This blog will focus on other serious potentially life-threatening ailments resulting from nursing home negligence.
One systematic problem in Florida and throughout the country is failure to staff the nursing home facility with a sufficient number of employees willing and capable of dealing with problems of the aged. In a previous blog, we emphasized that the adoption of clearly-defined quality assurance measures could help address this problem, and one such measure involves the on-going training of employees.
Residents of nursing homes often arrive with specific physical ailments and often in the course of their stay, their ailments may worsen or other physical ailments may arise. We would emphasize that even the best nursing homes cannot be expected to totally prevent their occupants from getting sick, acquiring new ailments, or the worsening of pre-existing ailments. After all, the nursing home population is comprised of individuals who for the most part are there because of poor health, either physical, mental, or a combination thereof.
Nevertheless, nursing home staff members should have the capability of at least identifying situations where follow-up medical intervention should be recommended and promptly rendered.
In a 2007New Mexico case, a nursing home resident died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Gastrointestinal hemorrhages usually do not occur out of the blue. They are preceded by worsening gastrointestinal problems. In the New Mexico case, the unfortunate victim’s estate successfully sued the facility on the following grounds:
1) Failure to properly assess her condition;
2) Failure to provide qualified employees to care for her.
Keith v. Manorcare, Inc., N.M. Bernadillo Co. Jud. Dist., No. CV2005-08066, June 2, 2007.
Another situation which may arise at nursing homes involves the failure to provide inadequate safety measures for protecting its residents from harm. For example, in a Pennsylvania case, a resident died because she was able to leave the facility’s premises unattended and while absent, sustained a fall that led directly to her death. She had Alzheimer’s disease, and like many such sufferers, tended to wander. Her estate sued the nursing home for not providing this Alzheimer’s patient with proper supervision and/or safety measures which would have protected her. A settlement resulted in this particular case. Orman v. Sunrise Senior Nursing Services, Inc.,U.S. District Ct.,E.D.PA., No. 2: 07-CV 00656, July 5, 2007.
These situations are cited not just to heap criticism on nursing homes. Caring for sick, frail elderly people is a difficult endeavor, particularly where the elderly person may also be suffering from dementia and/or Alzheimer’s. Yet, as we all know, our elderly population is vulnerable to negligence and abuse because so often they are unable to speak up on their own behalf. Or they are afraid to render criticism in surroundings where they are, for all practical purposes, confined until when and if their legal representative “checks them out” so to speak. Therefore they must rely on their loved ones to look out for their own best interests.
The decision to put a loved one in a nursing home is a difficult one and can be emotionally draining. It is our hope that the readers of this and our other blogs have received useful information on how to select a nursing home. As stated in a previous blog, a good place to start is the website provided by Medicare which provides rankings of nursing homes throughout the country. We would also recommend that you try and speak with the family members of other residents to get their “take” on the care rendered to residents.
Once you have chosen the facility after a careful investigation, try to make surprise visits to the facility as often as possible. Ask questions and get to know the staff on a first name visit. Try and visit during mealtime to see if your loved is being provided with proper food for his/her physical condition. For example, many elderly people have swallowing problems and require a diet consisting of soft, and even pureed, food. Document any concerns and bring them to the immediate attention of a supervisor.
For those family members who do not live in the geographical area where their loved one’s nursing home is located, we would suggest that they arrange for a friend to make these visits, or perhaps even hire an advocate to make periodic visits and report back to them.
Of course, the above “watchdog” suggestions may not be particularly feasible given the circumstances. Sometimes the elderly resident’s own family members have their own health issues, especially where there is an elderly spouse, which prevent the family members from making frequent visits. Economic issues may prevent the loved one from being placed in a “top” private-care nursing home facility where the staff members often receive better training and supervision.
Another option involves legal action where family members have the option of initiating legal action on behalf of their loved one to recover damages for the loved one’s pain and suffering. Alternatively, if the loved one dies as a consequence of nursing home negligence and/or abuse, the personal representative of the decedent’s estate may initiate legal action on behalf of the loved one’s estate.
Nevertheless, we hope that the information presented in this and our other blogs will give our readers some ideas in how to proactively “manage” the care of loved ones confined to nursing homes where reasonably possible under the circumstances to avert a life-endangering situation. As nursing home negligence attorneys, we believe first and foremost that an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure when it comes to trying to protect the health and safety of our vulnerable senior citizens.
