Everyone wants to know. How do you check a Nursing Home.
After all we want to be sure to put Mom or dad somewhere safe.
Well, the very first thing is to visit and I do not mean the sugar coated tour that is all fuzzy and warm with the administrator just gushing!
I mean go late in the evening about 6:00 P.M. and say you want to look around cause you have to place aunt Bertie. Take your time and mosey along. Don't let them rush you.
Next check the site Nursing home compare.com and see how many gigs they got on surveys and have they corrected them? Next check the county courthouse how many times have they been sued. then go to the attorney General site for your state and look under businesses and find out who really owns the joint. You will need this later.
While you were at the Home ask for a copy of the admission agreement so you can let your brother in Alaska know what it says more or less. ( this will give you a chance to see if there is a clause in it that says you cannot sue them for any reason and you agree to arbitration. It also tells you who the management company is. so you can find out where it is from and how many times they have been prosecuted or sued.
All this info will not do you much good because they are pretty much all the same. Now if you place your family member in one of these places it is all your fault when they die prematurely, because after all you signed the clause.
I am telling you all this because you need to see just how crooked every Nursing Facility actually is.
So what do you do? You keep your family member home and collect from the government for taking care of them.That program is now available and you need to do the right thing and take advantage of it. Can't quit your job and lose your retirement? Got a niece, sister in law, daughter, grandchild who needs a job? Call us if you need help accessing this program 816-598-3836,. This is the only way you will ever be able to live with yourself. Let this family member age in place. In their own home, in your home, and by the way if you move them to your place you get to charge room and board just like facilities do. But, please be reasonable. Contact us and we will tell you all the wonderful programs that will help with this.You can even get respite! Call us and let us help you do the right thing! Call 816-598-3836.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Let's Just Stop and Talk About Nursing Facilities
I have people call me, stop me on the street, email me every day. They all want to know if the situations I describe here are really that bad? Yes, they are and worse! I invite anyone of you to go spend the night in a Nursing facility, any Nursing Facility, just pick one. You will see and hear things that will give you nightmares and make you never want to enter one again. But, that won't happen and I will tell you why. They don't allow anyone to know the atrocities that take place on the night shift. They will tell you it is because of insurance. ( nonsense, anyone can sign a waiver for insurance). As an investigator I spent many nights in a nursing home, yes I lied to get in there.
I saw bath blankets being bunched up between frail little old ladies for a long term diaper that would hold that urine against her body and cause bed sores, this was great to eliminate the need for more staff at night. I saw residents who were dying being given " End Of Life" therapy. I saw psychotropic drugs given in dosages that would bring a horse down, used to keep the majority docile thus the need for staff was less. I saw laundry help, kitchen help and housekeeping staff all made to feed residents so they could get them finished and not need nursing staff to feed the demented. The hardest thing I saw was doctors ordering morphine mixed with drugs to stop the heart which was a form of euthanasia. It is getting rather prevalent now days. You see Medicaid pays so much for drugs and then when it appears there is no way that resident will recover it cuts back. Yes folks we have palliative care NOT curative care in nursing facilities. The Nursing Facility is truly the last stop before the funeral home, I know that is harsh but it is truth. The staff is usually mean or short tempered with the residents because they are tired from doing the work of two or three people and always work short staffed. It catches up after a bit and the ones that hang on because they need the job become irritable.
Nursing facilities have discovered the wonderful billing of Hospice and decided to take up that service as well except not legally. Then they can collect for therapy, palliative care and skilled nursing. Super great! This makes the end of life worth another extra ten thousand to twenty thousand per person. thus the need to get them gone and admit some more. It is like a revolving service. They come, there a year at the most and go. And the money just rolls in! Yes these are real snakes that own these places. Would you like to know what kind of people they are? Try Doctors, Lawyers, Insurance men, pharmaceutical companies. All great upstanding citizens! It will blow your mind to look at the list of Nursing Home owners. Many many of them are groups of business men. and they could care less what kind of treatment those residents receive, We even caught some of them organizing facilities, getting them managed by companies then selling them overseas. Is this the type of place you want to place your family member?
