Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer California Blog

Beginning Jan. 1, 2012, a new California state law will allow California counties to offer a confidential internet system for reporting elder abuse in long-term care facilities.

Currently, those who work in financial institutions, law enforcement and in healthcare, including nursing home staff, are required by law to report suspicions of elder abuse in a “timely manner.” In many counties there can be a long wait before a call is answered due to staff cuts and a high volume of callers. More

During the recent California nursing strike, a resident died due, allegedly, to inadequate care by a “traveling nurse.”

Known as a traveling nurses or replacement nurses, hospitals, nursing homes, long-term care facilities, and other medical facilities often contract with nursing agencies bring in short or long-term temporary nursing staff. Due to the nursing shortage, nurses are always in short supply. More

The rate of questionable transfers of end-stage dementia patients from nursing homes to hospitals has raised flags for public health researchers at Brown University.

After analyzing Medicare records of approximately 475,000 patients, the team, led by Dr. Joan Teno, M.D., found that nearly 20 percent of dementia patients were transferred from their nursing homes into hospitals for questionable reasons. More

Newly proposed legislation could soon allow nurses in nursing homes to administer controlled substance painkillers to residents when acting on a physician’s verbal orders.

The legislation comes despite increasing numbers of nursing home residents who have been killed because of poorly administered, or over-administered, painkillers. More

The family of 29-year-old Violet Townsend was shocked and appalled to learn that she was being sexually abused at her long term care nursing facility.

After noticing blood on the seat of Violet’s wheelchair, her parents rushed her to a nearby hospital. Hospital staff confirmed that her injuries were consistent with a sexual assault. Violet also had been infected with a sexually transmitted disease.

A 2006 car accident left Violet with a severe brain injury, leaving her dependent on life support and incapable of any physical movement or of speech. Obviously Townsend did not consent to sex. More