Neglect in Texas Nursing Homes Leads to Injuries, Death
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Texas allows nursing homes to voluntarily accept COVID-positive patients from hospitals and other nursing homes. But there are no additional safeguards for the people sent there, and some of the facilities have a history of breaking rules. Seven of the state’s nine veterans homes had a fatality rate of 25% or more, far higher than the statewide average of 11% for nursing homes. Within the numbers, horror stories have abounded, with outbreaks of more than 80 sickened at a Texas City nursing home and at least 11 dying at a College Station assisted living facility. As to whether you can sue a nursing home for wrongful death, you know from my settlement research above that the answer is yes, you can sue a nursing home for wrongful death, I have done this dozens of times, and you can win millions if it’s a strong case. Nursing home wrongful death settlement and verdict values, therefore, can vary substantially based on the extent and manner of negligence involved.
At Focused Care at Summer Place in Beaumont, two residents tested positive for COVID-19 after one of them went home for Thanksgiving, McKenzie said. It was welcome news for some, but it brought fears of a holiday-fueled “third wave” of COVID-19 deaths. The facility started trying to boost morale through “virtual vacations” — themed weeks with food and music representing various vacation spots around the world.
New federal data reveals additional concerns at Texas nursing homes
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Skilled nursing facilities are used for short-term rehabilitative stays after an individual is released from a hospital. As of April 14, 8,961 nursing home residents with COVID-19 have died in Texas — nearly 10% of the state’s estimated 90,000 nursing home residents. Carla Astudillo, the data visuals developer for the Tribune, talked to Texas Standard about her news organization’s findings after analyzing state COVID-19 case data in which one in five Texas COVID-19 deaths were nursing home residents. On average, 175 nursing home residents died each week between April 2020 and this month. Texas lawmakers have tried to pass bills in the past two legislative sessions to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates in an effort to improve nursing home conditions, with no success.
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SB 826, by creating a new Article 49.24, Code of Criminal Procedure, mandates that notification of such a person's death must be made to the OAG within 24 hours of the person's death. Furthermore, it mandates that the facility prepare and submit to the office of the Attorney General, a report containing all facts relevant to the individual's death within 72 hours of the death. Procedures are in place to have affected facilities report the required information by fax or email. Only a small portion of the state’s nursing homes met that criteria at the time. That’s also when the first COVID-19 case showed up at Focused Care at Corpus Christi. There would be 18 more infections and four virus-related deaths among its residents by the end of September, according to state data.
Many healthcare experts believe that long-term care facilities in Texas and other states around the country have not been doing a good enough job at preventing and controlling the spread of COVID-19. In the same report, they stated that more than a third of Texas’ 5,489 COVID deaths have been nursing home residents. Texas is home to roughly 1,215 nursing homes, and more than three-quarters of these facilities have reported at least one coronavirus case since the pandemic started. As reported at the end of July, there have 8,291 confirmed cases in Texas nursing homes, which was four times more than the number in all of June.
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Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. “As an industry, nursing home care, you know, has suffered because there is chronic understaffing and staff is severely underpaid,” she said. We believe that everyone deserves access to clear, factual information that helps them educate themselves on the issues of the day and the things that pique their curiosity. This year alone, our newsroom published 2,500+ articles, 100+ videos, and 650+ podcasts that have informed and educated millions of people around the world — for free. Tosh said facilities sometimes buy a “wasting” policy, so that the cost of the defense comes out of what is often only $100,000 in coverage to avoid paying much in the event of a lawsuit. The more work defense attorneys do for a case, the less money will be left for paying a settlement.
If you lost a loved one due to nursing home negligence, you are a likely beneficiary and may recover a settlement for a wrongful death claim. You see what I mean as you read my wrongful death settlement research, below. Whatever the eventual number may be, the purpose of a wrongful death settlement is an attempt to monetarily right the wrongs that were done to you. Proving negligence that led to death, getting the needed evidence to strengthen your case, and facing challenges from medical professionals are all some of the roadblocks you may face as you attempt to settle your wrongful death lawsuit. As I write this article, I am currently investigating over 30 wrongful death nursing home cases.