I saw bath blankets being bunched up between frail little old ladies for a long term diaper that would hold that urine against her body and cause bed sores, this was great to eliminate the need for more staff at night. I saw residents who were dying being given " End Of Life" therapy. I saw psychotropic drugs given in dosages that would bring a horse down, used to keep the majority docile thus the need for staff was less. I saw laundry help, kitchen help and housekeeping staff all made to feed residents so they could get them finished and not need nursing staff to feed the demented. The hardest thing I saw was doctors ordering morphine mixed with drugs to stop the heart which was a form of euthanasia. It is getting rather prevalent now days. You see Medicaid pays so much for drugs and then when it appears there is no way that resident will recover it cuts back. Yes folks we have palliative care NOT curative care in nursing facilities. The Nursing Facility is truly the last stop before the funeral home, I know that is harsh but it is truth. The staff is usually mean or short tempered with the residents because they are tired from doing the work of two or three people and always work short staffed. It catches up after a bit and the ones that hang on because they need the job become irritable.
Nursing facilities have discovered the wonderful billing of Hospice and decided to take up that service as well except not legally. Then they can collect for therapy, palliative care and skilled nursing. Super great! This makes the end of life worth another extra ten thousand to twenty thousand per person. thus the need to get them gone and admit some more. It is like a revolving service. They come, there a year at the most and go. And the money just rolls in! Yes these are real snakes that own these places. Would you like to know what kind of people they are? Try Doctors, Lawyers, Insurance men, pharmaceutical companies. All great upstanding citizens! It will blow your mind to look at the list of Nursing Home owners. Many many of them are groups of business men. and they could care less what kind of treatment those residents receive, We even caught some of them organizing facilities, getting them managed by companies then selling them overseas. Is this the type of place you want to place your family member?
Do We Need More Laws to Stop Elder Abuse.?
Everyone is shouting to get more legislation, more laws, stiffer penalties. Let's stop all of the Nursing Homes from Abusing the Elderly!
Absolutely! We need all the laws we can get, and then some more! However, it WILL NOT STOP THE ABUSE. Why? because who are you going to get to enforce all these laws?
The Police will not touch any of it without rock hard evidence, The state Police will laugh at you and most county sheriff Deputies will just tell you it is not worth their time.
The office of the Aging will tell you their hands are tied, and to call an Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman is there to help the Nursing Home so that will be a waste. Do you know why this is so?? Let me help you to learn about Elder Abuse Laws.
First of all, Grandma or Grandpa are already confused, and guess who controls their daily" Dementia cocktail?" You guessed it! The Abusers do. Grandpa and Grandma will not even be able to tell you what happened in a coherent way. So their babbling and confusion helps Substantiate the story from the facility of how they tried to get up and fell and when staff was trying to help the resident was just strongly combative. Yes folks no law enforcement is going to even try to doubt medical staff.
Even if the officer is a bit suspicious himself he will not go against them. See they have all the documentation to prove their story. They have a thing called "The Chart" Now in this "chart" they put all events , procedures, behaviors, and every time the resident breathes a different way. This chart is signed, initialed and considered gospel in a court of law. And there was in fact a time when that was true!.
However times have changed and blankets of deceit have been created to protect the Nursing facility owners.
So how will you get a prosecution? How will you have the perpetrator arrested? Grandma may say they hit her but she is so out of it most of the time who will believe her? Those bruises? They are going to become her own doing because she was aggressive and trying to fight everyone.
We have a very serious problem folks and no one knows what to do to find a solution.
