Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Stark & Stark Law Firm : Elder Care, Senior Care

Nursing homes are often owned by large corporations, who are often time forced to restrict the level of care given to patients due to budget concerns. The corporations control the nursing home's budget. What we often see in nursing home litigation is that the corporations are instructing these nursing homes to operate on very low budgets. This then effects the level of care the nursing home residents receive. For instance, the nursing homes are often understaffed and don’t have the proper medication and/or devices needed to address the ailments of its residents. Thus without proper funding many nursing homes are train wrecks waiting to happen.

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Prevention is the key when dealing with bedsores, pressure ulcers and decubitus ulcers. Repositioning is crucial to staving off the development and/or further deterioration of decubitus ulcers (a.k.a. “bedsores”). This entails the simple act of shifting the residences body to alleviate pressure on certain parts of the body in order to avoid skin breakdown. Federal and state regulations for nursing homes require residence at risk of developing decubitus ulcers, and those who already have the ulcers, be turned at least every two hours. Due to staff shortages and/or staff incompetence repositioning often does not occur within the two hour time period. The consequences of this failure can be horrific. A small ulcer resembling a minor abrasion can quickly deteriorated into a very painful gaping wound that requires surgery.

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During a recent deposition, the Administrator of a nursing home failed to understand the importance of accurately completing MDS reports. These are federally mandated status reports which are regularly completed by the nursing homes. It is the governments way of keeping an eye on, among other things, the rate of pressure ulcers in any given facility. When inconsistencies were pointed out to the administrator, he dismissed them and said “accidents happen.” If indeed it was an accident, it is inexcusable. The MDS coordinator (the person at the facility who is trained to provide the information) reported only two Stage II decubitus ulcers when five existed, two of which were far more developed than a Stage II. I suspect the information was falsified as the facility runs the risk of losing medicaid and medicare reimbursement if there are too many incidents of unexplained ulcers.

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If you are contemplating action against the nursing home for neglect or abuse, it is important that you do not delay in contacting an attorney. Under New Jersey law you would have two years from the date of the alleged neglect or abuse to bring an action. However, these cases often show patterns of neglect and abuse that date back well before any family or friends see evidence of it. In order to make certain that the nursing home is held accountable for all incidents of neglect and abuse, an action should be filed sooner rather than later.

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Dementia medication has become a new concern for nursing home residents and their caretakers. A recent study by the National Institute of Mental Health indicated that widely prescribed anti-psychotic drugs do not help most Alzheimer’s patients with delusions and aggression and are not worth the risk of sudden death and other side effects. The study tested Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel - newer drugs developed for schizophrenia that doctors are free to prescribe for any use. These drugs are commonly administered to nursing home residents. All three of the drugs carry a strong warning that they increase the risk of death for elderly people with dementia related psychotic symptoms. Yet, roughly one-quarter of nursing home patients are on these drugs. Residents are often put on these types of medications and not particularly monitored and treated for indefinite periods of time. It is strongly advised that any family member with a loved one in a nursing home speak with the loved one’s physician at the nursing home and understand the pros and cons of administering these medications.

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