Nursing home workers received a failing grade this week from federal officials who gauged how many workers had the flu vaccination last season. According to the study, the worst rate improvements were in employees of nursing homes. While 72% of healthcare workers overall and 90% of physicians were vaccinated last year, only 59% of long-term employees got shots.

Police are now investigating the death last year of an 82-year-old nursing home resident as a murder. The man was taken to the hospital last December and died a few days later. The coroner’s report just ruled the death a homicide.

A recently filed lawsuit against a nursing home alleges that a resident died because of negligent care by the facility staff, including a fall, skin breakdown, pneumonia and infections. The personal representative of the deceased resident’s estate claims that the nursing home failed to provide adequate medical care and monitoring to prevent these injuries which ultimately contributed to the resident’s death. For more, read the story.

While making the decision to move a loved one into an assisted living facility can be agonizing in itself, trying to figure out if some of these unregulated facilities are in actuality neglectful hellholes that could end up killing them is even more excruciating.   In a recent Frontline/ProPublica documentary called Life and Death in Assisted Living, which first aired on TV over the summer and will be released on DVD on October 1, the filmmakers investigate one of the top assisted living pr…

A nursing home resident sued her facility after she developed a staph infection from improperly treated decubitus (pressure) ulcers on her feet. She also alleges that the staff of the nursing home left her soaking in her urine for hours, causing a severe rash.  The woman complains in the lawsuit that the nursing home employees failed to notify her physician of the deteriorating condition of her decubitus ulcers, which staff allowed to develop on the insteps of her feet.

Police say a meth lab caused an explosion at an assisted living complex around 5:30 on a Sunday evening. The facility was for the disabled and elderly. A neighbor stated that there have been multiple meth incidents this year.