Nursing Home

EASTON -- The state medical examiner has found traces of morphine in the remains of a 91-year-old Eastern Shore woman whose body was exhumed last week to determine whether she was given a lethal dose of a powerful painkiller at a Worcester County nursing home.According to a preliminary autopsy report released by the medical examiner's office in Baltimore and made public yesterday, toxicological tests revealed an undisclosed level of the drug in tissue samples taken from the body of Maidie Lang Shay.

Workplace violence is a serious occupational hazard in hospitals and other health care facilities, a fact that has escaped an unsuspecting public. Nationally, nursing assistants employed by nursing homes have the highest incidence of workplace assault among all workers, according to federal data. For women who work in nursing homes, social services and hospitals, the likelihood of being harmed on the job is like that of women working the late-night shift in convenience stores. To draw attention to these and other hidden risks, the Alliance Against Workplace Violence has designated April as Workplace Violence Awareness Month.

An elderly man living at a local nursing home had bedsores and overgrown nails when he was brought in to Howard County General Hospital late last week, prompting an emergency room nurse to report suspected physical neglect to police.As a result of the police report, state officials say, they plan to investigate the care of Vernon Brown, 75, at the Lorien Nursing Home & Rehabilitation Center in Columbia's Hickory Ridge village.But the hospital already has determined that the elderly man did not suffer from any maltreatment, said Victor Broccolino, the hospital's president and chief executive officer.

As taken from the pages of The Aegis dated Thursday, March 28, 1963: The Harford Convalescing Home in Kalmia suffered a blaze that caused approximately $10,000 in damage 50 years ago this week. Twenty-six patients had to be evacuated to homes on the opposite side of Forge Hill Road until the fire could be brought under control. The fire swept through the rear building and damaged two others before being brought under control an hour later. Eleven fire trucks and eight ambulances arrived on the scene.

Surveys find that most people would rather continue living at home than go to a nursing home. But the aversion to such a facility is so strong that a new study of seriously ill people in hospitals found that 30 percent of those surveyed said they would rather die than live permanently in a nursing home.The study was the first to ask seriously ill patients to state a preference for either living in a nursing home or dying. The findings come from the Support study, the largest investigation in the United States of decision-making at the end of life.

I GOT A letter from a familiar address -- Niagara Falls, N.Y., the place where I grew up. The question it asked could have come from anywhere today. "A financial planner thinks I should buy a tax-deferred variable annuity. What do you think?"Salespeople are selling annuities to anyone who breathes. The reason is simple. They earn big commissions, in the 5 percent to 7 percent range.You don't notice this commission because it's not deducted up front. In fact, the annuity brochure may boast, "No initial sales charge."

Do you wonder what it would be like if your doctor had chosen to be specifically trained in geriatrics, felt proud to work with seniors and gave you the very best attention, respect and treatment? Can you imagine a hospital just for seniors? And what if this care were free or at minimal cost?The Institute of Geriatrics at the University of Montreal, Canada, has it all, which I discovered when I spent a day touring the facility. The institute is a teaching center, international interdisciplinary research center and a multicare hospital, all under one roof.

With Baltimore headed for a second straight day of triple-digit temperatures, health authorities ordered that all residents be moved from a Baltimore nursing home plagued with air conditioning problems. The 150 residents of Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on West Franklin Street are being transported to new locations, said David Paulson, communications director for Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. About 40 residents were moved Tuesday — after a resident called 911 to report stifling temperatures — but conditions did not improve markedly, so officials called for the broader relocation in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday.

AS I AM NOW approaching the twilight time of life, I cannot help but wonder if I will ever be a resident in a nursing home. The people who live in nursing homes seem to be either aged, incurable convalescents, or the mentally ill and disabled, dependent on constant custodial care. Perhaps there are a few who were discarded by their families. I shudder when I think about living in a house of strangers.I live close to a nursing home and am familiar with what goes on there. Sitting in my kitchen I have often heard strange sounds coming from the rooms.

With Baltimore sweating through a second straight day of triple-digit temperatures, state officials ordered the Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center to relocate all 150 patients because of problems with its air- conditioning system and began a comprehensive investigation of the facility. Throughout the day, residents in wheelchairs and on stretchers were loaded into vans and ambulances, as the West Franklin Street nursing home — where temperatures had climbed as high as 93 amid this week's heat wave — was gradually emptied.

