an area elderly "care" facility. My MIL is suffering, asking for prayers/good thoughts. UNBELIEVABLE what I found out today. Just put a call into NYS nursing home emergency hotline.
Will update and tell more as soon as I can.
I was a nurses aide for years and just sick to my stomach.
rp, what will hospice do for you? Will they send somebody in there?
I know several people who tried providing in home care to elderly family members, only to throw in the towel. If the person is in need of skilled medical care to the point of being bedridden, or unable to be left alone for any length of time, or in need of so much medicine that they can't handle it solo, aperson who has to go out to work cannot do it. I know one woman whose mother is in advanced stages of dementia, she has given up her own life to watch her mother every single day once she gets out of work, and she has aides quit on her left and right so that she often has to take time off from work until the agencies can send her someone to watch her mother during the day. My grandmother had a massive stroke, but managed to live several more years severely disabled. My mother could not have cared for her MIL who needed around the clock care, and taken care of several young children at the same time. Nursing homes are supposed to be the humane alternative to having a frail elderly person lying neglected in a bed at home. Grandma Walton was able-bodied.
On this page, you will find information to help you contact Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and key links for reaching the Attorney General's Office.
To contact our office by phone, please call one of our hotlines:
General Helpline: 1-800-771-7755 TDD/TTY Toll Free Line: 1-800-788-9898 Immigration Fraud Hotline: 1(866) 390-2992 Healthcare Hotline: 1-800-428-9071 Medicaid Fraud Control Unit: 212-417-5397 To contact our office by mail, please write to:
Office of the Attorney General The Capitol Albany, NY 12224-0341
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
NYSDOH DRS/SNHCP Mailstop: CA/LTC Empire State Plaza Albany, NY 12237
If you are unable to submit your complaint by using the Nursing Home Complaint Form , then you may contact the Nursing Home Complaint hotline (1-888-201-4563) which can be called 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The hotline is manned by Nursing Home and ICF/MR Surveillance staff from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. A voicemail message may be left during non-business hours.
skilled care? by what definition? It's not about family morals and principles that folks stay home or not.....it's about the state usurping your own human mind and inserting fear/insecurity and the lies of 'we do it better for you'.....
FACT: we get old weak slow AND depressed about our lack of physical ability....and usually die from our lack of ability whether it be at home or in a nursing home....IT'S NATURAL AND INEVITABLE....
nursing homes hand out anti-depressants like fu(king halloween candy because family members are concerned about their loved one not eating as much, no talking as much and pretty much not being the person they remember them to be.....
bed sores happen...home or in facilities....IT'S A WHITE WASH FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO LIE TO US AND TELL US THEY POLICE IT.... the care the public wants others to provide for their family is unaffordable....YOU CAN'T AFFORD ME.....
not to mention what family does at home to take care of their loved ones is sufficient no matter what the state says... I've seen elders(who have been hoarders all their lives) get removed from their home because 'it's not safe'....was it safe when they were 40/50/60? people make what they make and do what they do and then we turn around and say "oops, you're unsafe because you're old"....why? most of them LIKE THEIR HOME no matter what we think and wish to die there....and here in lies our problem as a society, we impose our standards into a persons personal life even when they don't ask.....
I've seen family members ask for anti-depressant changes and psych visits because mom/dad/aunt/uncle etc had a conversation (normal conversation) with them about how they just wish it was like it used to be for them when they could walk, drive, hike, play cards etc etc....BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO RESPOND AS A HUMAN BEING, TO A NATURAL PROCESS....but, please don't stop eating and stay alive for me so I can visit you, I'll call the doctor.
it's not about morals and principles as much as it is about fear/unknown, at the same time knowing we will be there some day...
sometimes keeping elderly people 'safe' with 'medical care' is an intrusion into that human's life for the sake of not facing the inevitable.....
