Nursing Home Adm & RN Charged by DA

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Oct 23, 2003

I don't know what to say except.......the authorities need to look at a LOT more places, a lot more closely. This is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg!!

sjoe · Oct 23, 2003

"This is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg!"

You got that right. BUT what are the "authorities" going to do? Shut them all down? Where would these people go? Shall we put them back in the hands of their families?

It is not as though there is tremendous competition for medicare-funded dementia patients, with lots of open beds in well-run facilities just waiting to make a huge profit by caring for them.

bargainhound, RN · Oct 23, 2003

This is exactly why good people are running away from working in nursing homes. We are losing the good leaders. Everyone is being accused of being criminals.

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2003

What really bothered me was that an administrator would tell her staff to lie like that and that they actually did! What ever happened to the word NO thats not right. They actually tried to take control of this Nursing Home before, but some judge in Harrisburgh thought they were taking the necessary steps in correcting the issues and let them go on getting provisional after provisional licences. I've had many families want to transfer their loved ones to this place because of their "specialized dementia care" and have told them to investigate all options and facilities before transfer or placement. I'd really like to know what is the National Alzheimers Alliance's position in this matter.

Your right "Tip of the iceberg.." You wander what else has gone on in this and other places. and yes... I know how hard it is to take care of demetia residents.. our facility is at least 60% dementia.....

Bargainhound... I know what you mean about feeling like a criminal, just because I work in LTC (and in the area of this SNF), but I do think this matter is criminal.

LPN-n-2005 · Oct 23, 2003

I hope this starts to open people's eyes to what chronic short staffing does to facilities. I currrently work in a hospital on a 27 bed unit and there is supposed to be three aides on duty and I have showed up to ME being the only aide on duty while the nurses sit at the station and will wait for me to go and help a patient go the bathroom,get a bath,etc. I am thinking about quitting soon b/c this is not fair!!! No wonder we can't newly trained CNA's to stay in the business. I can go down and work retail in much better conditions and same rate of pay compared to bad working conditions. Hopefully government will wake up and put into effect mandatory staffing nurse to patient ratios!!

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2003

I "ran away" from the nursing homes because of horrific shortstaffing and "leaders" who only looked at $$$. They didn't give a d*mn about the residents or the staff.

ktwlpn, LPN · Oct 27, 2003

I have been following this story also...I really wonder what made Bell and Galati go to such great lengths to try to cover up what really happened...I remember reading that the staff propped open a door to go into the courtyard to smoke...Wouldn't the buck have stopped there if they had not tried to cover it up? I am betting that someone really threatened them to make them do this...We have had some isolated incidents in our local nursing homes but none operating like this place for such a long time.....You have to wonder where the ombudsmen are? The dept of health? At the last LTC I worked( a real crappy for -profit place)every time a family member picked up the phone with a complaint the state descended on us like locusts...

Rustyhammer · Oct 27, 2003

I am fortunate enough to work in a place where the residents TRULY come first. The admin staff take time to know each resident and the CNA's are top notch. When we are short (and who isn't short sometimes) the nurses are in there turning and cleaning. The social worker has been known to mop floors or help in the kitchen. Medical records and the business office will do laundry if needed and EVERYONE looks out for the pts.

Its a pretty good place.

-Russell

robynrn2b · Oct 28, 2003

In response to lpn2005-are you saying that the nurses are sitting at the desk doing nothing? I know that I have had aides get angry because I cannot help them sometimes, because I am sitting AT the desk. That dosen't mean that I am not doing anything. I am charting, looking for information I need, documenting falls, documenting I & O. Calling doctors, signing off orders, entering them in the computer, etc. It may look like we are "sitting" at the desk but you have no idea the amount of paperwork that is required. I remember working as an aide and I decided that I wanted to be a nurse, because, "I wanted to sit at the desk like the nurses and make more money." BOY was I in for an eye opener. I do know, however that there are nurses who do literally SIT at the desk and do nothing.

Plato · Oct 28, 2003

I used to work at a nursing home as an aid, for a year, I guess. Full time for a while then weekends while I was in level 1. I call it the dungeon, and that's what it was. I know I needed to be there. I know I needed to see and experience what I did. But I didn't think humans could treat or neglect other humans the way I saw people treated.

I constantly reported to the DON. My last shift, I went to get a patient up--not mine. I didn't have her as a patient, I was just assigned to get her up, and the state I found her in was terrible. She was almost dead. Her LOC was at best a stupor. Her Glascow would have been about a 4. I know that now. She had feces in her hair, and her lips were so caked and cracked that they bled when I tried to give her some oral care. And while I was doing that, I found scrambled eggs in her mouth--that meant she couldn't have had any water for at least 24 hours.

I couldn't get the nurse to come to her room, even when I told her that her pulse was uncountable. All she said (the lazy fat ass nasty-looking LPN) all she said was, "Well, she's a DNR." I finally lifted her into the wheelchair apologizing all the time, because I knew she was too sick to get up. But I told her I had to get her up to get her to the nurse. I wheeled her, slumped and strapped in her chair to the nurse, put on the breaks and said, "Here, you might want to check her pulse ox." A few minutes later they called the ambulance.

I prayed for her death when they took her to the ER. But she came back, I heard. Her family who was going to sue, who I was ready to be a wittness for, put her back. I hope she's dead now. That's a loving statement, believe it or not.

The dungeon, even by my estimation is the best nursing home in the area.

There's a guilt a person gets when they fail. I failed by leaving. But once you tell the DON you are making yourself and every photocopied peice of paper you ever gave him available to the family who's threatening to sue, you know it's time to leave.

The dungeon, please allow me to swear just this once: The ****ing dungeon. My position, I learned, was filled by a man who was fired from there as a dishwasher for harrassing women in the halls. He went to another nursing home to be a dishwasher, but they made him a CNA, then he left there and came back and they hired him back as a CNA--no longer confined to the kitchen.

The dungeon: I wish all the residents there could pass away naturally in their sleep and then the place could burn to the ground, and then a parking lot could be made in its place.

barefootlady, ADN, RN · Oct 28, 2003

Plato:

Your caring side is showing. It is wonderful to read. Thank you for showing us your tender side.