Chicago Personal Injury Law Blog

A widower in Montana has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Montana nursing home for the death of his wife. During a five-week stay at the facility, she had repeated falls, with at least four documented falls. The last fall resulted in a cerebral hemorrhage which caused her death.

The lawsuit raises a couple of different issues which are common in nursing home abuse and neglect cases. The first is the inadequacy of the staffing. The second is the failure to revise the care plan for fall prevention.

Short-staffing of nursing homes is a common issue in nursing home neglect cases. When you take the depositions of the staff members, you will find that they simply have too many patients to care for properly, even if they will not admit it explicitly. The inadequate staff levels are a product of the fact that most nursing homes are for-profit. Since nursing homes are paid a set amount per day per resident by Medicare, Medicaid, or private health insurance, the only way for nursing home owners to push up their profit margin is to cut out care related items. Direct care staff salaries are the largest item in a nursing home budget, and reducing these expenditures are an easy way to boost the bottom line. Unfortunately the quest for profits comes at the expense of the well-being of the residents.

There are regulations which govern minimum staff levels. Illinois has a mathematical formula, and virtually every facility meets the formula. The federal standard is more stringent in that it requires the facility to have enough staff on hand to meet the care needs of the residents on a 24/7 basis. In other words, not having enough people is never an excuse. Many family members I speak with tell me that the staff people in the home are working hard, but there is just too much for them to do. Statements like that are the hallmark of a home which is short-staffed.

The other issue that the Montana case raises is one relating to the revision of the care plan. The care plan is the road map for how the staff will maintain the well-being of the resident. Fall prevention is an important issue in the nursing home industry because falls have such a terrible effect on the mortality and morbidity of the residents. Once a care plan is put into place, its effectiveness must be continually reassessed. If a resident has a fall prevention care plan in place and it is not working, as was the case here where the resident had multiple falls in a short time frame, a new care plan has to be put into place. Failing to revise an inadequate care plan is a form of neglect and can be the basis for a lawsuit alleging violations of the Nursing Home Care Act.

Labels: brain injury, falls in nursing homes, Nursing home abuse and neglect, wrongful death