YOU CAN'T AFFORD ME AND I CAN'T AFFORD YOU....but what we each have in us IS SUFFICIENT NO MATTER WHAT THE 'EXPERTS' SAY.....
sometimes dying when one started, before someone interrupted them is the respectful thing to do......no matter what the 'experts' say.....
PS...bedsores ARE NOT ALWAYS PREVENTABLE....unless you duck tape a persons arms and legs to another human being to move for them 24/7....the robots are coming soon to fix this....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
senders I know bedsores happen have seen them when I was an aide but we turned patients and treated them. Any sign of a skin break/irritation was charted and told to the nurse.
But what I saw yesterday was not "just" a bedsore.
When you walk into a loved ones room and the smell of rotting flesh and infection hits you............
I know she is dying.
I know death is a fact of life for all of us.
But I also know that her lack of care is not normal.
That there refusal to let me document was not normal.
She has lived a long life, she raised her children, she has seen her grandchildren grow into adults and now has great grandchildren.
All I want for her is to be as pain free as possible, I do not want her to suffer as she is now.
She's a sweet kind lady and deserves the best care at the end of her life.
That's why I called hospice.
And also for her son's, they are going to need the support.
How about what happens to a bedsore when it's severely neglected? That's what "not just a bedsore" is. And a nursing home is a "long-term care facilty". "Skilled care"- needing professional nursing care more frequently than it can be provided in a home environment, unless you are Jackie Onassis. Nursing homes aren't just for the elderly, btw. If the elderly don't need hospital type care and can stay in a home or assisted living environment, that is wonderful. THere is nothing wrong with a family having to avail themselves of skilled facilities, and most do it as a last resort. My parents, both elderly andwith serious health conditions, are in their home, but that is because we are lucky enough to be able to manage it.
How about what happens to a bedsore when it's severely neglected? That's what "not just a bedsore" is. And a nursing home is a "long-term care facilty". "Skilled care"- needing professional nursing care more frequently than it can be provided in a home environment, unless you are Jackie Onassis. Nursing homes aren't just for the elderly, btw. If the elderly don't need hospital type care and can stay in a home or assisted living environment, that is wonderful. THere is nothing wrong with a family having to avail themselves of skilled facilities, and most do it as a last resort. My parents, both elderly andwith serious health conditions, are in their home, but that is because we are lucky enough to be able to manage it.
until what? until they either one has a stroke and loses 1/2 their body use and has to eat a special diet to prevent aspiration into the lungs....to what avail? And I'm not saying this to be mean, I really mean it as a thought that it is a possibility for everyone...not everyone just goes to sleep one night and off to where ever they go not to return again. To have a system set up to set quality standards to keep a human going will ALWAYS be substandard... there are no shows on TV depicting thought or insight...The golden girls was cute but NOT reality of aging by any stretch of the imagination. I would like to see the golden girls in a nursing home or at home with severe strokes, blindness caused by diabetes, dementia etc... maybe the Kardashians would like to star in it....oh wait we'd have to wait to long....maybe Streisand/Goldie Hawn will be up to the task....
Trapped like a rat in your own body with a bunch of people making choices they think are right, for you.
think about it...really really really think about it.....this is beyond just a bedsore as bad as they are.
