How Common is Nursing Home Abuse?

What’s so sad is most of the time patients wind up in nursing homes and quite often it’s the last place they are before they leave us. But it doesn’t mean that they should spend their days without dignity and that’s what we see in the office all too often. Nursing homes have certain protocols if they’re following standard of care. Patients for example that are bedridden and many nursing home patients are bedridden, they have to be turned and rotated every 2 hours. That’s standard of care. Quite often they have to be put on special mattresses. Also standard of care. And these things in the nursing home setting quite often are violated. And how do I know? Families come in and show us pictures of the lower back of their loved ones. Macerated something known as a decubitus ulcer, bed sore. These are things that should not happen. Nursing homes always have an excuse for that. We’re overstaffed or the person had poor nutrition. But these are the people that you’re entrusted to take care of. And abuse is the proper term because it’s absolute neglect. It should not happen. And unfortunately, we have an office of files filled with them of absolutely preventable matters if anybody cared. And families are saddened and frustrated when they see what happens to their loved ones.