You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Confidentiality’ category.
Except for the goofy spam messages I receive, I truly appreciate all of the comments I receive in response to my NursingHomeReality blog. I read every one of them and add many of them to my blog. Of the comments I post to my blog, I’m especially careful to protect the identity when the writer is a family member of a nursing home resident or a nursing home staff member writing about problems in the facility where they work, so as to protect these individuals (and/or their family members) from retaliation.
Occasionally I receive comments from nursing home staff members (administrators, nurses, CNAs and others) that scold me for daring to point out problems involving abusive, negligent and/or dishonest nursing home staff members. They assume that I have used my blog to condemn all staff members. In reality I have NEVER accused ALL nursing home staff members of bad behavior. In fact, I have occasionally pointed out that many nursing home staff members (particularly nurses and CNAs) are great people doing wonderful things for their residents. I even devoted one post to discuss the intense pressure that administrators face, showing that while I’ve often found things to criticize about nursing home management that I nonetheless am sensitive to the pressures management personnel face that discourage them from doing the right (let alone honest) thing in dealing with problems in their facility.
So if you (nursing home staff reading this blog) want to mischaracterize my comments, go ahead. If you aren’t doing so to manipulate me into becoming silent, I respectfully suggest that you take some time and look over the many entries I’ve written over the past few years so as to get a fairer perspective of what NursingHomeReality is all about.
Allow me to point out that the nursing home industry — proving their intensely evil nature — does everything it can to silence it’s critics. A more mature approach would be to have enough integrity to be introspective enough to learn and grow from their critics. But instead, they just want all of us to shut up and go away.
MY RESPONSE TO THE CORRUPT NURSING HOME INDUSTRY: I WONT SHUT UP. I WONT STOP POSTING TO THIS BLOG ABOUT THE OBVIOUSLY BAD THINGS THAT GO ON IN NURSING HOMES. You can’t make me shut up and I wont shut up. I wont be silenced by the “soft fascism” of your evil attempts to silence your critics. If this blog were to ever shut down, I’d have no problem immediately finding another webhost that would respect and protect my freedom of speech.
What does it tell you about an industry when they feel that they are above criticism? It makes me think they have LOTS to hide.
At least government officials in Texas, Illinois and Iowa haven’t totally sold old to the big bucks of the nursing home industry (like some have in Kentucky and Indiana)! Kudos go to three states that have recently made progress in terms of advancing the nursing home reform agenda.
TEXAS
The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS), that state’s agency charged with oversight of the nursing home industry, recognized the urgent need for more investigators to address a backlog of complaints facilities.
DADS has a record of responding to 99 percent of the most serious complaints about nursing homes within 24 hours. But the agency has only been able to respond to one-third of the less serious complaints within the 14 days required by state guidelines. Still, a DADS spokesman acknowledged to the media recently that even “less serious” complaints included the potentially dangerous issue of inappropriate care of bed sores.
To speed response to nursing home complaints, 35 new investigators (a 10% increase) are being hired this month. The agency also plans to complete 1,550 investigations during a two-week statewide blitz to help catch up on the backlog of complaints until the new inspectors can be hired and trained.
ILLINOIS
Governor Pat Quinn recently received a final report that contains many recommendations to ensure improved safety of nursing home residents in Illinois. Among the Nursing Home Safety Task Force recommendations:
- Reform the admissions and assessment of people in need of care to ensure they are referred to the residential setting most appropriate to their individual needs.
- Raise and enforce higher standards of treatment in all residential settings.
- Expand residential options and services in home and community-based settings to allow each individual to achieve his or her highest level of independent functioning and ensure that only those people who require 24-hour care are placed in nursing homes.
It’s now up to state legislators to translate report findings into new regulations for nursing homes located in Illinois. So if you live in Illinois, please contact your state senator and state representative to make sure report findings are followed.
One of the big changes coming to Illinois nursing homes, thanks in part to the study report and pressure from the public and Chicago news media, is that thousands of mentally ill individuals who have been housed alongside elderly nursing home residents will now be given the opportunity to be placed in facilities more appropriate to meeting their unique needs. Tragically it took several incidents of elderly nursing home residents being beaten by mentally ill individuals before this problem (and other concerns) were addressed by the Governor’s study commission.
