Miltenberg: “She Went Missing From NJ Nursing Home Repeatedly Amid Coronavirus Crisis. Then She Tested Positive,” USA Today

An alarm blared as Patricia Landers, who suffers from dementia, opened the door of a Florham Park assisted living center shortly before midnight and walked out, wearing her bathrobe. The facility did not call police for 39 minutes. That lag time gave Landers a chance to get far away. After a four-hour search, police found her about three miles from the facility, in neighboring Madison. Family members said in an interview with NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey that she told them she had been frightened the entire time. They said she had bruises from falling. The family filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Brookdale at Florham Park and its parent company, one of the largest operators of long-term senior living facilities in the nation, alleging the home didn’t provide the level of care it promised for residents with dementia. The lawsuit comes amid a pandemic that has exposed weaknesses in the eldercare system, raising questions about staffing levels at long-term care facilities and complaints about inadequate communication with family members. Brookdale Senior Living, based in Tennessee, has more than 800 long-term care facilities in 45 states, according to its website. A company spokeswoman wrote in an email that Brookdale does not comment on legal proceedings and doesn’t discuss individual residents … Family members said that the home had promised them 24-hour security and a staff trained to deal with residents who have dementia. The family said it provided neither. And they said they routinely called the home to ask about their mother but their messages were not returned … Andrew Miltenberg and other attorneys representing Patricia’s family said in court papers that the Florham Park facility was “consistently understaffed, and the staff that was there, was undertrained and either unwilling or incapable of providing the requisite level of care promised by Brookdale and required by Ms. Landers’ conditions.”

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