Dan Frith

How many times have we read in the newspapers or heard from friends about a resident-upon-resident attack in a nursing home? It happens frequently! Dementia and frustration can lead the most tranquil of residents to push, pull, and hit other residents. Some residents are very “territorial” and see roommates, and…

Now that should get their attention! Cottonwood Healthcare in Woodland has received an “AA” citation and a $90,000 fine, the most severe under state law, after the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) concluded an investigation into what lead to the death of 89-year-old Eva Anita Morgan. Records show that…

I think so don’t you? Isn’t that what we teach our children? Admit when you are wrong and say you are sorry! Now, there is a national movement to encourage healthcare professionals to follow such simple rules when their errors constitute medical negligence and the patient is injured as a…

The typical medical school education teaches it’s doctors-to-be to match the patient’s symptoms to a mental medical encyclopedia of diagnoses. (A great episode from the TV comedy Seinfeld comes to mind wherein Kramer’s complaints of certain symptoms are correctly diagnosed by the doctor in training as gonorrhea!) However, Dr. Jerome…

Federal officials fined a Kansas City nursing home $10,000 in the November death of a resident whose neck became pinned between a bed rail and mattress, reported The Kansas City (KS) Star. The facility violated two federal regulations, a state regulation, and a state law in its handling of the…

We typically report the bad news surrounding nursing homes and bad medical care. Well, here we report some good news! A recent furnace malfunction at the Woodhaven Nursing Home in Montvale, Virginia led to an orderly and timely evacuation of all endangered residents – most importantly, no one was hurt…

I want to recommend a resource to those reading our blog and looking for a good resource on important information on America’s number one health issue – the abuse of the elderly. The National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) is a national resource for elder rights, law enforcement and legal…

If you are considering moving into an assisted living facility you better read the lengthy series of articles published by the Washington Post in 2004 on problems with Virginia’s assisted living industry. Assisted living facilities are designed to offer more freedom to its residents, who are often more healthy than…

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has oversight responsibility for 18,000 nursing homes in the U.S. receiving state or federal support (read money). However, CMS is doing a bad job of punishing those facilities which are providing substandard and negligent care. According to a report issued by the…