Texas Leads the Nation in Negligent Nursing Homes

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Texas has had more nursing home violations than any other state.  In fact, 17 percent of Texas’s 1,198 nursing homes have been cited for serious violations. This is one out of every six nursing homes.
Keeneland Nursing and Rehab in Weathorford is one example. In March 2011, federal inspectors visited the facility. They found 22 violations of nursing home standards, including:

• Use of chemical restraints for the sake of staff convenience rather than to treat medical symptoms
• Lack of documentation when patients were given medication
• Failure to protect patients from abuse and physical punishment
• Failure to ensure adequate training of nursing staff
• Failure to report and investigate acts of abuse
• Failure to implement written policies and procedures that prohibit mistreatment, neglect, and abuse
• Failure to keep the nursing home free from accident hazards and to provides adequate supervision to prevent avoidable accidents

The 70-page nursing-home-deficiency report contains many examples of incidents that may be considered nursing home abuse in Texas. For example, a female patient with dementia was held down and given an injection of saline as punishment for acting out. Another patient was threatened with being left in his wheelchair all night as punishment for yelling at bed time.
There are also instances of neglect. A patient was found face-down in a pool of blood after falling from her wheelchair because her seatbelt was left undone. She received 15 stitches to the forehead.
The facility was fined $80,000 and suspended for one of its regular Medicare payments. Will this make a difference? Probably not. Only eight months earlier, the facility was fined for failing to provide high-quality care.
This is just one example. There are 197 other nursing homes in Texas that have been cited for serious deficiencies.
Learn more about Texas nursing home abuse and neglect. Request a free copy of Dallas nursing home injury attorney Jeff Rasansky’s book, Warning Signs of Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse. If you suspect your loved one is being abused, take action. Please call Rasansky Law Firm at (214) 651-6100 to schedule a free consultation.