We have politicians who help pass laws and it stops there! You say you want to sue them? How? The owners do not run their own facilities any longer. Noooo, they have management companies running them now so their hands are nice and squeaky clean. Besides you or someone in your family signed the Admission contract with a clause that states you will not sue or pursue any prosecution and instead you will go to Arbitration and hey, you will even pay for it! Read your admission contracts folks.
There are solutions and there are ways to beat them at their own games. You have to be Gutsy, Bold and willing to fight back. We teach you how and we teach you all the dirty little tricks in the book they use. We help you win your own war and get them stopped, but you have to want to fight to win. Because when it all comes down to the fine line. You put your family member in that place. They will make you look like the ungrateful red headed step child and the court will believe them. This is a terrible fight, one you have to win no matter how dirty it gets. In the end it could have all been avoided , you did not have to put them there. Let us teach you how to do your homework first, Know where you are putting them and who will be caring for your beloved, as well as the alternatives that are available. We can help you understand, and make an informed decision.
Absolutely! We need all the laws we can get, and then some more! However, it WILL NOT STOP THE ABUSE. Why? because who are you going to get to enforce all these laws?
The Police will not touch any of it without rock hard evidence, The state Police will laugh at you and most county sheriff Deputies will just tell you it is not worth their time.
The office of the Aging will tell you their hands are tied, and to call an Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman is there to help the Nursing Home so that will be a waste. Do you know why this is so?? Let me help you to learn about Elder Abuse Laws.
First of all, Grandma or Grandpa are already confused, and guess who controls their daily" Dementia cocktail?" You guessed it! The Abusers do. Grandpa and Grandma will not even be able to tell you what happened in a coherent way. So their babbling and confusion helps Substantiate the story from the facility of how they tried to get up and fell and when staff was trying to help the resident was just strongly combative. Yes folks no law enforcement is going to even try to doubt medical staff.
Even if the officer is a bit suspicious himself he will not go against them. See they have all the documentation to prove their story. They have a thing called "The Chart" Now in this "chart" they put all events , procedures, behaviors, and every time the resident breathes a different way. This chart is signed, initialed and considered gospel in a court of law. And there was in fact a time when that was true!.
However times have changed and blankets of deceit have been created to protect the Nursing facility owners.
So how will you get a prosecution? How will you have the perpetrator arrested? Grandma may say they hit her but she is so out of it most of the time who will believe her? Those bruises? They are going to become her own doing because she was aggressive and trying to fight everyone.
We have a very serious problem folks and no one knows what to do to find a solution.
We have politicians who help pass laws and it stops there! You say you want to sue them? How? The owners do not run their own facilities any longer. Noooo, they have management companies running them now so their hands are nice and squeaky clean. Besides you or someone in your family signed the Admission contract with a clause that states you will not sue or pursue any prosecution and instead you will go to Arbitration and hey, you will even pay for it! Read your admission contracts folks.
There are solutions and there are ways to beat them at their own games. You have to be Gutsy, Bold and willing to fight back. We teach you how and we teach you all the dirty little tricks in the book they use. We help you win your own war and get them stopped, but you have to want to fight to win. Because when it all comes down to the fine line. You put your family member in that place. They will make you look like the ungrateful red headed step child and the court will believe them. This is a terrible fight, one you have to win no matter how dirty it gets. In the end it could have all been avoided , you did not have to put them there. Let us teach you how to do your homework first, Know where you are putting them and who will be caring for your beloved, as well as the alternatives that are available. We can help you understand, and make an informed decision.
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Holidays Are Gone, Now What?
As we take down the Christmas tree with all the various decorations, along with the lighted villages, it becomes almost bittersweet.
Good to be done with all the cooking , shopping, wrapping and oohs and ah's over each gift you receive.
All, while you wonder what in the world will I ever use that for?or oh goody, another plant to torture with my black thumb. Does it make you wonder if the kids even notice that you have no living greenery in the entire house?
Getting it all cleaned and packed neatly away till next year is a three day job by itself.
