Oregon

• 2 years. (Or. Rev. Stat. §12.115)
• Medical malpractice – 2 years with Discovery Rule. (Or. Rev. Stat. §12.110)

• None.

• 3 years with Occurrence Rule. (Or. Rev. Stat. §30.020(1))
• 2 years for personal injury in wrongful death suit brought by personal representative. (Or. Rev. Stat. §12.110)

• Noneconomic damages are limited to $500,000. (Or. Rev. Stat. §31.710)

• Oregon Public Health Division
• Adult Protective Services
• Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators
• Division of Seniors and People with Disabilities
• Long-Term Care Ombudsman

• Elderly Persons and Persons with Disabilities Abuse Prevention Act – (Or. Rev. Stat. §§124.005-140)

• Woman Poses As Nurse To Steal Medication From Nursing Home Residents

A woman accused of sneaking into Beaverton's Maryville Nursing Home has been arrested.

Theresa Kim Smith is a certified nursing assistant in the Portland area and someone the police listed as “a person of interest” in a reported theft of Fentanyl pain patches.  The suspect woman posed as an employee at the Maryville Nursing Home on three separate occasions, but no motive was suspected at the time. Tips from the public led police to interview Smith, and the stealing Fentanyl patches from residents could be a possible motive.

Smith, who works at the Care Center East Nursing Home in Portland, is suspected of stealing the pain patches from multiple nursing home locations.  The Oregon State Board of Nursing has been conducting its own investigation into Smith’s reported Fentanyl thefts and has suspended her CNA certification.  Read more about the posing nurse here.

• Fall Leaves Dementia Patient With Broken Neck At Assisted Living Facility

The family of Mabel Montgomery is bringing awrongful death lawsuit against the assisted living facility where she lived,Juniper House.  The lawsuit alleges that Ms. Montgomery left Juniper House through a fire exit and fell.  The fall resulted in a fracture of Ms. Montgomery's neckand traumatic brain injury.  The injuries from the fall ultimately lead to the woman's death.

• Nursing Home Director Sentenced To 19 Months In Prison For Ignoring Injured Resident

The Portland nursing home director who blatantly disregarded a resident's severe injuries has been sentenced to 19 months in prison.  Susan Ruddell, was found guilty of criminal mistreatment for her role in a 2006 incident where a nursing home resident was dropped on the ground and ignored for five days before she was taken to a hospital despite visible fractures to her legs. The resident died shortly after the incident from complications related to her injuries.  See the full report of this Portland nursing home director's sentencing here.

Too often meager fines are imposed on facilities that provide poor nursing home care.  The fines are little more than a slap on the wrist to the nursing home owners and administrators.  Hopefully, this case was serve as a wake up call to nursing home administrators though out the country that that they may be held criminally responsible for mistreatment and abuse of their residents.

• Nursing Home For Veterans To Shut Down

More than 30 veterans will be forced to relocate from a Washington VA after an outside review raised concerns about the quality of care and an internal audit validated those concerns.  The Long Term Care Institute was contracted by the VA nationally to review nursing homes around the country.  A surprise inspection at the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical Center on raised immediate concerns about the physical infrastructure of the nursing building. Concerns included sloping floors and patients' access to doors and stairwells.  The review was also critical of control of medicationand the competence of nursing staff inserting intravenous catheter lines.

• Barbaric Treatment Lands Nursing Home Employees In Criminal Court

The criminal case against two Portland nursing home employees gave me chills.  This case goes beyond nursing home neglect and enters the realm of nursing home cruelty. According to reports, a nursing director is being charged with two charges of criminal mistreatment and a certified nursing assistant (CNA) is being charged with reckless endangerment for their inaction following the fall-related injury to a resident at the Gateway Care and Rehabilitation Center.

The nursing home employees allegedly waited five days before sending a 59-year-old resident to the hospital for medical treatment for her broken legs sustained in a fall.  The nursing home resident apparently fell while being transferred from her wheelchair to her bed with a lift.