12 of 14 nursing home deaths after Irma ruled homicides

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 7:14 pm, Wednesday, November 22, 2017

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say the deaths of 12 of the 14 Florida nursing home patients who died after Hurricane Irma have been ruled homicides.

The Sun Sentinel reports that autopsy results from the Broward County medical examiner's office were released Wednesday.

No arrests have been made. Police spokeswoman Miranda Grossman says the investigation will continue and part of that will be determining who should be charged.

The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills lost its air conditioner on Sept. 10, shortly after Irma slammed into Florida. On Sept. 13, eight residents died and the others were evacuated from the sweltering facility. Six more died over the following weeks, though two deaths were found to not be related to the lack of power or air conditioning.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/12-of-14-nursing-home-deaths-after-Irma-ruled-12378913.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[dewsgirl]

1. These deaths sit on Rick Scott's shoulders.

Awful way to die.

[Hortensis]

8. Imo FIRST to blame are the staff of the facility who

were right there but failed their responsibilities. Yes, they acted but not enough to keep 14 people from dying, watching them and many more suffering a form of torture for days, while help was right across the boulevard.

There's plenty of blame to go around, but notably spreading blame among many and trying to shift it to the "top," does not actually diminish the responsibility for any one person, and that includes the janitorial staff.

If people understood and accepted personal responsibility for results of their own actions at work, we would all be far, far less likely to suffer abuse in some unfortunate elderly future while "good" people watched and did nothing.

[irisblue]

2. ::sigh::I really hope the charges are against Owners & Adminstrators

not direct line staff.

[Princess Turandot]

3. There's a large hospital directly across the street from where this home was...

Under the circumstances, I have to believe that the hospital would have come to their assistance, had they asked for it.

My guess is that they didn't want to lose any billing revenues to the hospital, or even worse, have the residents considered as discharged from their facility. (There are Medicaid rules that dictate money-wise what happens and when, if an nursing home patient is sent to a hospital, although I'm not sure if feds set those particular rules, or the states do.)

Personally, I think the bit about calling the governor's office during a hurricane to get an A/C repairman and parts sent to the place is a red herring. And once several hours passed without a reply, they should have done something else.

[HAB911]

4. Florida foolishly makes it harder to see nursing home inspections

Florida’s once vaunted reputation as the Sunshine State, a leader in open government, providing the citizenry broad, unfettered access to public meetings and records, is becoming increasingly dreary and overcast with a better than average chance of tyranny.

There are few crises a family faces that are more gut-wrenching than making the painful decision to place a loved one in a nursing home. And now the state of Florida has made that already difficult prospect even more daunting — and dangerous.

In recent weeks Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration has been busily scrubbing its website to remove damaging information about nursing homes that was once immediately accessible to the public.

The Miami Herald’s Carol Marbin Miller and Caitlin Ostroff reported that AHCA, without prior notice, wiped its website clean of all links to documents related to nursing home inspections and has heavily redacted other documents about elder facilities. It has redacted words such as "room," "CPR," "bruises" and "pain." You would think a family considering placing a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living environment would want to know about such details.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/Ruth-Florida-s-foolishly-makes-it-harder-to-see-nursing-home-inspections_162835560

[Panho]

5. Someone needs to go to jail

For sure.

[NCDem777]

6. All nursing homes are abusive

[mantis49]

7. Do you always paint with such broad brushes?

n/t

[NCDem777]

9. Ask any disabled person liberated from nursing homes

and they'll tell you that once the visiting hours are over and the third shift people come by, they become horror shows on the level of Willowbrook back in the 70's.

There is a reason the nursing homes lobby to keep people from filing lawsuits against them. There's a reason that nursing homes make it as hard as possible for people to get out in the community even when they are able to. There's a reason that when residents try to transfer to a safer community-based setting, the nursing home makes it as hard as possible even when there's no real medical reason to object.

They don't want people talking

[mantis49]

10. I don't want to hijack this thread because what happened to those people in FL was horrible.

So I am only going to respond to this once.

I am a clinical reimbursement consultant for a small management company with 12 long term communities for the last 3 years. I have worked in long term care for 25 years as an RN. I can tell you with certainty that not all nursing homes are abusive.

Many families and residents over the years have given us kudos for our care and commitment to the residents.

Your assertion that LTC facilities will never assist a resident to discharge to the community is just simply false. I have assisted in such discharges innumerable times!

I have also been instrumental in assuring that any borderline treatment of a resident is dealt with appropriately. (Firing and reporting to authorities to assure that a person will never be able to work with this vulnerable population again.)

Does it never happen? I would be a fool to try to say that. But you are seeing things in all black and white. There are many of us out there that have dedicated our lives to trying to make things better.

You obviously have an ax to grind, but I couldn't let you grind it unopposed.