New Years is still another pain in the butt. You almost feel obligated to stay up and watch the ball drop as a new year creeps around the corner.
I am not sure about so many others but at seventy two years old my bed is beckoning me way before midnight. However I think I found a viable solution. Since my original roots are from New York state, I watch the Dick Clark ball drop at eleven p.m Midwest time on television. This allows me to see the New Year in appropriately and go to bed just a few moments after eleven p.m.
I do know it is cheating but it gives me a sense of satisfaction I saw the New year in and I was true to my native roots. I know, silly musings, but they do work for me.
All the Holiday cheer has been packed away and consumed. ( which ever is appropriate for any given situation and I wonder ... what comes next?
After being so busy for well over three months it now seems empty and strangely quite. Maybe because during the Holidays we Elders hear from and see our family members more often and somehow catch up on each one's life , and reconnect once again. Then afterwards there is this void of no one or nothing once more. We can't just pick up the phone and ask about a size or color as an excuse to have a conversation with any member of our younger generation.
No, now we have that cold silence and we feel we are just not important enough to keep informed of everything. That is when many of us start to feel lonely, isolated,sad, and resenting growing old.
We don't have to, we do it to ourselves, our children and grandchildren have lives to live. We did a great job of teaching them to do that, you know? So, now what?
How about we stop eating worms, and we do something for us? Let's take a cruise, or a rock and roll cruise. How about a paddle boat cruise on the great Mississippi even? Or , we could take a vacation. Somewhere here in the states that we always wanted to visit. Don't feel like traveling? let's paint the kitchen or better yet go get a makeover at Ulta Beauty ! Call a friend and have a day at the spa! Let's just do something for us! It will lift our spirits and help us feel alive again.
We need to remember to take care of us and be all that we can be. After all we are old, not DEAD!
Good to be done with all the cooking , shopping, wrapping and oohs and ah's over each gift you receive.
All, while you wonder what in the world will I ever use that for?or oh goody, another plant to torture with my black thumb. Does it make you wonder if the kids even notice that you have no living greenery in the entire house?
Getting it all cleaned and packed neatly away till next year is a three day job by itself.
New Years is still another pain in the butt. You almost feel obligated to stay up and watch the ball drop as a new year creeps around the corner.
I am not sure about so many others but at seventy two years old my bed is beckoning me way before midnight. However I think I found a viable solution. Since my original roots are from New York state, I watch the Dick Clark ball drop at eleven p.m Midwest time on television. This allows me to see the New Year in appropriately and go to bed just a few moments after eleven p.m.
I do know it is cheating but it gives me a sense of satisfaction I saw the New year in and I was true to my native roots. I know, silly musings, but they do work for me.
All the Holiday cheer has been packed away and consumed. ( which ever is appropriate for any given situation and I wonder ... what comes next?
After being so busy for well over three months it now seems empty and strangely quite. Maybe because during the Holidays we Elders hear from and see our family members more often and somehow catch up on each one's life , and reconnect once again. Then afterwards there is this void of no one or nothing once more. We can't just pick up the phone and ask about a size or color as an excuse to have a conversation with any member of our younger generation.
No, now we have that cold silence and we feel we are just not important enough to keep informed of everything. That is when many of us start to feel lonely, isolated,sad, and resenting growing old.
We don't have to, we do it to ourselves, our children and grandchildren have lives to live. We did a great job of teaching them to do that, you know? So, now what?
How about we stop eating worms, and we do something for us? Let's take a cruise, or a rock and roll cruise. How about a paddle boat cruise on the great Mississippi even? Or , we could take a vacation. Somewhere here in the states that we always wanted to visit. Don't feel like traveling? let's paint the kitchen or better yet go get a makeover at Ulta Beauty ! Call a friend and have a day at the spa! Let's just do something for us! It will lift our spirits and help us feel alive again.
We need to remember to take care of us and be all that we can be. After all we are old, not DEAD!
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