RI investigates state-run home for veterans

[unhappycamper]

RI investigates state-run home for veterans
By Ray Henry - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 27, 2009 5:42:55 EST

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An ailing Army veteran of World War II was repeatedly subjected to medical procedures his family was not told about and endured unsanitary conditions at a state-run nursing home for veterans, his granddaughter told lawmakers Monday.

The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is investigating conditions at the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol, which cares for about 230 patients, after a panel tasked by lawmakers found rancor between management and staff, poor communication with patients’ families and building problems that included a leaking roof.

Barbara Crowley said there was hostility between her family and staff members over the care of her late grandfather, Raymond Parent, who died in 2007. She urged lawmakers to replace nursing home administrators.

“I don’t know what happened to my grandfather the last couple of weeks” of his life, she said.

Parent was deemed incompetent to make medical and financial decisions for himself when he was admitted to the facility in 2003. But the nursing home sometimes changed his legal status without notifying his family, Crowley said.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_ri_vets_home_012609w/%2e