Listen to Laurie Kash's appearance on WXXI Radio

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Laurie spoke on the subject of nursing home abuse, neglect, and reform on a recent episode of Connections with Evan Dawson. Connections is broadcast on WXXI Radio, Rochester’s PBS/NPR station.

Play the episode below:

RCTV Profiles Last Stop Documentary Founder, Laurie Kash, May 2016

Here is the May 2016 RCTV Article:

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READ FULL STORY HERE

At some nursing homes, deficiencies repeat over and over

Laurie Kash was quoted in a recent Watchdog article in the Democrat and Chronicle.

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From the article:

Some advocates say the Department of Health does not adequately address neglect or mistreatment in the deficiency reports, and families are forced to file lawsuits in order to document problems and hold nursing homes accountable.

“We were very committed to bringing it into the public record,” said Laurie Kash, whose mother suffered a serious fall in 2006 at the Jewish Home in Brighton. For more than a week, staff was unresponsive to her complaints of being injured, Kash said. The family brought in their own physician, who determined Gertrude Kash had suffered a spinal fracture, and that lack of prompt treatment led to irreversible paralysis from the chest down.  She died in 2009.

Kash said the family sued after a Department of Health investigation concluded no harm had occurred. “We knew that what happened to my mom couldn’t have happened in a vacuum.” She said it was only through the discovery process that the family was able to get access to medical records and take depositions from doctors and staff.  “We saw every inch of the way where my mom was neglected,” she said. “It was traumatizing to learn what really happened.”

As part of the settlement in her lawsuit, Kash insisted that she not be blocked from discussing her mother’s experience. But often, these cases end in settlements which keep those details secret and prohibit the families from discussing what happened.

Laurie Kash’s guest essay in the D&C from April 3:

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NY State Comptroller Audits Department of Health - Enforcement of Nursing Home Violations Needed

Mike Groll Mike Groll, APPhotograph by Mike Groll, AP

Laurie Kash of Last Stop Advocacy Project of Rochester talks about her mother’s experience at a nursing home during the NY State Comptroller’s Press Conference on Nursing Home Reform in Albany, on February 22, 2016.

The NY State Comptroller’s Office released a 28-page audit which concludes that the State Health Department should improve enforcement of nursing home violations, fines are delayed for up to six years, and nursing homes are cited repeatedly for problems with limited consequences. “The state Department of Health (DOH) needs to fix problems and delays with how it is assessing fines to nursing homes after violations are found, according to an audit released today [Monday, February 22, 2016] by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

Click here to read NYS Comptroller’s Press Release and Audit

Here is Laurie Kash’s speech at the comptroller’s press conference.

Below is a 2 minute clip of the Comptroller’s Press Conference regarding the Nursing Home Surveillance Audit, where Comptroller DiNapoli is joined by speakers Laurie Kash, Executive Director, from Last Stop Advocacy Project of Rochester; Gail Myers, Deputy Director, Statewide Senior Action Council; Jack Kupferman, President, Gray Panthers; and Richard Mollot, Executive Director, Long Term Care Community Coalition.

During the Comptroller’s Press Conference on Monday, Laurie Kash spoke about her mother entering a nursing home on her own two feet, physically intact, in what was going to be a temporary stay. After three weeks – over a 13 day period, her mother became paralyzed from the chest down … Kash states, “When I speak about my mom – what happened to her did not happen in a vacuum, could not have happened in a vacuum. There are countless people every day suffering. You read it in the newspapers. What we’re hoping this [the NY State Comptroller’s Audit of the DOH] opens the door for is really active change, and a movement to start to address our legislators, and the DOH, and nursing homes. Because nursing homes are harming people and it needs to stop.

Comptroller DiNapoli’s Press Conference has been a great success and has generated national interest. We are truly grateful that a governmental agency has audited the New York State DOH. Here is one news media link, among many:

State Health Department blasted for enforcement of nursing home violations, by Tom Precious of The Buffalo News

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Read Laurie Kash’s full op-ed from the Albany Times Union.