The Bethesda Retirement Center, a not-for-profit home near Chicago, recently organized a night out at a biker bar called the Evil Olive after nursing home resident Elizabeth Barrett asked about it. A group of residents wanted to go, so the facility's life enrichment director put it together. Ms. Barrett had the idea of the residents dressing up as bikers for their night on the town. So, one man and seven women, ranging in age from sixty-five to ninety-seven and dressed up in full biker regalia, and invaded the Evil Olive. The Chicago chapter of A.B.A.T.E. showed up numerous members for the event, as did the Latino American Motorcycle Association. About 100 people attended, to help raise funds for a touch-screen computer for the residents to use for internet access back at the home.

Some of the experienced bikers in the crowd had planned to go for a spin on their motorcycles with the residents, but the night was too cold. Maybe next time. Thanks go to Chicago's NBC affiliate for reporting.

During a visit with her in 2006, Mrs. Arellano's family members noticed that she had unexplained bruises. Alarmed, they notified the administrators of the nursing home. The nursing home, however, decided not to investigate at all, according to reports. Still concerned, the family set up a hidden camera on a side table, to capture what was happening when they could not be there. You see, Mrs. Arellano could not speak because of the stroke.

What the family saw shocked them.

Nursing home employee Monica Garcia was seen slapping Mrs. Arellano. Garcia bent back her wrists and fingers. She pulled Mrs. Arellano by her hair. Garcia was violent and cruel in her treatment of her helpless patient.

What's worse is that the nursing home knew there was a problem with Garcia, but they allowed her to work with the residents anyway. At the trial, the jury saw evidence that a number of families had complained about potential abuse inside the nursing home, and at least one other family had named Garcia in writing.

The Arellano family offered to settle their legal claims for $500,000 - but the Fillmore Convalescent Center offered them nothing - not a penny - to settle the case.

Berenson examined government inspection reports, evidence from lawsuits, and federally-mandated reports, before he concluded that there is reason for concern about the care being given to the patients in Select Medical Corporation hospitals, and in other long-term care hospitals around the country. For example, according to the article, Select hospitals were cited nearly four times more often for Medicare violations than the rate for regular hospitals in 2007 and 2008. Also, long-term care hospitals have a significantly higher rate of bedsores and infections than the rate in regular hospitals. These problems, according to the Times, can be traced directly to the understaffing of these hospitals.

Not enough staff creates poor care. It's that simple.

In our area, Select Medical Corporation owns facilities in Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, Georgia; Durham and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Bristol, Knoxville and North Knoxville, Tennessee.

Select Medical's biggest competitor is another for-profit, publicly-traded company, Kindred Healthcare. Kindred Healthcare has facilities nearby in Charleston, South Carolina; Atlanta, Fayetteville, Marietta, and Savannah, Georgia; and in Chapel Hill, Durham, Gastonia, Graham, Greensboro, Kinston, Lincolnton, Monroe, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, Scotland Neck, Wilmington, and Zebulon, North Carolina.

Whether it is a nursing home or a long-term care hospital, when there is a high turnover rate, and a long-term understaffing problem, patient care will inevitably suffer, and preventable injuries and deaths can occur.

John Danzy was 76 years old, and an Alzheimer’s patient who was placed in the care of the Brooklyn Queens Nursing Home in Brooklyn in 2002. According to the Danzy family, when he was admitted into the nursing home, he was walking without assistance, and he weighed almost 250 pounds. His condition rapidly changed as the nursing home began to "care" for him. After only nine months Mr. Danzy could no longer walk, he lost 100 pounds, and twenty bedsores riddled his body.

When his family discovered his condition, Mr. Danzy was transferred to another facility, but it was too late. He unfortunately succumbed to infections in the bedsores. To make matters worse, when Mr. Danzy’s family expressed concern over the treatment that Mr. Danzy had endured, the nursing home reportedly altered their records to make them appear that they were giving Mr. Danzy the attention and care that is required by law, according to reports. An FBI specialist who examined the records testified that over one hundred alterations were made to the nursing home records before they were provided to Mr. Danzy's family. The good citizens of New York who served on the jury did not appreciate the nursing home's apparent attempt at creative writing. Mr. Danzy’s estate was awarded $3.75 million for the pain and suffering Mr. Danzy endured at the end of his life, and to punish the nursing home for its egregious conduct, the jury added an additional $15 million.

