California Nursing Home to Pay $28 Million in Death

Posted on May 17, 2010 by David Boyles

A nursing home near Sacramento, California has been ordered to pay $28 million in punitive damages for the death of a resident.  The nursing home was found to be deliberately understaffed and to provide substandard care.  The large punitive damages amount is a record for Sacramento county and was meant to send a message to the home that they can no longer save money by cutting corners.

According to the Sacramento Bee, 79-year-old Frances Tanner died in early 2006, seven months after moving into Colonial Healthcare, a nursing operated by Horizon West Healthcare, which operates 33 nursing homes, mostly in Northern California.

According to Tanner's daughter, Tanner was bedridden after a fall caused by a hip fracture that had gone undiagnosed.  While confined to her bed, she died of a bed sore.  The Tanner case was the fourth in recent years in which Colonial had been cited in the death of a resident.

Tanner's family was earlier awarded $1.1 million for their pain and suffering.  The $28 million punitive damage verdict is intended primariy to punish Horizon West for their negligence and remove the financial incentive to provide substandard care. 

As in many cases, Tanner's death was caused by a variety of factors resulting from abuse.  Solomon and Relihan's Nursing Home Advocates website offers informational pages on all of these symptoms of abuse:

You should also visit Nursing Home Advocates to learn how to detect abuse and neglect and stop it before it's too late.

 

 

 
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Evaluating a Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Case

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Martin Solomon

It is always difficult to tell a family that I am unable to represent them regarding the loss or severe injury of their loved one in a nursing home.

However, arriving at the right decision as to whether to accept a nursing home neglect and abuse case is the foundation of a nursing home practice.

Difficult decisions are made at the junction where emotion and intellect intersect.

Emotion is the first to weigh in when a death or life changing event is presented to me for review. It is difficult not to become incensed at the poor care given to our most vulnerable patients or to become attached to a family that has lost a loved one.

Since intellect, in the form of practical considerations, are slow to appear, caution in the decision process is well advised.

Nursing home, assisted living, and group home cases are expensive, labor intensive and emotionally draining for an attorney. They are also difficult for families because they take a long time to resolve and therefore there is delayed closure of the emotional wound.

The first consideration is whether the neglect or abuse resulted in significant injury or death.

The second consideration is whether the injury or death was the result of neglect or abuse.

Having said that, my analysis as to whether to move forward is based on a broad view of the nursing home (including both the specific facility and the parent organization).

I examine the history of the nursing home to determine whether they have had similar problems in the delivery of patient care. Have they learned from their prior mistakes or are they continuing with the same conduct?

I determine whether the harm was the result of a systemic failure such as inadequate staffing, training or oversight. These systemic failures are evidence that the facility was incapable of providing quality care.

I then determine whether the systemic failures were the result of corporate business decisions. In other words, did the nursing home corporation decide to place profits over quality patient care and did that decision lead to the injury or death?

The answer to this question will determine whether the facility’s conduct warrants an award of punitive damages. Punitive damages are assessed against a facility to punish it for outrageous conduct.

Going through these considerations in the case selection process enables me to decide whether to accept or reject a nursing home case. However, it doesn’t make it any easier to tell a family that I am unable to help them.

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