A former staff member said she was a witness to several cases of abuse and neglect  while employed at a nursing home. The staff member worked as a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home facility for about six weeks and it was during training that she first the notice abuse to the residents housed there. The former employee says that she made reports of the abuse she witnessed to supervisors but nothing was done.

The son of an 85-year-old nursing home patient is demanding answers after a camera he placed in his mother’s room revealed neglect and abuse. Last August, the man’s mother had an unexplained black eye and scratches on her. This January, she broke her hip, which the son says was caused by another resident who pushed her down.

A 53-year-old nursing home resident has been charged in connection with the death of an 85-year-old resident at the facility. According to the district attorney, the man was arraigned Friday on charges of involuntary manslaughter, simple assault, and reckless endangerment of another. The charges are the result of an incident last month at the nursing home.

An article this week in the New York Times suggests that healthcare facilities may be learning valuable lessons from lawsuits. Each year tens of thousands of people die, and hundreds of thousands more are injured, as a result of medical error.  New evidence regarding malpractice litigation shows that litigation supports the call for transparency. In fact, the openness and transparency promoted by patient safety advocates appear to be influencing hospitals’ responses to litigation risk.

A 70-year-old woman was indicted by a jury last week on a felony charge of patient abuse. According to court documents, the woman was employed at a nursing home as an activity assistant when the abuse occurred. The nursing home employee was charged with the fourth-degree felony after she slapped a resident in the face earlier this year.

According to police an 85-year-old woman wandered from a personal care home earlier this month and was missing for nearly three hours before she was found a few blocks away from the facility. Staff alerted police after determining that the woman was not at the facility shortly after 1:00 a.m. Police and volunteers came together to search for the woman with the assistance of several search and rescue dogs.