IOWA
State nursing home regulators are finally getting serious about imposing stiff fines against Iowa facilities that have been found guilty of retaliating against caregivers who have the courage to report problems.
Two Iowa nursing homes have each been fined $5,000 by the Department of Inspections and Appeals. An assisted living center was also recently fined $1,000. The three facilities were accused of threatening, demoting or firing employees who reported concerns about resident care to the inspections department.
Iowa’s mandatory reporter law, which is designed to protect the state’s 40,000 care facility residents, makes it a crime for caregivers to keep silent about suspected abuse or neglect. Retaliation against whistle-blowers is barred by law, but advocates for seniors have complained that care facilities are rarely if ever penalized for the offense.
If I were living in Iowa I would contact the Department of Inspections and Appeals and demand that they be consistent in enforcing the laws already in place. Sure, they are to be commended for finally taking appropriate action, but we have to wonder what took them so long?
I can’t speak for foreign countries, but here in the United States every part of every state has someone (sometimes several persons) to help nuring home residents and concerned loved ones to assist when concerns about nursing home care (or lack of care) arrise. These helpful individuals, known as long-term care ombudsmen, are often times underpaid and overworked. Some ombudsmen are unpaid volunteers who are supervised by paid ombudsmen. Their service is FREE to nursing home residents, family members and concerned friends of residents.
When is it appropriate to contact an ombudsman? In a non-emergency situation, it is best to contact them after the concerned party has been unable to resolve their concerns with nursing home management.
If you feel you have an urgent or emergency situation involving the safety or welfare of a nursing home resident, then immediately contacting an ombudsman (without trying to resolve matters with the facility) may be entirely appropriate. However when you have an emergency situation and time is of the essence, the best place to turn for help is the state agency responsible for regulating nursing homes within their jurisdictions (in Indiana the agency is the state Board of Health, within Kentucky it is the Office of the Inspector General — all nursing homes must provide those who ask with contact information for the state agency responsible for regulating them. Nursing homes must also provide the phone number for the nearest long-term care ombudsman. Most states require nursing homes post this information in a prominent place, such as near the main entrance of a facility or at/near a nurse’s station. The bottom line is that if you ask facility staff for contact information for the ombudsman or state nursing home regulatory agency, they MUST provide you with that information, which should include a phone number.
In many states it is also entirely appropriate to contact the local office of Adult Protective Services when you feel the safety, rights or welfare of a nursing home resident is threatened. Call your local police or sheriff’s department to find the number for the Adult Protective Services office that serves your area.
My experience (and that of many other loved ones of nursing home residents) is that nursing home staff and management will often feel threatened and become overtly hostile when they become aware that an ombudsman, state regulartory agency or an Adult Protective Services office has been contacted about problems at their facility. Big deal! If they (e.g., nursing home staff and managment) are doing their job (let alone doing it correctly), then they have NO reason to fear the state’s intervention! Please don’t allow nursing home staff or management to intimidate you into silence! You have a legal right and a moral responsibility to request state intervention on behalf of a nursing home resident!
To find contact information for the Long-Term Care Ombudsman in your corner of the United States, please visit the website of the National Citizen’s Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (www.nccnhr.org). On the left side of every major page of their website you’ll find a button with the words “Locate An Ombudsman”. Click on that button to find the information you need. In addition to ombudsmen, you’ll also find listings for each state’s nursing home regulatory agency and other agencies that respond to concerns related to nursing home care.
I need to point out that while ombudsmen are available to investigate concerns and offer advice, they do not have the legal authority to force nursing homes to do anything. Only the state agency entrusted with long-term care facility oversight has such power. Adult Protective Services employees also have legal authority that ombudsmen do not have. At the same time, ombudsmen will be able to render a responsible opinion regarding when it is appropriate to contact the state, in case you aren’t sure if this the right option to pursue. Their wisdom and experience is an invaluable tool in protecting your loved one.
I am frequently shocked by accounts I hear about how badly UNDERstaffing that exists in many nursing homes. I’m a family member, so it is easy for nursing home owners and management to dismiss my concerns (and those of other family members) by claiming our expectations are too high. Management acts as if we family members are too dumb to realize that their facility does have “adequate staffing” — yet we often witness our loved one (and other residents as well) not having their needs met, because the resident-to-staff ratio is woefully INadequate.
