Over the past week, multiple reports of Connecticut nursing homes being fined for negligence surfaced, with the instances published in local newspapers.
According to the New Haven Register, the state Department of Public Health fined the Golden Hill Health Care Center in Milford, Bishop Wicke Health & Rehabilitation Center, Inc. in Shelton, Pope John Paul II Care and Rehabilitation Center in Danbury, the Portland Care & Rehabilitation Center, and the Chesterfields Health Care Center in Cheshire for several instances of negligence: not providing and monitoring proper patient care; not supervising residents, which resulted in injury or threats of injury to other patients; and using medication designed for a patient.
The Connecticut Post reported similar findings for three nursing homes and care facilities. One, the Candlewood Valley Health & Rehabilitation Center in New Milford, involved a female patient with maggot-infested wounds resulting from a lack of proper care. In this particular case, the patient, who had been refusing medication and treatment, had been given a psychiatric evaluation and was recommended to be transferred to an inpatient psychiatric facility. A doctor refused, claiming the patient was in no immediate danger. Because the patient continued to refuse treatment, her sores and wounds worsened.
In two other instances, residents did not receive proper treatment or experienced a neglect-related fall, which was the case at the Orchard Grove Specialty Care Center in Uncasville, or, like at Meriden’s Apple Rehab Coccomo, lost weight because of a lack of oversight from care providers.
These reports come at the same time assisted living and nursing home care costs are on the rise, nationally and in Connecticut. The Hartford Business Journal found the current national cost of assisted living care is $41,400 annually ($60,000 in Connecticut), after yearly increases of 4.3 percent. As a contrast, costs related to home healthcare remained steady over this period.
