According to a new federal report nearly 9 in10 dementia patients in nursing homes are being given powerful anti-psychotic drugs, even though the drugs aren’t approved for that purpose. One state Senator is outraged that so many elderly people with Alzheimer’s disease are being fed medications that don’t help and might even harm them. The Senator is sending a letter to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in response to the report.

Authorities in one state have issued 15 citations after a nursing home illegally moved 14 residents out of the facility last year. The facility was ordered to pay $15,000 in fines in connection with the citations. Early last year the nursing home staff told residents of a locked dementia unit that they would have to move out, according to the California Department of Public Health.

A former nurse of a troubled nursing home is speaking out. The nurse said that the company cut corners on patient care every chance they could.  Latricia Hamblin, a licensed practical nurse, worked for seven years at the nursing home. Hamblin said she left the facility when she became concerned she was jeopardizing her nursing license by staying.

Three employees of the same retirement center have been arrested over the past two months for unrelated crimes, according police. Included in the arrests is the former administrator who apparently set the tone for an environment in which an 82-year-old woman was punched and her medication was stolen. The administrator is accused of stealing more than $4,000 from a 69-year-old Alzheimer’s patient.

According to a study in the May issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, about 15% of nursing homes are cited annually for deficiencies in infection control. Infections contribute to more than 380,000 deaths among nursing home residents each year. Researchers in the study analyzed eight years of nursing home certification data looking for infection control citations.

Three former employees of an assisted living facility have been charged criminally with abusing a 78-year-old resident who suffers from dementia. On Friday, the Department of Public Welfare revoked the facility’s license, citing “gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct.” The victim’s daughter and her husband said they moved her mother to the facility in January 2009 based on the facility’s reputation and the proximity to their home.  Within a month of moving in, the elderly woman bega…