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Congressional inquiry faults nursing homes in abuse cases
By: Larry Margasak
The Boston Globe, March 4, 2002
WASHINGTON - In a videotaped deathbed interview, Helen Love sat with a metal band pinned to her skull and described how a caretaker at her Sacramento nursing home beat her after Love had soiled herself.
''He started beating me all along the bed,'' Love said in a weak voice as she described the attacks to lawyers. ''He choked me and he went and broke my neck. He broke my wrist bones, my hand. He put his hand over my mouth.''
Love died two days later from the trauma. The nursing home worker eventually pleaded no contest in the 1998 attack and served just a year in prison.
An 18-month congressional investigation has concluded that many physical and sexual abuse cases in nursing homes are not treated the same way as similar crimes elsewhere.
Patients have been dragged down hallways, doused with ice water, and sexually assaulted and beaten in their beds, yet few prosecutions or serious penalties have resulted, the investigation found.
The Senate Special Committee on Aging was to present its findings at a hearing today. The investigation showed nursing homes rarely call police for attacks that would bring an instant response if they occurred elsewhere.
''A crime is a crime whether in or outside of a nursing home, where residents should not spend their days living in fear,'' said Senator John Breaux, Democrat of Louisiana, the committee chairman.
About 1.6 million Americans are cared for in 17,000 nursing homes. The homes received $58.4 billion in reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid in 2001.
Government figures show that from July through September of 2000, nearly 26 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations that ranged from harm of residents to poor record keeping and failure to put into practice policies to prevent abuse. Less than 2 percent of the cases were in a category involving harm of residents.
''We are concerned that the bad actions of 2 percent of nursing homes would overshadow the good work of hundreds of thousands of caring health professionals who provide quality, compassionate care every hour of every day,'' said Alan DeFend, spokesman for the American Health Care Association.
In the videotape to be shown at today's hearing, Love recounts how a Valley Skilled Nursing Facility staff member ''got real nasty'' after she soiled herself.
Love's son, Bruce, did not learn of the attack until the next day, and called police, his wife said in an interview.
Trina Kaplow, the current Valley Skilled administrator, who was not at the facility in 1998, said records show the home ''contacted all of the appropriate authorities.'' She could not say whether the police were called, but said it is her practice to notify police of any suspected crimes.
She said state officials could not substantiate that the woman was choked and sustained a broken neck from the attack.
Federal officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said there is no federal requirement that nursing homes call police when there is suspicion of a crime, but the agency is acting to speed notification.
Thomas A. Scully, the agency's administrator, said the centers will instruct state authorities to immediately notify local law enforcement or state Medicaid fraud units, depending on the crime.
The Senate committee planned to review cases that were not reported properly to police.
Helen Straukamp was knocked unconscious and bloodied by another resident at the Westpark Rehabilitation Center in Evansville, Ind., in September 1999. She died a month later. The home initially reported to a hospital that she had fallen, according to a transfer record describing her condition.
Holly Gould, spokeswoman for Westpark's parent company, Extendicare in Milwaukee, said she could not comment because of settlement discussions in a lawsuit filed by Straukamp's family. She said the home was fined $39,520 by the government.
The committee also intended to spotlight the case of a 37-year-old mentally disabled woman who gave birth in January 2001 at the Maitland Health Care facility in Maitland, Fla. The staff had not noticed she was pregnant.
When the woman and her child were sent to a hospital, police in Winter Park, Fla., said a nurse at the hospital notified officers. A staff member subsequently was charged with assault and is awaiting trial.
Ben Newman, an attorney for the facility, said the home followed regulations by contacting state regulatory officials the day after the birth. ''There was not an intention to create a delay,'' he said.
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