Nursing homes provide round the clock care and assistance to the elderly, helping to ease the burden on their loved ones. They are also equipped to handle short-term rehabilitation programs after surgery, illness or injury. However, during the process of caring for your loved one, there may be an incident that affects the health of the patient. In the event of this happening, the home may use a generalization to try and sweep the problem under the carpet to avoid legal consequences.
Several of these generalizations exist due to the presence of misconceptions and myth about nursing home care. Homes use these inaccuracies to their advantage to avoid litigation. If you have a loved one being cared for at a nursing home, it’s important to know the truth behind the ‘widely accepted reasons’ nursing homes hide behind.
To help you distinguish between fact and fiction, Churchill Huston Law, LLC has debunked some of the most widely believed myths about nursing homes.
Myth 1: Your loved one’s bedsores are “unavoidable.”
This is a common excuse used by nursing homes to avoid taking responsibility for the abuse and neglect of their residents. The term “unavoidable” comes from 42 CFR 483.25 which requires nursing homes to take proper care of their residents to prevent and treat bedsores. A wound is only “unavoidable” if the nursing home properly evaluates the resident’s condition, defines and implements appropriate bedsore prevention interventions, monitors the interventions to assess if they are working, and changes the treatment plan if the interventions are not working. Missing even one of these steps means that your family member’s wound was avoidable and the nursing home is responsible. Don’t be fooled by official-sounding pronouncements. If the nursing home staff aren’t turning and positioning your loved one, thereby leaving them sitting in urine and feces, or keeping them in a chair for hours on end, their bedsore is not “unavoidable.”
Myth 2: There is nothing more we can do to prevent falls.
Fall prevention requires attention to detail and enough staff. According to research by L.Z. Rubenstein in an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, between 50% to 75% of nursing home residents fall. That is twice as many falls as the same population living at home. Nursing homes frequently ignore known and obvious fall risk factors, fail to utilize readily available fall precautions, and simply do not have enough staff to monitor their residents.
Myth 3: Your family member has the “right” to reject care.
While arguably true, this “right” does not alleviate the nursing home from the responsibility to provide adequate and appropriate care. If a resident refuses to care, the nursing home must promptly assess why. They must identify this issue and create a plan of care to address the behavior. Frequently, refusal of care and services can be easily addressed by identifying simple changes to accommodate a resident’s preferences, such as time of day or method of presentation. Even more frequently a resident simply requires a bit of patience, compassion, and understanding. Don’t let the nursing home blame your loved one for their own abuse and neglect.
Nursing home attorneys or nursing home abuse lawyers, make sure their clients’ stay in a nursing home meets the standards put out by the home.
If you’re looking for a knowledgeable and experienced nursing home attorney, get in touch with Churchill Huston Law LLC. Churchill H. Huston has been in this line of work for over fifteen years, serving the Philadelphia, PA area. Named ‘Super Lawyer’ in 2013 and 2017, and a ‘Super Lawyer Rising Star’ in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012, his clients can be sure that they are in safe hands. For a complete list of our services, please click here. If you have any questions about Churchill Huston Law LLC, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us here.