Family members came to visit her often. Soon, they started noticing strange bruising on Maria’s body. Naturally, this worried them. It worried them enough to talk to the folks in charge of the home. They wanted to know what was causing all the bruising. But according to the family, their inquiries and complaints went unanswered. So they did what any reasonable family would do to protect their loved one. They set up a video camera in her room and hid it on her nightstand. And what they caught on tape was unthinkable.

It showed an employee of the nursing home, Monica Garcia, slapping the helpless Maria, pulling her around by her hair, painfully bending her fingers, neck, and wrists, and shoving and pushing her around in a shower chair. Monica Garcia ended up being charged for criminal battery. Ms. Garcia pled no contest and served only 10 days on work release. Maria’s family filed suit against the facility for hiring and keeping on staff such a person, and a jury of citizens awarded $7.5 million against the facility for the harm done to Maria.

It is a betrayal of our trust – pure and simple.

Poor treatment causes painful (and even deadly) decubitus ulcers (bedsores), unsanitary conditions, repeated infections, dehydration, dramatic weight loss, falls, broken bones, and sometimes even death.

According to press reports, secret cameras were tucked away above several residents’ rooms and above the staffs’ break room. The cameras were set to run 24 hours a day and were fed to a closed-circuit television that was in the administrator’s office. The administrator apparently stated that the system was set up to deter theft and in some cases to prove theft. However, there is no proof that thievery had ever been a problem at the home. It was later discovered that no resident or family member have ever been advised that their privacy was being invaded by the clandestine cameras. To further this nursing home’s woes, the mold investigation proved positive. Mold in a nursing home can be particularly problematic due to the fact that residents are prone to respiratory illnesses.

About three months later, on one of his regular visits to see his wife, Alvin found his wife unresponsive. He immediately called 911 and she was taken to the hospital. She was found to have bruising on her head and broken ribs, as well as punctured lung.

Eventually, after much effort, Alvin found out that Elaine had fallen the night before, but the nursing home decided that all she required was to be put back in bed. No one called her family nor was any doctor called in to check on her after the fall.

It took nearly a year for Elaine to recover from her fall. Although he was 92 years old, Alvin was no pushover when it came to Elaine. Alvin went to court because of how the nursing home had treated his sweetheart. After a long battle, the jury members determined that Elaine's medical bills and the harm to her should be valued at $1.3 million. Sadly, Alvin did not live to see justice done.

What I hope, more than anything here, is that ManorCare learned a lesson, and that they will hire enough qualified staff to care for all their residents. All of them. ManorCare is a giant corporation, and thousands and thousands of lives are at stake.

When her daughter first walked into Gloria's room, she just thought that she was slumped over. Gloria's daughter immediately ran to her side to help Gloria up, only to notice that her mother’s body was no longer warm. In fact, her body was cold. How long had her mother gone unnoticed in this condition? Gloria’s daughter also noticed that there was no call button within reach of her mother. The nursing home informed the daughter that they had just recently checked on her mother. And according to the funeral home, Gloria’s time of death is listed as 9:00 a.m. on June 21, 2009. But Gloria’s daughter disputes that finding. She arrived at the nursing home about 9:30. How could a body get that cold in just under half an hour? No one will ever know what happened in the last hours of Gloria Baral’s life. They will never know if she suffered or passed peacefully. Gloria’s family has filed an official complaint against the nursing home and may well pursue legal recourse, to ensure that no other resident or family member will suffer in the same way.

Thanks go to our local CBS affiliate, WLTX, for picking up this story. It is critically important that the public be made aware of what is really going on inside our communities' nursing homes.

In April, 2008 a state inspector was making a routine visit to the facility, when he found a resident who was a bilateral amputee, outside, asleep with a smoldering cigarette burning a hole into a towel that was covering his left stump. According to this inspector, there was smoke rising from the hole in the towel and the edge of the hole was still burning bright red. The resident had been labeled a safe smoker despite the fact that he had been found previously with a lit cigarette in his mouth and he was fast asleep. The resident was also found to have bedsores covering his amputated limbs and buttocks. The State had initially fined the nursing home $41,000 for both incidents but a settlement was later reached.

The nursing home only had to pay $16,000.