Many cases of nursing home neglect and abuse are linked to understaffing, leaving certified nursing assistants and other healthcare workers simply too overworked and overwhelmed to properly care for the elderly residents in their care.
With many staff assigned more patients than they can possibly handle in a shift, call lights go unanswered from residents who need help to eat, shower or to even move around. As a result residents can suffer from malnutrition, injuries from falls, and opportunistic infections caused by immobility. Sometimes needed medications are not disbursed as prescribed putting residents at even greater risk.
Unfortunately, in order to meet staffing requirements, sometimes nursing homes will cut corners when screening applicants prior to hiring, putting residents at further risk for various kinds of abuse, including sexual abuse. Staff that lack experience, or who are not properly trained, can represent a real threat to the safety, security, and health of nursing home residents in their care.
Adequate numbers of professionally trained staff are critical to prevent nursing home negligence and abuse, but unfortunately understaffing remains pervasive despite calls to action. When nursing homes are understaffed, the risk of injuries to loved one increases sometimes resulting in medical malpractice or wrongful death claims.
When you or a family member is a victim of nursing home negligence or abuse resulting in injury, it is important to seek experienced help. Iowa nursing home negligence and abuse attorney Marc Humphrey has more than 30 years of experience helping injured Iowans get the maximum compensation that they should receive when they are injured by negligence. Contact our office for your free consultation at 515-331-3510.
