Author Archives: Adam Peck

Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse is often caused by the understaffing of the nursing care facility. The results of understaffing in any medical care facility can be catastrophic. An overworked nursing staff may leave an elder patient sitting or lying too long in one place, fail to clean up an elder properly, or not give the resident their medication when it is critical that it is done so, Elder patients are especially vulnerable to skin breakdown and need to be turned and repositioned at least very two hours otherwise the elder will certainly acquire bed sores, pressure sores and decubitus ulcers.

Evidence shows that higher staff levels and lower nurse turnover are linked to fewer pressure ulcers, catheterized patients, and urinary tract infections. Inadequate food intake (malnutrition) is a major reason frail elderly people die in nursing homes. Nursing homes must be sufficiently staffed to attend to residents who need assistance and supervision at mealtimes to assure proper nutritional intake and hydration. Low staffed facilities are unable to encourage residents to remain as independent as possible and to encourage participation in activities intended to promote in mental acuity and physical health.

Uninterrupted pressure exerted on the skin, soft tissue, muscle, and bone can lead to the development of localized ischemia, tissue inflammation, tissue anoxia, and necrosis. Pressure ulcers, Bed Sores also known as Decubitus Ulcers can result from these effects; about 3 million adults in the United States suffer from pressure ulcers, bed sores and decubitus ulcers. Estimates of the incidence of pressure ulcers vary according to the setting and range from 0.4 to 38.0 percent in acute-care hospitals, from 2.2 to 23.9 percent in long-term nursing facilities, and from 0 to 17 percent in the home-care setting.

Various systems have been used to assess the severity of pressure ulcers, but most use a four-stage categorization with higher numbers indicating higher severity. Healing rates of pressure ulcers vary considerably and are dependent on comorbidities, clinical interventions, and severity of the ulcer. This variability can add to the length of hospitalization and impede the return of patients to full functioning. Data on the costs of treatment for a pressure ulcer vary, but some estimates range between $37,800 and $70,000, with total annual costs in the United States as high as $11 billion.

Interventions to treat pressure ulcers are numerous and diverse and include strategies such as reducing pressure with various support surfaces, wound debridement and cleansing, surgical repair, and the use of various wound dressings, various biologic agents, and nutritional supplementation.In addition, various adjunctive therapies have been evaluated, including vacuum-assisted closure, ultrasound therapy, electrical stimulation, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The approach to treatment typically varies, depending on the stage of the wound and patient-related factors such as the existence of particular comorbidities says California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyer Steven Peck.