What Kind of Nursing Home Injuries Are Considered Abuse or Neglect?

 Posted on September 17, 2019 in Nursing Home Negligence

Many news outlets have reported on the alarming rise of nursing home abuse and neglect over the past few years. Many families put their trust in long-term care facilities if their loved ones can no longer live on their own. According to the Quad-City Times, the Illinois Department of Public Health recently fined a local facility thousands of dollars for neglecting the treatment of a resident’s wound, which was not only discovered to be improperly cleaned and bandaged, but also lacking the basic record keeping required to provide the necessary care for the injury. This same nursing facility was fined even more--an astonishing $75,000--by the IDPH just a few years earlier for more cases of negligence.

What the Law Considers Neglect

The above incident and thousands like it across the country are examples of how personal injury cases within nursing homes consist of more than just slip and falls. While repeated falls are in fact a common neglect-related occurrence in long-term care facilities, many other types of injuries constitute cases for abuse and neglect. The Nursing Home Care Act under Illinois State law defines neglect as a facility’s failure to provide any kind of adequate medical care, mental health treatment, or personal care. The law states that this includes the failure to provide psychiatric rehabilitation or any general assistance with daily living activities that are required to protect the resident from physical or mental harm. 

Along with lack of supervision, which risks leaving untreated lacerations and wounds open for potential infection, all of the following are types of personal injuries that are often due to neglect or blatant abuse:

• Dehydration: This is a common sign of neglect that may not be as apparent when monitoring your loved one’s health from afar. Not being provided with the proper amount of fluids, along with any form of malnutrition, including missed meals, can lead to serious health complications for patients in long-term care facilities.

• Pressure sores: Also known as bedsores, these sores are caused by tissue damage, which occurs due to prolonged pressure placed on a certain area of the body. They usually are a sign of neglect, as the presence of a sore implies the patient has not been moved--or possibly even touched--in quite a while.

• Medication errors: Whether a resident did not receive his or her medication at the appropriate time or was given the wrong dosage, any medication error on behalf of the facility’s staff may be considered a form of neglect or abuse.

Contact a Schaumburg Personal Injury Lawyer

When someone you love is in a nursing home, you expect quality care from the staff. Unfortunately, that is not always the case, as employees of the facility may not follow proper procedures. If you are concerned about a loved one suffering a personal injury due to negligence in a long-term care facility, you need to speak with a knowledgeable Arlington Heights nursing home abuse and neglect attorney today. Newland & Newland, LLP understands the importance of extended care for you and your family members, and we can help determine liability for any injuries sustained during the stay. Call our office at 847-797-8000 to schedule a free phone consultation.

Sources:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs5.asp?ActID=1225&ChapAct=210 

https://qctimes.com/news/local/aperion-care-nursing-home-in-east-moline-fined-for-patient/article_678a3694-8ca2-5787-a8e8-2858fffc6d8d.html