Over Medication In the Nursing Homes: Elder Abuse

Written by Adam Peck Category: Elder Law January 26th, 2013 2 min read

Most of the nursing home cases we look at are negligence cases… someone, a doctor or a nurse, fails to provide a level of care they are required to by the standards of medicine.

Occasionally, we will get a case wherein the nursing home staff actually abused a patient. Over medication cases falls into this category.

Recently there was was a Congressional hearing about Johnson & Johnson giving a huge nursing home chain kick backs when their physicians prescribed a medication for Schizophrenia .

Hmm, I wondered to myself. Is Schizophrenia prevalent in America’s nursing home such that these doctors were doing the right thing states California Nursing Home Abuse attorney Steven C. Peck.

The answer is simply, NO.

According to Schizophrenia.com, about 10% of people with schizophrenia live in nursing homes. Elderly persons with the disease, have the least likely chance of needing emergency care for related symptoms. If 2.2 Million people have it in the US, and 10% of them live in nursing home, then 220,000 people in nursing homes (approximately) may have the disease.

So how frequently were the doctors prescribing Risperdal (which is not specifically approved to treat problems in elderly people with dementia by the FDA?)

The numbers are not easily calculated, but the nursing home purchases of Johnson & Johnson medications nearly tripled to more than $280 million, from about $100 million from 1999 to 2004.

That’s $180 million dollars worth of medication that may or may not have been suitable for a patient. That is medicine being driven by profits and kick backs, not patient needs. That is abuse indicates California Elder Abuse attorney Steven C. Peck.

If you are fearful that your loved one was over medicated in a nursing home, and that the over medication may have caused problems breathing, falls, etc., do not wait, but have the case investigated immediately.

The only way we can prevent doctors from doing this, is to hold them and the nursing home chains, accountable. Contact Steven Peck’s Premier legal to talk to an experienced elder abuse and nursing home neglect attorney toll free at 1.866.999.9085 and visit us on-line at www.premierlegal.org.

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Written by Adam Peck

Expertise: Personal Injury

Adam J. Peck, ESQ is a principal with Peck Law Group, APC. In 2008, Mr. Adam Peck received his Juris Doctorate from Whittier Law School where he graduated Cum Laude. His practice is primarily dedicated to representing Elders, Dependent Adults, along with their loved ones and family members, who have suffered horrific personal injuries.