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Life Expectancy Compression: The impact of moving into a long term care facility on length of life February 12, 2013 / Chris Orestis Download PDF Print This LifeCare Funding Publication Life Expectancy has been on an upward trajectory for over 100 years. According to the most recent report released by the AARP, the age group 65 and above will increase 89% over the next twenty years, and the 85 and older population will grow 74% during the same period. This rise in life expectancy, and the impact on quality of life was explored by James F. Fries in his 1982 study for the National Academy of Sciences entitled “The Compression of Morbidity”. In the paper, Fries contends that the aging population will live longer and in much better condition for a longer period of time due to improved lifestyles, nutrition, exercise, abstinence, and education. The flip side of this dynamic is that once people experience a disease or injury that requires long term care, the result is most often a dramatic decrease of life expectancy. For example, an age appropriately healthy 78 year old that lives an independent and active lifestyle might have a life expectancy of 15 years or greater. If that same individual suffered physical trauma or a disorder that required a move into a long term care facility, their life expectancy could be reduced 50%-75%.moving
The Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Home (Senior Living) industry currently houses approximately 2,000,000 people across 60,000 facilities in the United States. This represents one of the biggest components of our country’s health care system and as an industry, theses facilities experience the impact of “Life Expectancy Compression” on a daily basis. Average “length of stay” is a carefully tracked industry benchmark for determining turnover and occupancy metrics. In the annual State of the Senior Housing Industry report released by the American Senior Housing Association (ASHA) the Senior Living industry reported average length of stay in 2008: Assisted Living (21 months), Independent Living (38 months), CCRC (77 months) and Alzheimer’s Care (17 months). According to the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL), of those currently residing in an assisted living community 34% will move to a skilled nursing facility due to deteriorating health and 30% will die. The mortality rate of individuals moving into a skilled nursing facility is death within the first 12 months by as much as 50%-60%. The mortality rate is even higher in the first 6 months.
In addition to length of stay experience, there are a number of studies that have been conducted measuring life expectancy across significant population cohorts in various forms of long term care settings:
In the study Mortality-related factors and 1-year survival in nursing home residents it was concluded from a population of over 100,000 residents during a three year period: “Major factors associated with 1-year mortality were identified in both the newly admitted and long-stay cohorts. MDS data can identify major factors associated with 1-year mortality in newly admitted and long-stay nursing home residents.” The first year of residence in a nursing home is the highest risk of death for the resident.
The research paper Death Rates Following Nursing Home & Care Facility Placement concludes: “There is evidence that people with dementia admitted to nursing homes and care facilities die comparatively quickly. It is known that mortality rates are high, initially, when people move from their own homes. Mortality rates are especially high in nursing homes.” The mortality rate for an individual moving into an Alzheimer’s care unit within the first year is greater than 50%.
In recent years the insurance industry has begun taking a closer look at the unique factors of underwriting seniors. As more insurance products are sold to higher risk populations, it has become critical to better understand factors impacting morbidity and mortality. Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of RGA Reinsurance Company, J. Carl Holowaty, MD, DBIM, stated in a 2009 paper published in the Journal of the Academy of Life Underwriting that loss of ADL’s (activities of daily living: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, and continence) increases the risk of death. He also cites “will to live” in the elderly “must be taken very seriously” and that there is a relationship between mortality and degree of social engagement and changes in social patterns over time. Moving into an institutional care facility is possibly the single most disruptive event to patterns of social engagement that a person could experience (ranking maybe even higher than the death of a spouse).<
What has been observed by daily experience throughout the entire long term care industry, and supported by numerous studies, is that individuals living in institutional care (regardless of age) will have significantly shorter life expectancies than their contemporaries living independently. Mortality is not only driven by their condition, but also by the impact of the significant change in environment. There are intangible factors such as “will to live” and tangible factors such as exposure to communicable diseases in the group environment that all come together to “compress” their life expectancy. Until very recently, actuarial tables and life expectancy calculations have ignored this well known and well documented fact. But now, the reality of this dynamic is becoming more important as the population of people reaching the compression point is increasing. Accurate underwriting in today’s “Silver Tsunami” driven world must take into account that people may be living longer and healthier lives, but when they cross the morbidity threshold, their life expectancies drop dramatically.
Exhibits 1. Length of Stay Data, Group 1 (Skilled Nursing Provider)
2008:
Medicaid admissions= 149 residents @ 379 days Private Pay admissions= 77 residents @ 335 days
2. Length of Stay Data, Group 2 (Assisted Living Provider)
2007-2009(Q2):
44 deceased residents with a combined average length of stay of 2.9 years –75% female –25% male
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