Poor nursing home practices can pose significant threats to the well-being of residents. One area in which this is a particular concern involves the development and spread of infectious diseases. Proper sanitation and infection control are vital to patients’ health, due to their compromised immune systems and underlying medical conditions. Do you have a parent or family member residing in a nursing home who has become ill? Do you believe the illness may be linked to nursing home negligence? Rikard & Protopapas explains what you need to know about nursing home infections.
Understanding How Nursing Home Practices Can Lead to Infections
There are two main ways that negligence can cause nursing home infections: insufficient sanitation and insufficient infection control. The former is intended to prevent residents from developing illnesses in the first place, while the latter concerns steps taken to manage, treat, or cure the disease. A failure at either level can cause residents to become ill and possibly die.
The elderly already have weakened immune systems due to their age and, for many, their medical conditions. While disease is a threat to anyone in the healthcare setting, nursing home residents are especially at risk. This is all the more reason for facilities to adopt measures to keep everyone healthy and treat those who are not. When either of these does not happen due to nursing home negligence, the facility can be held liable for resulting sickness or death.
Common Causes of Nursing Home Infections
In light of the need for both proper sanitation and infection control, these are some of the most common reasons nursing home infections happen:
- Poor hygiene: Failure to wash hands, use safe food handling techniques, and properly dispose of human waste can cause the transmission of dangerous pathogens. Staff, residents, and visitors must all be vigilant in practicing good hygiene.
- Neglect: One reason that patients become sick in the first place is nursing home neglect. Every staff member should take steps to treat and control illnesses by carefully tending to patients’ conditions.
- Poor cleaning and disinfection: Medical equipment, common areas, and residents’ individual rooms must be kept clean and disinfected at all times. Unfortunately, these and other parts of the facility may be infrequently or improperly cleaned and sanitized.
- Understaffing: Numerous nursing homes across the country report insufficient staffing. Not enough staff members leads to rushed care, which can cause lax sanitation and hygiene practices that put residents at risk.
- Lack of infection control: While steps should be taken to prevent the introduction of diseases, there must also be measures to control their spread. Yet many facilities either have no protocols in place or do not properly train their staff in implementing and enforcing them.
- Failure to follow regulations and guidelines: Nursing homes and similar businesses must follow federal and state rules that are designed to keep patients healthy. Ignoring these is a strong sign of negligence that can unfortunately result in major harm.
Role of Nursing Home Staff in Preventing and Controlling Infections
Preventing and controlling nursing home infections requires active participation by nursing home staff. They can help keep patients healthy by:
- Learning the rules: Although the facility is ultimately responsible for training its staff, a nurse or other employee should ask questions if he or she doesn’t understand basic hygiene, sanitation, and other standards. Employee training and retraining are essential to residents’ health.
- Enforcement: Hygiene, sanitation, and infection control procedures must also be monitored and enforced. If a staff member sees someone violating the rules, action should be taken to keep everyone safe.
- Staying focused: As mentioned above, understaffing is a contributing factor in the spread of disease. Nonetheless, it is still the responsibility of every employee to remain focused on doing their jobs, which includes observing the above-mentioned rules.
Signs of Nursing Home Neglect That May Lead to Infections
Relatives of nursing home patients play a vital role in identifying and reporting conditions that can facilitate the development and spread of diseases. Our firm encourages family members to regularly visit their loved ones in nursing homes to ensure they are being properly cared for. If you notice these signs, it’s possible that infectious diseases are lurking:
- Poor living conditions: Overcrowding, insufficient ventilation, and improper waste disposal are highly likely to cause the introduction and spread of infections. If it appears that the facility is substandard in quality, it may be time to call a nursing home infections lawyer.
- Obvious disregard for hygiene and sanitation: A visitor probably will not get to see every detail of how the facility handles hygiene and sanitation. However, if you notice obvious problems like staff members not washing their hands, these should raise red flags.
- Constant illnesses: Is your loved one constantly suffering from an illness, or do you notice that the same people are sick whenever you visit? This could be due to infections that are not being prevented or treated.
- Unexplained illness: If your family member suddenly and inexplicably becomes sick, it is probably due to patient neglect or nursing home negligence. Your loved one may need to be treated by an outside medical professional to address the problem and uncover its cause.
- Communication issues: Some facilities suffer from communication problems among staff. These can come in the form of mixed-up patient records or lack of coordination. When these issues arise, there’s a good chance hygiene, sanitation, and infection control procedures will be disregarded.
Steps to Take If You Suspect Nursing Home Neglect
If your loved one has become ill and you believe it is because of nursing home negligence, we suggest doing the following:
- Seek medical attention: The health of the patient is paramount, so make sure your family member receives medical attention (including from an outside physician, if necessary).
- Collect evidence: To the extent you can, gather evidence by talking to your loved one, taking pictures and recording video of poor hygiene or living conditions, and perhaps speaking with other residents. Your nursing home infections attorney can also assist with this later.
- Obtain medical and other records: Get a copy of your loved one’s medical records, especially if they demonstrate the development or progression of a disease. Do what you can to document any pain and suffering as well.
- Retain an experienced nursing home infections lawyer: Our firm prides itself on seeking compensation for patients who have become sick due to neglect and negligence. We can represent you and your family from start to finish in litigation and mediation.
Contact Our Columbia, SC Nursing Home Neglect Attorney
Nursing homes have a legal duty to exercise reasonable care in preventing and controlling diseases. When they negligently fail to do so, and patients become sick, victims can demand damages. Rikard & Protopapas is here to help. Give us a call today to learn more.