COVID-19 Deaths Climb in Nursing Homes as Many Are Behind on Vaccinations, AARP Analysis Finds
He has also been linked through medical examiner reports and civil filings in seven other cases — making it 24 deaths, the paper said. Home health aide Billy Chemirmir, 48, was first arrested on a capital murder charge in March 2018 as police in Dallas announced a “very large and complex investigation” into possible deaths and thefts at care homes. A suspected serial killer in Texas has now been linked to the murders of 24 elderly women in their care homes — after investigators re-opened case files on at least 750 seniors who died unattended, according to reports. The week before Christmas, the first batch of the coronavirus vaccines began arriving at Texas nursing homes. In Uvalde, Langford celebrated the holidays while separated by glass from her family, who again gathered outside the window.
Plaintiffs attorneys face additional challenges trying to collect awards. Many nursing home owners use obscure ownership structures to hide their assets—if they do get sued, they can claim their reserves are too low to pay out. They can have maggots in their pressure sores, they can have flies flying around them, and they can lay there and rot to death.
You can check the vaccination rates of residents and staff at any Medicare-certified nursing home, and compare them with state and national averages, onMedicare.gov’s Care Compare website. This month’s analysis includes, for the first time since AARP started its monthly looks at nursing home vaccination rates in June 2021, estimates of the percentage of nursing home residents who are “up to date” on COVID-19 vaccination. The recent deaths bring the total number of U.S. nursing home deaths from COVID-19 to more than 175,000, which is likely an undercount, given the lack of reporting in the early months of the pandemic. These deaths account for roughly a sixth of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S., even though nursing homes house less than 1 percent of the entire U.S. population.
Between May and July 2020, the Texas Department of State Health Services also provided data from nursing homes. DSHS gathers other state health statistics, including the reported COVID-19 deaths statewide. Elliott Sprehe, a spokesperson for HHSC, said that penalties are assessed on a case-by-case basis. The agency’s considerations are based on the facility’s compliance history as well as whether a pattern exists, the violation is recurring, or the violation presents a danger to resident health and safety. The penalty’s amount depends on the potential hazard to residents and the facility’s efforts to correct it, Sprehe said. “Our top priority always remains the health and safety of staff and residents in all the nursing and assisted living facilities throughout Texas,” Sprehe said in a statement.
They go into septic shock, and it’s just flat-out neglect,” Woodson said. One November morning in 2018, Rosalie fell when a nurse tried to move her from the bed to her wheelchair. Charles got a phone call from the nursing home and rushed to the facility, but Rosalie had already been sent to the hospital for surgery. Taylor Goldenstein is a state bureau reporter covering the Attorney General and federal courts among other topics. She's previously written for the Austin-American Statesman, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Tampa Bay Times. She hails from the suburbs of Chicago and earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Sanders become an outspoken advocate for more coronavirus testing in nursing homes after an outbreak in early April at her mother’s facility, Riverside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in East Austin. Sanders’ advocacy resulted in a testing pilot program at Riverside, and she has continued to push local leaders and lawmakers to expand testing at both nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The news comes as Texas officials said Thursday that limited visitation at nursing homes and assisted-living centers can resume, ending a months-long ban to prevent spread of coronavirus among some of the most vulnerable Texans. Those dying in nursing homes and assisted living facilities have made up an increasing portion of the state’s overall deaths related to the illness. Below, I provide summaries of real life nursing home wrongful settlements, including verdicts, average nursing home wrongful death settlement amounts, and some of the largest wrongful death settlements in nursing home cases. So mitigation measures focused on nursing homes can’t totally prevent the coronavirus from finding its ways to vulnerable populations.
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The CDC recommended that most nursing home workers get an initial booster late last year. But unlike initial series vaccinations, which the federal government requires for all staff of Medicare- and Medicaid-funded health care facilities, boosters aren’t mandated. A skilled nursing facility is a special facility or part of a hospital that provides medically necessary professional services from nurses, physical and occupational therapists, speech pathologists and audiologists. Skilled nursing facilities provide round-the-clock assistance with healthcare and activities of daily living.
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