Health News
- Amid Legislative Action On 'larry's Law,' Report Says Mentally Ill And Intellectually Disabled Don't Belong In Personal-care Homes
By Tara Kaprowy Kentucky Health News As state legislators move to change the procedure for admitting mentally ill patients to personal-care homes, a new report argues those patients shouldn't be in the institutions at all ? and neither should people...
- Second Death In Five Years Raises Questions About Placement Of Mentally Ill Kentuckians In Personal-care Homes
The second death in five years of a mentally ill person who has walked out of a personal care home has "prompted advocates for the brain injured and the mentally ill to question whether personal care homes, which do not provide skilled nursing care, are...
- Death Of Personal-care Home Resident Has Lawmakers From His Hometown Talking About Stricter Staffing Rules
The death of a missing personal-care home resident has a bipartisan pair of Kentucky lawmakers from his home town of talking about setting staffng standards for Kentucky's personal-care homes or even nursing homes, which have successfully lobbied...
- Cost Is One Obstacle For Bill That Would Require Coroners To Look Into Nursing Home Deaths
A bill that would require coroners to be called when someone dies in a nursing home may be in jeopardy. At issue is how to pay for it. Chief State Medical Examiner Tracey Corey estimates she would need three more doctors, more support staff and more...
- Poor Conditions Found At Letcher County Personal-care Home
State inspectors found pitiable conditions when they visited Golden Years Rest Home, right, in Letcher County in December, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt-Spears report. Kool-Aid dripping on insulin bottles, expired...
Health News
Brain-injured man disappeared when home staff wasn't looking
On the day of his disappearance, a resident of a personal-care home who was found dead four weeks later had not been checked on by staff for nearly three hours, reports Valarie Honeycutt Spears of the Lexington Herald-Leader, citing documents from a state investigation.
Additionally, Falmouth Nursing Home did not have a policy to make sure residents were under constant supervision and "the facility failed to establish" one, investigators found.
Larry Joe Lee, right, was a ward of the state and had a brain injury stemming from a childhood accident. He was "schizophrenic, bipolar and diabetic," Spears writes. He disappeared from the nursing home Aug. 4. His body was found Sept. 3 near the Licking River by bow hunters. The cause of his death has not yet been determined.
Spears' calls to the home were not returned. It has since submitted a plan of correction to the state, which includes professional development for staff and new policies to keep track of patients' whereabouts.
"Since Lee's death, advocates and state lawmakers have been questioning whether personal care homes are the appropriate plate for people with brain injuries," Spears reports. Republican Sen. Jimmy Higdon, who comes from Lee's hometown of Lebanon, said he is on a fact-finding mission to see what changes need to be made to prevent a similar occurrence from happening. (Read more)
- Amid Legislative Action On 'larry's Law,' Report Says Mentally Ill And Intellectually Disabled Don't Belong In Personal-care Homes
By Tara Kaprowy Kentucky Health News As state legislators move to change the procedure for admitting mentally ill patients to personal-care homes, a new report argues those patients shouldn't be in the institutions at all ? and neither should people...
- Second Death In Five Years Raises Questions About Placement Of Mentally Ill Kentuckians In Personal-care Homes
The second death in five years of a mentally ill person who has walked out of a personal care home has "prompted advocates for the brain injured and the mentally ill to question whether personal care homes, which do not provide skilled nursing care, are...
- Death Of Personal-care Home Resident Has Lawmakers From His Hometown Talking About Stricter Staffing Rules
The death of a missing personal-care home resident has a bipartisan pair of Kentucky lawmakers from his home town of talking about setting staffng standards for Kentucky's personal-care homes or even nursing homes, which have successfully lobbied...
- Cost Is One Obstacle For Bill That Would Require Coroners To Look Into Nursing Home Deaths
A bill that would require coroners to be called when someone dies in a nursing home may be in jeopardy. At issue is how to pay for it. Chief State Medical Examiner Tracey Corey estimates she would need three more doctors, more support staff and more...
- Poor Conditions Found At Letcher County Personal-care Home
State inspectors found pitiable conditions when they visited Golden Years Rest Home, right, in Letcher County in December, the Lexington Herald-Leader's Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt-Spears report. Kool-Aid dripping on insulin bottles, expired...