Are Nursing Homes Really a Safe Place for your Loved One?

For most families, there comes a time when they have to make the heartrending decision of admitting their elderly loved one in a nursing home. But nowadays, there have been an increasing number of cases in which nursing homes have been accused of and sued for negligence in giving proper care. Just recently, a case was filed against a nursing home in which a female patient died because of allegedly receiving improper care. The lawsuit was against Presence RHC Senior Services in which the cause of the woman’s death was said to be carelessness and negligence by the nursing home staff.

This is just one case to give an idea of how severe the consequences can be of nursing home neglect. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), each year more than 1,800 elderly patients die because of this reason. So this begs the question, “Are nursing homes really safe for your loved one?”

Basic Types of Negligence

• There are several causes due to which incidents happen in nursing homes, and they vary among individual cases. However, they can be broadly categorized into the following four types:
• Medical Negligence: This may include nursing home fails due to inadequate attention, medication, or prevention against medical conditions such as infections, cognitive diseases, diabetes, mobility issues, cuts, and bed sores.
• Personal Hygiene Negligence: This may include unsanitary conditions of rooms and other areas of the nursing home, and lack of proper hygiene practices such as brushing, bathing, cleaning, changing clothes, and laundry.
• Emotional Negligence: This may include patients being repeatedly ignored, left alone, and harshly treated by the staff.
• Basic Needs Negligence: This may include depriving patients of a safe environment, clean water, and hygienic food.

Other reasons, which may contribute to causing incidents in nursing homes, include:

Incorrect Evaluation by a Doctor

It is understandable that accidents, like fall or any other type of injury, do happen, no matter how many patient safety and care standards are put in place by an assisted living facility. But there have been cases where the doctors failed to correctly diagnose the patient’s condition and prescribed wrong treatments, leading to worsening the injuries. In the aforementioned case, it was ruled out that the on-duty doctor didn’t evaluate the woman’s condition properly, due to which her health deteriorated. Unfortunately, this is one of the leading causes for incidents in nursing homes.

Understaffing

Another common reason for improper care in nursing homes is understaffing. Assisted living facilities that have high employee turnover are forced to hire inexperienced or untrained employees, resulting in poor or insufficient care. Moreover, the management can also be at fault in such cases because they fail to give proper guidance and training about standard healthcare procedures to the newly hired staff.

If your elderly loved one has suffered from any injury or has been mistreated in the nursing home, you should consider filing a lawsuit against the facility. Contact the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens, P.C. at (847) 395-2200 or online today to schedule your initial consultation with our firm and evaluate your options.