Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect

Infections are one of the leading causes of death in nursing homes throughout the country. Unfortunately, many of these deaths are avoidable and preventable. However, when nursing homes are inattentive to the conditions that give rise to infections and then leave the infections untreated, nursing home residents are at risk.

Ultimately, an infection that is left untreated can turn into a very dangerous condition called sepsis. When someone develops septic shock, this is precisely how an infection can kill. If your loved one has developed an infection that has progressed to sepsis, it is important that you know more about this condition in order to better understand your legal rights. In many cases, sepsis can actually be a sign of nursing home negligence that can entitle your family to financial compensation.

Many nursing home negligence lawsuits result from the fact that a resident has died from or been injured by an infection. These lawsuits allege that the nursing home was negligent in failing to prevent and treat the infection. In order to understand how sepsis can result from nursing home negligence, it is important to know the various stages of an infection.

A review performed by the Special Investigations Division of the House Government Reform Committee discovered nearly 9,000 instances of nursing home abuse or neglect occurring at 5,283 nursing centers during a two year period. Almost one-third of all nursing facilities were responsible for at least one case of abuse during this time.

The study was both revealing and disturbing as it only reaffirms the fears that many people have when it comes to trusting their loved ones to the cares of other people. While some claim that the data is misleading, others believe that it is worth delving deeper into the state of our nursing care industry to determine whether we are suffering from a systemic problem.

Cases of Nursing Abuse Reveal a Disturbing Pattern

Federal laws and regulations are meant to protect nursing home residents and provide for a minimum level of care. These rules form the basis for enforcement actions against nursing homes who fail to follow the rules that can include their suspension or removal from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

However, the Trump Administration is taking steps to weaken these rules in a way that would put infirm nursing home residents at the mercy of the nursing homes that do everything they can to increase their profits at the expense of the residents that they are supposed to care for on a daily basis.

Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC remains, committed to protecting the legal rights of nursing home patients. If your family member was injured in a nursing facility, contact our Chicago nursing home attorneys now.

Nursing home residents are perhaps the most vulnerable population when it comes to the recent outbreak of the coronavirus. Mortality rates are higher among this population and there have been large outbreaks of the illness that have turned fatal at some nursing homes.

As a result, nursing home operators are scrambling to figure out ways that they can protect their residents from coronavirus (Covid 19). At least, families should be strongly hoping that the nursing homes where their loved ones reside are trying to take preventative measures. Some skilled nursing facilities are taking steps to restrict visitors in an effort to protect their residents.

Higher Death Rate in Older Patients with Coronavirus

Medicare recently finalized and implemented new payment rules that will impact the bottom line for skilled nursing facilities. Many of them are struggling to put the new rules into place in their business, and the regulations are changing the way that nursing homes provide care for their residents. The skilled nursing facility has already been criticized for putting profits first, and the new Medicare program threatens to make this even worse.

Based on the new reimbursement rules, nursing homes have less incentive to give extensive therapy to residents since it will impact the facility’s bottom line. This may lead to an overall deterioration of the condition of the average nursing home resident who depends on therapy to maintain their health and well-being.

On October 1, 2019, Medicare finalized a new program called the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM). Previously, Medicare reimbursements were determined based on therapy minutes. Now, the basis for reimbursement is the patient’s condition as well as their anticipated needs during their stay. Under the new rules, nursing homes must determine the level of care that is necessary for a patient and will then have to deliver care in accordance with the resident’s needs. The facility will have to first determine the resident’s needs and then must make sure not to overdeliver care.

More than two-thirds of the states in the nation mandate that an inspection of an assisted living facility or nursing home occur every 18 months. However, California has long believed inspecting these facilities once every five years is adequate enough, but might consider conducting a study to determine if annual inspections are necessary. The state’s lack of tighter inspection schedules seems to highlight much bigger issues concerning the deterioration of regulating facilities in business to help the elderly, disabled and ill.

Assisted living businesses, providing day-to-day assistance and housing to the elderly, disabled and ill, are one of the fastest-growing industries in the U.S. The industry provides a variety of housing solutions for its residents to live independently. However, recent publications and television programs have shed new light concerning the industry, where many of the nation’s less able to entrust their lives.

Deplorable Conditions

The public always reacts with shock upon learning that another helpless nursing patient was sexually assaulted by the person paid to provide his or her case. What the public is oblivious to, however, is just how common this occurrence has become and why it is so important to take every precaution possible before trusting others with the safety of those who you hold dear. We would all like to believe that the nursing home administrators, health inspectors and government agencies are working diligently on behalf of the victims of these heinous crimes, but many of the victims are deprived of a voice, and the perpetrators walk free.

How Nursing Homes and Authorities are Turning a Blind Eye to the Issue

It is terrifying to think that our loved ones are vulnerable to the whims of sexual predators when they are in their weakest state. Thousands of nursing home patients find themselves with medical conditions or injuries that make it impossible for them to fight back when caregivers, other residents or even their friends or family members commit unthinkable acts toward them. We would like to believe that steps are being taken to prevent the abuse and to bring justice to those who commit these deeds.

As people age, they tend to develop challenges with swallowing. Research has shown that issues with swallowing can occur even in elderly people with no serious medical conditions. Presbyphagia is a term that refers to these swallowing problems that come with aging.

In nursing homes, the potential for injuries is significant among patients by default. Elderly people in nursing homes are going to be prone to disease and injury—like with swallowing problems and choking—in many instances. Nursing home staff should be carefully trained to anticipate such problems and ideally to prevent them whenever possible.

Whether you have a parent in a nursing home, you are a patient in a nursing home, or you are a nursing home staff member, it is important to be aware of swallowing issues in the elderly and the necessity of preventing choking accidents resulting from such issues.

Everyone has heard complaints about how nursing homes take care of patients. While not all nursing homes are negligent in their treatment of residents and patients, there is no denying how commonly issues like bedsores show up. Since nursing homes and their staff are under constant scrutiny these days by the families of residents and the public in general, it is important that they take extra precautions to avoid unnecessary patient suffering, illnesses, disease and neglect.

Preventing bedsores is one area where nursing homes could excel in their treatment of patients. Bedsores are a challenge for any long-term care facility because they are not always easy to prevent. By looking more closely at the way they take care of patients and the options they have for avoiding more common and relatively minor health issues for those patients, nursing homes can improve their image and better serve their patients.

What Causes Bedsores?

There are laws in place that are supposed to protect elderly nursing home residents from abuse and neglect and enforcement procedures established to ensure the law is followed. But laws and procedures are only effective if they are faithfully carried out, which is not the current state of things in the U.S. Clearly, the system that is supposed to protect our vulnerable elderly is badly broken.

Two U.S. senators from Pennsylvania have just released to the public a government-generated list of several hundred nursing homes that were flagged as among the worst in the country, but whose names until now were being withheld by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal entity responsible for oversight of the nursing care industry. They include 18 nursing facilities in Illinois.

CMS annually inspects nursing homes throughout the U.S. and rates them for quality according to a five-star system, publishing its detailed findings on the Medicare.gov Nursing Home Compare website. CMS identifies the most troubled facilities for inclusion in its Special Focus Facility (SFF) program, which entails extra scrutiny and oversight of consistently poorly performing homes where inspectors have documented abuse and neglect. The SFF program targets facilities that “substantially fail” to meet the standards of care mandated by federal regulations.