A nursing home will be losing its Medicare and Medicaid funding due to a number of violations. Various events including altercations between residents and workers will also result in relocations for 37 people living in the facility. “There were a number of altercations between residents where residents were harmed, kicked by other residents, hit in the head by other residents,”said a representative for the State Department of Aging.

A former nursing home caregiver has been terminated and charged with two counts of patient abuse for punching a 72-year-old patient in the face, neck, and chest. The certified nursing assistant also cursed the woman while punching her. The incident was reported by a fellow staff member to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Nursing home residents were evacuated and then relocated due to a fire in the facility. The fire was caused by an electrical vault in the boiler room. The facility houses 85 residents and 30 employees.

A former nursing home employee and LPN has been sentenced to 90 days to one year in jail, plus two years of probation for stealing narcotics that were to be destroyed. The nurse also has to recover costs of more than $1,900. She stole more than 80 hydrocodone/acetaminophen tablets.

According to statistics, nursing home abuse and neglect are real issues and extremely prevalent in nursing home facilities. Nearly 1 in 3, or 30 percent of residents admit to abuse in some form. A survey from 2005 stated that 91.7 percent of nursing homes received citations from health inspectors.  Other statistics note that death certificates list basic neglect as the leading cause of death.

A recent survey revealed the nursing home option for end-of-life care as the least favorable experience. Nursing homes ranked at the bottom of three options compared in the survey. These options included nursing homes, home care and inpatient care, such as hospitals.  Nursing homes particularly ranked low in Understanding the Side Effects of Pain Medication and Getting Help for Symptoms.