Neglect Reported At Florida Nursing Home

Another accusation of <"https://www.yourlawyer.com/practice_areas/nursing_home_negligence">nursing home neglect is making headlines. This time, the Ridgecrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 1200 N. Stone Street, in Deland, Florida is being accused of, and investigated for, abuse, said the Daytona Beach News Journal. Graystone Healthcare Management owns Ridgecrest and operates 28 nursing homes in Florida, Indiana, and Ohio.

It seems that a 76-year-old patient—whose identity is being withheld—had to wait for about 12 hours before she received treatment for a broken shoulder and two broken legs, said the Daytona Beach News Journal, citing a DeLand police report. The female patient fell out of her bed at 5:00 am Friday, when her bedding was being changed, said DeLand police Deputy Chief Randel Henderson, wrote the Daytona Beach News Journal.

The woman was put back in her bed after the accident, but it took until the next shift change at 4:42 pm, for emergency workers to be brought on the scene and help with her injuries, said the Daytona Beach News Journal, which added that the patient was ultimately admitted to the Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach. The nursing home has not responded to media requests for comment.

The Agency for Health Care Administration—responsible for 31 nursing homes in two Florida counties—is reviewing the matter, according to the Daytona Beach News Journal. Ridgecrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center’s state license is current and its last inspection took place in October at which time, nine deficiencies were noted, including accident hazards and food storage issues, reported the Daytona Beach News Journal.

We’ve long been following the issue of nursing home abuse, recently writing about a Brooklyn nursing home ordered to pay about $19 million in damages to a family whose loved one allegedly died as a result of abject neglect. We also wrote that ABC World News reported that a California nursing home used chemical restraints—drugs—to silence residents. In some cases, this practice was fatal.

On a number of occasions we have written about the dangerous issue surrounding the dosing of medications to the elderly, specifically antidepressants, antipsychotics, and sedatives. Sometimes these medications are given for seemingly pointless reasons and, on occasion, these medications appear to be linked to falls and other accidents in the elderly. Science Daily just reported that such accidents among the elderly are “significantly” linked with these drugs—sedatives to help patients sleep and drugs used to treat mood disorders—citing a study conducted by an expert in “pharmaceutical outcomes research” out of the University of British Columbia.

We also recently wrote that the Chicago Tribune broke with an exposé on how some powerful psychotropic drugs are given to nursing home residents in Illinois without consent and valid psychiatric diagnoses. Some have suffered from a variety of adverse responses that include, said the Tribune, “tremors, dangerous lethargy, and a higher risk of harmful falls or even death.”

When seniors are abused—emotionally, physically, financially, sexually, or through neglect—the risk of death increases by more than double, according a recent study, said Medicine Net recently. Sadly, according to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data, anti-psychotics that are inappropriately prescribed, kill 15,000 nursing home patients annually, said ABC.