Families’ abilities to hold potentially negligent nursing facilities accountable have been diminished by a recent change in state law that bars records of abuse and neglect from use in the courts, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has found. The Center’s investigation also shows that some long-term care facilities are failing to report deaths and injuries, as required by law. This page summarizes the components of the series.
Category: Health & Welfare
Posted inGovernment, Health & Welfare, Justice & Safety
How to find nursing home inspection reports
In January, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services began publishing state inspection reports of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other health care providers on its website. Records are available from July 2012 onward.
Posted inA Frail System, Government, Health & Welfare, Justice & Safety
New state law conceals records of abuse, neglect in nursing homes
A new Wisconsin law, which went into effect in February 2011, bars families from using state health investigation records in state civil suits filed against long-term providers, including nursing homes and hospices. It also makes such records inadmissible in criminal cases against health care providers accused of neglecting or abusing patients.
Posted inA Frail System, Government, Health & Welfare
What to do if you suspect neglect or abuse
Some advice on what to do if you think a loved one has been neglected or abused in a nursing home or assisted living facility.
Posted inGovernment, Health & Welfare
Wisconsin law increases abortion delays, risk
Planned Parenthood has not provided abortions by medication since April, claiming a new abortion law’s language was too vague to comply with. As a result, many women have had surgical abortions instead and face delays in making appointments.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
Abortion pill restrictions part of nationwide push
Medication abortions have become more prevalent nationally in the past few years, and laws targeting them are sweeping state legislatures across the country.
Posted inHealth & Welfare, Justice & Safety
Gaps remain in jails’ suicide prevention
Since 2003, 52 Wisconsin county jail inmates have taken their own lives. Department of Corrections jail inspector Nancy Thelen said that generally, Wisconsin’s 72 county-run jails are doing “a very good job with their suicide watches.”
But a Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism review of the counties’ most recent jail inspection records found that at least one-third of them had, like Monroe County, been cited for problems with their suicide prevention efforts.
Posted inHealth & Welfare, Justice & Safety
Ignored and underfunded, mental health care thin at county jails
Key findings:
• Wisconsin’s county-run jails are overloaded with people with mental illness — but services are largely inadequate.
• The state Department of Corrections is charged with oversight but does not evaluate the quality of jails’ mental health care.
• For nearly a quarter-century, the Legislature has required the DOC to collect and summarize annual reports on jails’ mental health care, but most jails have not provided the information, and the DOC acknowledges it has not been asking for them.
• One-third of Wisconsin’s jails have been cited for inadequate suicide prevention efforts.
Posted inEconomy, Health & Welfare
Bowing to pressure, fireplace makers step up safety measures
To stave off regulation and lawsuits over severe burns to toddlers, manufacturers will provide protective screens as standard equipment with new gas fireplaces. The industry has revised its voluntary guidelines to call for the addition of mesh screens to be permanently attached to new fireplaces to prevent contact with the scorching glass fronts, which get hot enough to melt skin.
Posted inHealth & Welfare, WisWatch Blog
New research finds increase in U.S. suicide rate since recession
An important piece of new research has found that the United States suicide rate rose sharply in the years since the recession started.
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Frac Sand Rush, Health & Welfare
Conference draws 50 frac sand protesters
More than 50 people gathered Monday to protest frac sand mining outside a conference on the silica sand resources of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Concerns about the health, safety, and environmental impacts of the sudden boom in new industrial sand mining facilities are shared by many across the Upper Midwest.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
Whooping cough on rise despite immunizations
Wisconsin has the nation’s highest rate of reported whooping cough cases in 2012. Through July 5, Wisconsin’s incidence of the disease was 50.7 per 100,000 persons, nearly 10 times the national average.