey of the home. Those deficiencies, which included quality-of-care problems and administration issues, have supposedly been corrected.
At Glens Falls Eden Park, while there is a security system on the stairways that prevents residents and visitors from using the stairway unless they know a code, there is nothing stopping a resident from getting onto an elevator and wandering the four floors of the facility, or in fact, wandering out the front door, which would appear to be improper supervision and monitoring of residents at the facility where Lloyd Cote is administrator.
Although complaints have been filed in the past, to date Mr. Cote has refused to discuss any of the issues nor have any of other staff members. Even after one resident was injured in a fall from her bed after another resident pulled her blanket out from under her, dumping her on the floor, indicating a total lack of resident supervision, Glens Falls Eden Park denied the incident had occurred despite the resident having been treated at the Glens Falls Hospital emergency room for head injuries and suffering severe bruising.
When the family member reported the incident to the state, Cote and Eden Park took steps to remove the daughter's health care proxy and refuse to provide any information to her concerning her mother's care and well-being.
State regulations require facility administrators to report to the state anything that may seem like abuse or a complaint-even simple bruises from falls----but Cote had allegedly failed to do so even though the resident was transported to the hospital.
There are also significant questions surrounding Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements which the Cote and the nursing home refuse to discuss and refuse to provide family members with an accounting.
In the case of Eden Park, Cobleskill, in addition to the state-imposed penalties, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services imposed a civil penalty of $5,050 per day on Eden Park and denied payment for new admissions. Medicare and Medicaid patients in the home weren't forced to leave but the home didn't receive payment for new admissions while it remained in "immediate jeopardy".
According to a profile of Eden Park Health Care Center in Glens Falls by abuse.com, the facility at 29% is above the national average of 21% with the percent of short-stay residents with pressure sores and there are are other care giving concerns.
Abuse.com Nursing Home Profile - EDEN PARK HEALTH CARE CENTRE INC GLENS FALLS
Inspectors determined that the nursing home failed to immediately tell the resident, doctor and a family member if the resident is injured, there is a major change in resident's physical/mental health, there is a need to alter treatment significantly or the resident must be transferred or discharged.
Inspectors also determined that Eden Park, Glens Falls, failed to give each resident care and services to get or keep the highly quality of life possible.
The report also showed that Eden Park was below the state average in all levels of nursing staff hours per resident per day, indicating that the quality of care at the Glens Falls facility is seriously compromised due to the staffing problem. The overall total number of nursing staff hours per resident per day at 3.61 was slightly more than half the state average of 6.4.
The inspection report noted that hours per resident per day is the average daily work (in hours) given by the entire group of nurses or nursing assistants divided by total number of residents. The amount of care given to each resident varies.
http://www.abuse.com/elder_abuse/New_York/
The Eden Park facilities in Cobleskill and Utica are both on the National Nursing Home Watch List for causing immediate harm to a patient or subjecting patients to immediate jeopardy.
http://memberofthefamily.net/watch/335206.htm Cobleskill
http://memberofthefamily.net/watch/335374.htm Utica
Additional information about nursing home abuse and neglect can be found at the Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Resource Center at www.nursinghomealert.com which is an informational website designed to help the elderly and their families or at the website for the National Center on Elder Abuse.
http://www.elderabusecenter.org/default.cfm?p=nursinghomeabuse.cfm 10-29-06
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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