The impact of relationship dynamics on the detection and reporting of elder abuse occurring in domestic settings.

There is a keen desire to increase the detection and reporting of elder abuse. The purpose of this study was to describe the circumstances under which abuse is detected and reported and to identify the relationship dynamics that might be impacting detection and reporting decisions. Interviews were conducted with 71 Adult Protective Services (APS) caseworkers, 55 of their elderly clients, and 32 third-party adults.

How case characteristics differ across four types of elder maltreatment: implications for tailoring interventions to increase victim safety.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether case characteristics are differentially associated with four forms of elder maltreatment.

Method: Triangulated interviews were conducted with 71 APS caseworkers, 55 victims of substantiated abuse whose cases they managed, and 35 third party persons.

Results: Pure financial exploitation (PFE) was characterized by victim unawareness of financial exploitation and living alone.

How do abused elderly persons and their adult protective services caseworkers view law enforcement involvement and criminal prosecution, and what impact do these views have on case processing?

This study examined law enforcement and prosecution involvement in 71 cases of elder abuse where pure financial exploitation (PFE), physical abuse (PA), neglect (Neglect), or hybrid financial exploitation (HFE) (financial exploitation co-occurring with physical abuse and/or neglect) occurred in a domestic setting. Victims of elder abuse and assigned Adult Protective Services (APS) caseworkers were systematically interviewed. Law enforcement officials were involved in 54% of the cases, and 18% of the cases were prosecuted.

Don't let go of the rope: reducing readmissions by recognizing hospitals' fiduciary duties to their discharged patients.

In the early years of the twenty-first century, it was widely speculated that massive, multi-purpose hospitals were becoming the "dinosaurs" of health care, to be largely replaced by community-based clinics providing specialty services on an outpatient basis. Hospitals, however, have roared back to life, in part by reworking their business model. There has been a wave of consolidations and acquisitions (including acquisitions of community-based clinics), with deals valued at $7.

Enhancing the safety of elderly victims after the close of an APS investigation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test whether particular actions on the part of adult protective services (APS), the elderly victim, and/or society's response to abusive individuals, are associated with the continuation of abuse after the close of an APS investigation and thereby compromise victim safety.

Method: Interviews were conducted with 71 APS caseworkers, 55 of the elderly victims of substantiated abuse, and 35 third-party persons.

Results: A small proportion of elderly victims continue to experience abuse after the close of an APS investigation.

Risk factors associated with elder abuse: the importance of differentiating by type of elder maltreatment.

Elder abuse research rarely differentiates by the type of elder maltreatment involved when identifying risk factors. The purpose of this study was to compare risk factors across four predominant types of elder maltreatment (financial exploitation, physical abuse, neglect by others, and hybrid financial exploitation [HFE]). Data were collected from two sources: interviews with victims of substantiated elder abuse, responding adult protective services (APS) caseworkers (N = 71), and third-party informants; and a statewide database that contained all substantiated cases over a corresponding 2-year period (N = 2,142).

The Health Care Reform Act of 2010 and Medical Malpractice Liability: Worlds in Collision or Ships Passing in the Night.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 tackles many health care-related issues, but medical malpractice liability reform is not one of them. Despite being a perennial target of health care reform-with accompanying assertions that a medical malpractice liability crisis is corrupting the delivery of health care in the United States-only three short sections that made little substantive change to existing law were devoted to it in a bill that eventually totaled over 900 pages in length. This Article describes what the bill did, what it failed to do, and its likely and perhaps unanticipated consequences for the ongoing medical malpractice liability reform debate.