So please don’t take my word about the evil of nursing home UNDERstaffing. Instead, please take the word of a newly-hired Certified Nurses Aide-In-Training. Her insider account of the facility where she works should make you angry and to realize that ALL of us have a responsibility to work to bring about ethical and sane staffing standards.
This visitor to our blog wrote the following, her name and location are kept confidential for the purposes of this account…
“I just started working at a nursing home as Certified Nurses Aide “in training” –read: no formal training.
On my own on a recent night I was the only aide working and was responsible for the care of 45 residents. The only other nursing staff member on duty in this unit was the nurse (who couldn’t be bothered about resident’s needs).
I ran all night, couldn’t keep up, just wanted to keep the residents clean and comfortable. So many! 3/4 of the residents are incontinent, 1/2 have motion sensors on them due to fall risk. 1/3 needed some extra compassion, and more every night with signs of infection. I cry every time I walk out. I get yelled at and shunned because I take too long, when all they want is a drink, a clean blanket, and maybe even a hug. I thought that was what anyone needed, but apparently, only if they can get it themselves. I have NO TRAINING and I was ALONE for an eight hour overnight shift. In addition to direct resident care, I also have to wash wheelchairs and chart those bowel movements.
Again, I have NO formal training yet, aside from the training I have given myself through research and hands on care. I followed a couple of aides around for a few days, only one of them was actually certified.
I have spent a total of four days in training for “corporate understanding”, which involves travelling to another town to hear about how great this company is, then going home to work a night shift.
I had two nights of “supervised” work, which meant that depending on who I was supervised by, I was either on my own or frantically looking for someone that knew what to do. However, I have been walking around in the same scrubs that certified aides wear, and when a resident sees me, they think help has arrived. I quickly learned to give up on finding someone else (more experienced) and just help them any way I can.
I spent the night trying to get her to help me with a resident that was screaming and pulling at her catheter, only to find that the nurses “help” was to go into the room and tell the resident, “Shame on you!”
I literally ran up and down the halls, trying to help everyone, trying in earnest to turn everyone every two hours, change everyone when soiled, strip and make beds with people still in them, lift and transfer residents alone on my own and dress them all starting at 3:30am to be gotten out of bed no later than 5:00am.
I tried to inform the nurse about a resident who had recently had a medication change and could no longer transport themselves to bathroom. The resident was vomiting and had diarrea. The nurse ordered me to “stop taking so long in there”.
A resident on Hospice needed a bed bath, I gave it, hour later, thought he may have been dying since he was panting and grunting. I went in to check on him and he took my hand and wouldn’t let go.. The nurse’s response, “That’s because you messed with him”.
This is all tip of iceberg. I thought I wanted to be a nurse, I have a good head for medicine, and a big heart. Now I think that that may be why I cannot go into this field. I will fight tooth and nail before admitting my mother to a nursing home. I know there are times it is needed, but people need it so they can get BETTER care, not so they can be institutionalized, ignored and treated like a piece of meat.
These resodemts don’t need much, but what they need is so important! Why couldn’t management hire two more nurses aids on third shift? I only get minimum wage for crying out loud!
I want to quit, and yet, who else will do this?”
May God richly bless our friend Bernie Vonderheide, founder of Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, for his hard work on behalf of creating positive changes in nursing homes within the Commonwealth of Kentucky! His commitment is truly inspiring and his organization is one that I urge all of my fellow Kentuckians to support.
Bernie shares the following words of encouragement as we start this blog…
Congratulations on starting an important educational blog.
One of the biggest problems in nursing home reform is that most people do not understand the problems unless that have been there and actually seen it. That is why education is such an important part of our mission.
We encourage everyone to share their experiences with the public through this new blog.
Looking forward to being a daily reader, and congratulations once again.
Thanks Bernie for those thoughtful words!
Allow me to remind you that while Bernie and others of us are very much public figures in the area of nursing home industry reform, we will respect your request for anonymity should you chose to share your story for publication. We will also keep your e-mail address completely confidential.
In addition to publishing your story of nursing home neglect and abuse, this blog also exists to share links to websites of interest to those of us who support reform of the nursing home industry. We will also reprint editorials and other material related to the topic of making positive changes in long-term care facilities. Links can be found under the BlogRoll section on the right side of this page.
Please submit links of interest to flamboyantbohemian@gmail.com and type Link Suggestion in the subject line of your message.
