Fort Mill SC Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Attorneys 

Attorney Robert J. Reeves located here in Fort Mill SC is a seasoned trial lawyer with over 25 years litigation experience. During his career, he has handled many nursing home cases and held facilities responsible when elderly residents have been injured or worse. Mr. Reeves is a former Registered Nurse (RN) who has personally treated patients with serious bedsores who became septic. He understands what families go through when they learn their loved one has not been cared for properly and have been harmed as a result. If you suspect your family member has been neglected or abused at an assisted living facility, call Mr. Reeves today at 803-554-4157 or email .

Primary Causes of Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse

Inadequate Staffing

This is the primary cause of nursing home injury cases. Facilities simply do not have an adequate number of needed staff to safely care for all of their residents. Nursing homes now have more patients to attend than ever before as our general population has record numbers of older citizens. And, those residents who are placed there are typically more dependent and require more skilled care. With the economy still in a downturn and government reimbursements declining, payments for services are also lower. Even  private facilities assert they are unable to hire enough qualified staffers given the low reimbursement rates per patient. While this may be true, nursing homes appear to operate as a business first and a caregiver second. If a facility cannot properly care for its residents, it should not accept their money and make promises to their families.

Improper Training

In conjunction with low staffing levels, many facilities do not properly train the few workers that they do have. LPNs and RNs provide skilled nursing care while nursing aides undertake more general work, even custodial care to residents. CNAs do the day to day tasks like delivering meals, cleaning and bathing residents, changing bedding, and sometimes even janitorial duties when a facility does not have a regular service staff. Given the high patient to low staff ratio, employees may not be able to complete the many jobs assigned. As a result, they have no time to spend with residents as they are always in a hurry to move on to the next patient. Assisting residents from the bed to the bathroom or from a wheelchair to the bed requires good body mechanics as well as training on how to safely perform this critical function. If not been properly trained on safe lifting, a single nurses aide may attempt to move an overly large patient on their own when safety would require at least two staff members. This is a fairly common scenario, and residents get injured when they fall or are dropped. This is where poor training and failure to use safety precautions can cause serious injury to older, frailer patients.

Staff Turnover

It is hard to keep good people or any people. Nursing homes have always suffered from high staff turnover. Poor pay for a very demanding job make it difficult to attract quality applicants. Individuals who work in nursing homes either have good hearts and are there to help others or have no ability to find work anywhere else. In many cases, workers may be found to have prior criminal records or other disturbing issues. And, we have encountered nursing home workers who actually prey on their vulnerable elderly residents. These are instances where we uncover actual nursing home abuse, including intimidation, robbery, and sometimes even sexual assault.

TYPES OF NURSING HOME NEGLECT CASES

Falls

Falls are easily the most common cause of serious injury and even death in elderly patients. Because we beome more unsteady and prone to falling as we get older, it is critical that nursing home facilities develop and follow a proper fall prevention care plan. It is also critical to install safety “grab rails” and other devices throughout the facility, but especially in bathrooms where many falls occur. If proper steps are not taken, it is a virtual certainty that a patient will fall. When they do, they can break arms, legs, hips, and often a serious head injury. When tranferring patients from bed or to the bathroom, there needs to be sufficient staff to assist safely. Many times, one worker will try to move a heavy, unstable patient on their own. That’s when both the patient and the staff member can become injured. The resident will become unstable, and the worker will try to “catch” them. What can result is a broken hip for the patient, and a workers compensation back injury for the caregiver. If proper precautions are not followed, it is the elderly resident who pays the ultimate price in injury and loss of mobility.

Dehydration

As we get older, we become less active and want to sleep more than in our younger years. We also drink less as we age even though we need water more. As a result, we can become dehydrated more quickly. This is why it is important that nursing home staff  monitor and record fluid intake and encourage residents to drink more. Those residents who are bedridden are even more prone to dehydration and must be monitored more closely. But again, due to poor training and low staffing, workers may not appreciate how important proper hydration is to overall health and/or may not be able to properly tend to the large numbers of residents in their charge. Simply leaving juices or other drinks by the bedside is not enough. Residents need assistance and encouragement to actually consume fluids. If they do become dehydrated, they will have to be hospitalized and given IVs to recover. As we age, it also takes longer to recover, and chronic dehydration can sometimes cause permanent damage to vital organs.

Nutrition

As with proper hydration, we must keep proper nutrition to maintain our general overall health. Due to staffing limitations, it is not uncommon for meals to be served late and even cold. Nursing home food is difficult enough when it is hot. Elderly residents like to keep regular schedules, especially for eating. When they get “off schedule,” it makes them lose interest. It is important to serve meals on time and while still hot. It is also important that food intake be monitored for what is actually eaten. Proper recording is necessary so that malnutrition issues can be prevented. If a resident becomes malnourished, their health can be affected, and they will deteriorate. As with dehydration, hospitalization will be required to recover, and other health consequences can result including lower immune issues.

Decubitus ulcers (bedsores)

The dangerous combination of inactivity, poor hydration, and insufficient nutrition can cause bedsore formation quickly in elderly residents. In certain situations, ulcers can start to form in a matter of only hours. Once started, aggressive care has to be undertaken to prevent skin breakdown and infection. A decubitus ulcer can advance and become a life threatening issue in days. This is why nursing home staff need to take all active steps to ensure that residents get up and move around regularly. If immobile, residents must be turned regularly and monitored closely for skin breakdown and early signs of bedsores. Typically affected areas include “pressure points” in the low back, buttocks, and heels. Once a bedsore begins, it can deteriorate very rapidly and destroy a large area of skin tissue, muscle, and even bone. Poor hydration and malnutrition only makes the process more devastating. If given proper care, there is never an excuse for a bedsore. There are explanations but no excuses. Bedsores are completely preventable.

Sepsis

Sepsis and resulting wrongful death are becoming more common in elderly patients. Due to an already frail condition, their bodies simply cannot survive this massive “total body infection.” Sepsis cases fit a familiar pattern. A resident who has serious ongoing health issues is accepted into an inadequate facility. The level of care required is beyond what is available. Nevertheless, the facility needs the reimbursement and a filled bed. Without proper staff, a bedsore begins to form and is not discovered promptly. Even if discovered timely, the staff really don’t know what to do. By the time anyone is properly concerned and engaged, it is too late. The permanent damage has been done, and the resident is clinging to life in an intensive care unit at the hospital. When death results, an autopsy is often necessary to prove the premature death. The facility’s usual explantion to families is that their loved one had enjoyed a “full and rich life,” and it was their “time to go.” Our response is that the resident’s death while in the facilities’ charge was not a “natural” occurrence and that the lack of proper care resulted in a premature death, no matter what the age of the deceased.

Wandering Away

As we get older, our minds begin to fade, and we can start to forget things and even become confused. Nursing home patients often suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. This is usually the reason families have to rely on others to care for them. Residents sometimes do not know who they are or where they are. As a result, they can “wander away” from the facility if not properly monitored. Certainly, we don’t want residents unnecessarily confined, but we do expect them to be safe.

Nursing home cases are almost always medically complex and defended aggressively by insurance companies. Make sure your attorney has the ability and will to fight all the way to the end. Our Fort Mill SC nursing home neglect and abuse attorneys stand ready to help you find answers and hold facilities accountable. Call us today if you suspect neglect or abuse from the people you trusted to care for your family member.