Jacksonville Personal Injury Blog

This is an incredible story and sounds like it could result in a lawsuit for violating the rights of the elderly.

A St. Augustine, Florida man says that on Christmas Eve, his 65-year-old wife was moved to an Illinois nursing care center in Elmwood, without his approval or knowledge. Viola Jane White, 65, has been a patient at Kindred Hospital in Green Cove Springs, west of Jacksonville. She needs dialysis and a ventilator to live. Christmas eve, William White got a call from the hospital that his wife had been flown to Illinois.

What angers him is that the hospital staff decided that they didn’t need her husband’s approval to go.

"They said she agreed to it. She can't even sign her name. She don't know what day it is," White said to First Coast News. White got a letter last September stating that his wife’s Medicaid and Medicare benefits would be exhausted by mid-November. In order to stay at Kindred Hospital, White would have to come up with $1,000 a day.

But a federal program to serve the elderly should not be dictated by state. White says he was told the only option for his wife was to move out-of-state so she could receive Medicaid and Medicare.

"I said I don't agree to send my wife 1,000 miles away. I'm 72 years old!" White said, adding that he doesn't know when he'll get to see her again.

Professional intervention is needed here. Patients and their families express their wishes in writing to a nursing home or care facility and to violate those wishes, whether they be end of life issues or basic rights to fair and decent treatment cannot and should not be violated without consequences.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of nursing home abuse in Florida, contact the experienced attorneys at Farah and Farah today for a free consultation of your case.

Posted by Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Nursing Home Abuse

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Frequently our Florida Elder Neglect attorneys are asked whether hiring a home health aide to watch over an elderly loved one, in our home or theirs, is a good idea and what should someone look for.

You should treat the hiring of a home health care person with the same scrutiny as you would for your child.

First – consider what the home health care person is doing for your loved one.

If this person will be responsible for medically-related duties, he or she should be a licensed, certified nursing assistant, or CAN, who will be regulated by a state agency.

A CNA can work for a home health agency. Find out more about their qualifications: or call 850-245-4567.

However, if this person is hired to provide housekeeping, cooking and non-medical services, you may need to conduct your own background check.

In Florida, California, Connecticut, and at least 19 other states, non-medical home health care aides are not required to be licensed, certified nor regulated by a state agency. Criminal background checks are not required.

And that’s where the problems have come in. Stories of nursing home abuse in Florida and neglect of elderly patients in Jacksonville have been in the news, as have stories of identity theft or the theft of personal belongings, drugs or cash.

Be aware that most abuse and neglect cases involve non-medical aides hired to help around the house and that most victims are afraid to report the abuse.

If you are looking for a reputable, reliable home health care person, it’s probably a safer bet to go through an agency; however, be sure to ask the agency what background checks have been done and be sure they include, at a minimum, a state police criminal background check.

Make sure that the agency has run a national criminal database check to the extent it is possible. Some agencies do not have that authorization.

A Medicare or Medicaid home health agency requires training of at least 75 hours and an evaluation program. A licensed-only agency may require additional training above at least 40 hours or a competency test given by the agency.

Continue reading "Choosing Home Health Care Aides" »

Posted by Jacksonville Personal Injury Attorney | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Elder Neglect , Nursing Home Abuse

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