One financially troubled nursing home has been cited recently for failing to react to instances of significant weight loss in two residents of the facility.  State health inspectors examined treatment records for a patient weighing just 121 pounds from 139 pounds over several months. The notes and reports reflect the 11 percent drop in weight, and suggest the cause may have been the discontinuation of a dietary supplement. But there was no intervention by dieticians, nurses or doctors to st…

A jury has sided with a former employee of an assisted living facility who claimed she was wrongly fired after she reported that the facility had falsified documents. The employee was fired in 2008 from her position as marketing director at the assisted living facility. According to court records, she saw two officials falsify documents related to the training of employees who work with dementia and Alzheimer’s patients that were to be inspected by state regulators.

Two nursing home employees were arrested this week for allegedly attacking an elderly woman in a “manner similar to waterboarding,” police say. The two caregivers allegedly tortured the 89-year-old woman after having an argued with the resident. Police claim that the two caregivers held down the elderly resident, who has severe dementia, and sprayed water from a shower in her face to make her feel like she was drowning.

The Supreme Court in one state has ruled nursing home arbitration agreements that limit remedies in conflict with those allowed by state law are invalid. The justices in two separate cases ruled an appellate court erred by requiring arbitration over allegations of negligence against the nursing homes instead of letting them go to court. In each case the arbitration agreements included bans on punitive damages that are allowed by state law.

Officials from the Department of Public Health have quarantined a large nursing home due to an outbreak of norovirus. Several cases of the gastrointestinal illness were also reported at a nearby nursing home last week. The administrator of the facility has called family and friends of residents and told them not to visit, and residents are being told not leave their rooms.

A man discovered sexually assaulting an elderly nursing home resident in August allegedly told a state investigator that he had sexual contact with the woman more than once. The evidence of other sexual assaults surfaced during a court hearing this week to move the 83-year-old suspect from the nursing home into a secure facility. A visitor to the nursing home witnessed the man touching the woman inappropriately at the nursing home.