Determining nursing home abuse can be difficult. Often, the complaints of the elderly will be looked at with less attention due to their old age and diminishing mental facilities. If you suspect nursing home abuse, you need to act quickly.
Within the Florida law, nursing homes are held accountable for protecting their patients by:
- Hiring Qualified Staff
A nursing home is expected to hire qualified personnel that have proper degrees and training to handle their roles in the facility.
- Performing Proper Screening and Background Checks on Employees
During the hiring process, the nursing home is required to perform background checks, assuring that people with a background of abuse do not get hired to care for the elderly
- Maintaining Adequate Staff Numbers
In a report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the general staff to resident ratio should be 1 staff member to every 1.64 residents. When a nursing home is understaffed, residents can become vulnerable to neglect because employees can’t spend an enough time with the individuals in their care.
- Training Staff
Nursing homes can be held accountable when inadequate worker training leads to the injury of a patient. Nursing home staff should be adequately trained on how to handle clinical situations and stressful situations where a patient is not complying, fearful, or feeling anxious.
- Administering Proper Patient Medication Levels
Nursing homes have a responsibility to see that proper medication and doses are administered to residents as prescribed. Medications must be necessary and not administered as a “staff convenience”
Nursing homes can be found liable if a resident suffers an injury or dies as a result of any of the steps above not being followed. Nursing home residents have a right to proper care, dignity and privacy. If you suspect your care facility is understaffed, unqualified or not properly trained, please call us for help.
