About Arkansas Issue One: Called Tort Reform
2. Until my sister was in four assisted living and nursing homes over a period of three years, and I learned how patients are treated.
3. Until I heard lawsuits like the McDonald's hot coffee suit explained and learned that what McDonald's was fined for punitive damages was only their profits on coffee for less than 2 days, any lesser amount wouldn't have caused McDonald's any concern. ABC News called the case "the poster child of excessive lawsuits" These facts made me realize the media was manipulating the public, as they have done so many times in the past, in order to do away with juries.
If you have a loved one in a nursing home, you may not want to read The Rest of this:
This is what I discovered about assisted living and nursing homes when my sister was in 4 different ones. Owners do all kinds of things in order to pocket more of the profits, and that the nursing home owners are the main ones pushing for this Issue One - called Tort Reform.
For one, the nursing homes use the cheapest medicines possible and pay the helpers as little as possible. They also hire as few workers as possible so they can make more profits, and there are always people who don't show up for work, so they are always very short handed which results in many other problems.
The workers, being shorthanded, sometimes have to get some of the patients up as early as 4:00 a.m. to get them ready for breakfast at 8:00, and patients have to be lined up and sit in their wheel chairs for 4 hours.
I stayed with my sister two days a week the first year she was in the nursing home after breaking her neck, and for the next two years two days every other week so I was able to observe this many times. Being short on help also results in patients not receiving the attention they need in many other areas.
The experience below is a good example of how patients are treated. Shortly after my sister moved to the third nursing home after having fallen to the floor a few times, each time having to go to the hospital for a few days, two workers from the former nursing home came and applied for a job at the new place, hoping to find better working conditions.
They knew this was where my sister, Nancy, had relocated. They came to her room and told us exactly what had happened the night Nancy had fallen and which led to removing Nancy from that nursing home. They gave Nancy and me the following details.
Things they told me, most of which I had already observed. I typed these things the told us in my notes on my iPhone:
1. That the administration at the nursing home lie all the time to cover up and don't care about the patients. And that they don't want the workers talking to the patients and the families and that they are way too short on staff. That Nancy did not fall in the dining room as the administrator had said, [ to cover up the truth and avoid a lawsuit,] but fell out by the Christmas tree.
2. One worker said she was in the dining room and out of the corner of her eye saw someone on the floor out by the Christmas tree. Looking closer she said she saw it was Nancy. She said Nancy had been doing fine that day and was not leaning or anything and she too was puzzled about how Nancy could have fallen. She said Nancy was lying on her face in a pool of blood, and she was afraid Nancy could not breathe so she told them to turn her face where she could breathe.
3. They both said the nurses had them put Nancy back in the wheel chair where she sat for about twenty minutes with blood running down her face and then made the two workers put Nancy back in the bed; that is where the ambulance picked her up.
4. They said the nurses didn't even tell the ambulance workers that it was an emergency and that the emergency workers would have come very quickly if they had known it was an emergency.
5. Again the worker said Nancy sat there with blood running down her face for about twenty minutes and then told the workers to put her back in the bed.
6. Both of them said they were puzzled about why Nancy was going in the direction of the Christmas tree in the wrong direction from her room because if she left the dining room by herself in her wheel chair, she always went the other direction to her own room. [They were basically saying the nurses were trying to cover up the reason for Nancy falling.]
7. One worker said she has heard Faye (the administrator) totally exaggerate the number of aides the nursing home has and other lies, and both said the administrator did not care at all about the patients.
8. The worker said about ten patients had left the nursing home, and she thinks lawsuits are being filed. And she said she thought they would probably shut the place down. [If there were suits filed I never heard about them.] The place is still open.
There are always reasons why people don't file suit.
One is the fear that no other nursing home will take the patient; and in my sister's case, no one else could take care of her at this stage but a nursing home. She had a rare form of Parkinson's and could not even press the button for a nurse months before she died. Her mind was still good to the end despite all the abuse she took the last three years of her life.
Families also know the nursing homes have the best lawyers and have access to the very best expert witnesses so they know it is a long shot if they could ever win, not to mention the financial problem. Most families who have loved ones in nursing homes are already financially strapped.
Issue One would make it even harder for families to obtain a lawyer. In states where lawyers' fees are capped, people often can't even find a lawyer to take their case because lawyers know very well the cost of expert witnesses, etc. to which the nursing homes and big businesses have access, and they realize they may never get back the money and time they put into the case.
Editor's Update on Issue 1: Talk Business.net reported: "The contentious tort reform constitutional amendment 1 on the November ballot, is off the ballot – for now. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce ruled Thursday (Sept. 6) said sections of the proposed amendment were not all “reasonably germane” and failed to meet the “single-subject test.” . . .
"Carl Vogelpohl, campaign manager for Arkansans for Jobs and Justice, said the group will seek an Arkansas Supreme Court hearing on Judge Pierce’s ruling.
“As previously stated, regardless of how the judge ruled today, this issue is going to ultimately be decided by the Arkansas Supreme Court. Because this case began in the lower court, today’s ruling is simply a step in the process of presenting the case to the Supreme Court. A large majority of the Arkansas General Assembly appropriately referred Issue 1 to the Arkansas voters. I am confident that our Supreme Court will ultimately let the people decide. Our broad-based coalition expects to fight the trial lawyers all the way to November to pass Issue 1 so that Arkansas can better compete to grow jobs and recruit doctors to care for Arkansas families.”
Warning: The battle is NOT over on this issue is not yet over. It remains a battle of profits verses quality service and valid responsibility and services for the elderly and others needing care.
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Debbie Pelley is Retired Arkansas Teacher of 27 years. She is a grassroots citizen activist, researcher and writer who advocates for Arkansans and for transparent and limited government. She is a contribution author on the ARRA News Service.
Tags: Debbie Pelley, Arkansas, Issue 1, Tort Reform, elderly, care, services, Nursing home operators, profits vs care To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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