Posted On: June 23, 2008, 4:43 pm CDT

Posted By: John Vail

Arbitration is secret. Nursing homes don't want people to know about what happens in them. That's the reason for mandatory arbitration. Judge for yourself. Here are verbatim excerpts from the Suprem COurt of Arkansas in Advocat, Inc. v. Sauer, 353 Ark. 29, 111 S.W.3d 346, (2003):

Here, Mrs. Sauer died in the care of Rich Mountain from severe malnutrition and dehydration. There was evidence presented that she was found at times with dried feces under her fingernails from scratching herself while lying in her own excrement.

Mrs. Sauer was often times found wet without being changed in four hours. She had pressure sores on her back, lower buttock, and arms on days she was found sitting in urine and excrement. A former staff member remembered seeing Mrs. Sauer at one time with a pressure sore the size of a softball, which was open. Her sores and blisters became infected.

She was described as "always thirsty" and her nursing notes indicated that she was heard moaning and crying. At the time she was hospitalized prior to her death, she had a severe vaginal infection. When she was in the geriatric chair, she was not "let loose" every two hours, as required by law. Finally, Mrs. Sauer was found to suffer from poor oral hygiene with caked food and debris in her mouth.


We hold that the jury verdicts were not based on passion or prejudice. There was ample testimony and evidence presented to demonstrate that Mrs. Sauer suffered considerably and was not properly cared for, that Rich Mountain was short-staffed, and that the appellants tried to cover this up by "false-charting" and by bringing in additional "employees" on state-inspection days. Mr. Hemingway testified that these deficiencies were due to a shift in corporate philosophy that placed profits over proper patient care.