In 2011, I spent six months in hospitals and nursing homes recovering from a bacterial infection called C-Difficile that I caught after surgery ("Nightmare bacteria," March 8). It is easily passed from patient to patient. While in the nursing homes I noticed a lack of the kind of proper care that would have prevented this potentially fatal illness. When I was admitted, not only was I placed in a semi-private room, exposing the other patient, I was given a remote control that had dried feces and blood on it. I reported it, but I'm sure this kind of thing happens constantly.

Many people think of nursing homes as places to go to die. But here in Maryland, skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers are in fact places people go to live. They are a big part of the solution to the state's health care challenges, providing quality and cost-effective transitional, rehab, long-term and high-acuity care to those in need. With the impending implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Maryland, we have an opportunity to identify and pilot ways in which Maryland's skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers can be essential to providing expanded care to people and families in need and deploying center‐based resources into the community for public health challenges.

A man was shot in the leg in the 500 block of W. Franklin Street, according to the Baltimore Police Twitter account. The shooting appeared to have happened in an alley by the Harborside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in the Seton Hill neighborhood, but no other information about the incident was immediately available. The shooting took place opposite Select Lounge where officers shot and killed a plainclothes policeman last year. A bouncer at the bar said the lounge was not connected to the shooting Thursday.

The Reisterstown-Owings Mills-Glyndon Chamber of Commerce held a chef competition last Thursday. Among the dozen or so competitors were Harryman House, Santoni's and Mr. Charles Market caterers. The winner for best dish, herb-encrusted chicken, came from Future Care Cherrywood, Future Care Cherrywood, a 165-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation center that specializes in Pulmonary Rehab, located in Reisterstown. "We are thrilled to support this annual community event and excited to be able to showcase the delicious food that is served at Cherrywood," said Future Care administrator Donna Leister.

Nearly 70 elderly patients and vulnerable adults must find new homes because of the planned closure of Harborside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore, a sprawling facility with numerous fire hazards uncovered in a recent state inspection. The nursing home - the first in Maryland to accept AIDS patients in 1985 - will shut down within the next month after Medicaid and Medicare stop paying for patient care. The federal health care programs decided to cut off funding after a March inspection by the state found more than 30 safety violations, primarily due to structural problems.

Helen Cruse, a retired nurse, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Jan. 31 at the Summit Park Nursing Home. The Gwynn Oak resident was 88. Born Helen Mariano in Baltimore, she was raised on Stricker Street and attended Baltimore City public schools. She later lived with family in New York City, where she became a nurse and worked for the Veterans Administration. She then returned to Baltimore and nursed at the old Provident Hospital and at Liberty Medical Center. She also worked at the Augsburg Lutheran Nursing Home.

The building that houses the Baltimore Nursing and Convalescent Center at 140 W. Lafayette Ave. in Bolton Hill was sold at auction yesterday for $825,000 to a local company, Mortgage Servicing Group, which had foreclosed on the property.Mortgage Servicing initiated foreclosure proceedings last year against the previous owner, a Pennsylvania-based group called Bolton Hill Limited Partnership.Edward Hirschhorn of Kowalsky & Hirschhorn P.A., the law firm representing Mortgage Servicing, said the building's use would not change.

Connie and Nancy, my best friends since the seventh grade, and I were chatting on a kind of cross-country speakerphone conference call - catching up on jobs, husbands, kids and, sadly, mothers in nursing homes. Connie's mother is in terrific physical health - for 92 - but her mind has left the building. Nancy's mother's mind is still sharp, but her body has quit on her. Connie's mother doesn't know her. Nancy's mother knows very well where she is, and how unhappy she is. We changed the subject to talk about our next girlfriend getaway, but I dragged the conversation back to the tough topic of aging.

When the Obama administration recently backed off a long-term insurance program that was part of the law to overhaul health care, we all lost. The so-called CLASS Act, which even supporters acknowledge had design flaws, would have allowed workers to voluntarily buy a long-term care policy regardless of their health. The benefit wasn't huge, but it might have been enough to allow some seniors to remain in their homes. And it was better than nothing — which is what most people have now. But as it turned out, the program wasn't financially sustainable and was dropped before it ever launched.