Author: Jenny Deam
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Colorado court filing disputes accusation that state unlawfully detains the disabled in nursing homes
The state of Colorado late last week pushed back against the federal government, disputing the allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice that the state discriminates against disabled people by forcing them to languish in nursing homes rather than receiving available care at home. On Sept. 29, the Civil Rights Division filed a sweeping lawsuit…
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Federal lawsuit: Colorado unlawfully detains the disabled in nursing homes
Louise Apodaca was done waiting. For months she had been pleading with case managers, social workers, disability advocates, care givers, anyone who would listen that she didn’t need or want to be in a nursing home any longer. What was supposed to have been temporary had stretched into years. She wanted to go home. What…
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State health board passes heavier fines for assisted living abuse cases
The Colorado Board of Health on Wednesday voted unanimously to adopt new, stricter regulations that could increase fines dramatically against assisted-living facilities in cases of preventable death or the serious neglect or abuse of residents. Final approval of the often contentious rule came nearly 18 months after a law to impose stricter fines was passed…
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The state clears Grand Junction nursing home in veteran’s death, leaving widow to decry ‘lack of oversight and accountability’
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The state Department of Human Services has cleared two nurses at a Grand Junction nursing home of suspected caretaker neglect, reversing previous findings by Mesa County in connection with the death of an 83-year-old resident from fatal sepsis, according to a letter from the state shared with the Denver Gazette on Thursday. Ernest Griffiths…
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A Colorado veteran needed help. He ended up dead after the VA referred him to a nursing home
The terrible chain of events began three years ago in Grand Junction when the Veterans Health Administration made a questionable referral for an elderly veteran named Ernest Griffiths Jr. to enter a private-sector nursing home for his dementia care. It ended Feb. 25 with suspected felony neglect after a foot wound went untreated and sepsis…
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‘Families have been let down’: Colorado’s troubling assisted living deaths stir calls for action
State Sen. Jessie Danielson said she was “deeply saddened, angry and disgusted” not only by the number of preventable — and often horrific — deaths, but also by the lack of accountability that followed.
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‘Unexplained or suspicious’ deaths pile up among residents of Colorado’s growing assisted-living industry
4-month investigation reveals preventable deaths happen more often than the public knows
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Report: None of Colorado’s largest hospitals are in compliance with federal pricing transparency law
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In January 2021, a federal law went into effect that mandated the nation’s hospitals provide clear and easily accessible online pricing information so the public can know in advance how much a treatment costs. To backers, the idea was to finally penetrate the murkiness of health-care charges to not only help patients make good choices…
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Colorado’s wealthiest hospitals favored in $1.2 billion COVID bailout
Colorado hospital reserves did not factor in federal CARES allocations
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Colorado care worker sentenced to 60 days in jail for assisted-living facility death
Colorado Watch logo-new A care worker on duty the day Hazel Place died after being left unattended for six hours in 100-degree weather at a Grand Junction assisted living facility was sentenced to 60 days in county jail on Monday in Mesa County district court. Jamie Johnston, 32, was also sentenced to three years of…