According to a
report by NBC 10 News, a former administrator of Hillside
Health Center in Providence, Rhode Island was charged with 11
counts of felony patient neglect in connection with problems at
the now-closed nursing home. According to the report, the
administrator was charged with intentionally failing to provide
appropriate care and services to 11 patients. The state alleges
that the 11 victims' health and safety suffered because of a lack
of basic humane care and treatment at the facility while the
administrator was in charge. According to the report, the state's
Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit started investigating
Hillside in September 2003 following a complaint from the spouse
of one of the patients named in Thursday's charges. The report can
be found at :
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4618572/detail.html
While in this case the family complaint resulted in an
investigation and ultimately charges being filed, I am confident
this is the exception rather than the rule. Unfortunately, too
often families are unfamiliar with the complaint reporting systems
available in each state. For each complaint that is reported each
year, it is anyone's guess as to how many other incidents of
neglect or abuse go unreported each year. In my own practice
representing families of neglected or abused nursing home
patients, I find that very few of them are aware of the complaint
system in place. Unfortunately, the nursing homes benefit from
this gross under-reporting and the resulting under-investigation
of nursing home abuse and neglect.
If you have questions about how to make a complaint, you can call
the facility's ombudsman for more information. You can also call
the attorney general's office or the department of health in your
state (it may go by different names) and request the long-term
care complaint hotline telephone number. Typically, you can make
your complaint by telephone or in writing.
If you have more questions about this process, you can us at
888.922.2889.