Bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers, decubitus ulcers or pressure sores are one of the many signs of nursing home neglect and abuse. The condition is caused by unrelieved pressure to the skin and can lead to serious health problems such as infections and other life threatening conditions.
Bedsores are a serious health concern, particularly for the elderly who may require mobility or other assistance. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 1 out of 10 nursing home residents suffer from bedsores, which are largely attributed to a lack of attention and improper medical care. Once bedsores develop, unfortunately, many nursing home residents do not get the prompt medical attention they need allowing the bedsores to move into later stages that are more difficult to treat. Untreated in the early stages, some bedsores may lead to medical conditions such as sepsis, a bacterial infection of the bloodstream or body tissues; cellulitis, an inflammation of connective tissues making victims vulnerable to meningitis; joint and bone infections; and cancer. Iowa Bedsore Nursing Home Neglect Attorneys It is the responsibility of the nursing home to prevent bedsores by providing competent care. In the event a resident develops a bedsore, it is crucial to treat bedsores immediately to prevent them from getting worse. If you or a family member has been a victim of neglect or abuse in an Iowa nursing home contact the Iowa Nursing Home Neglect Lawyers of Hemminger Law Firm for assistance at 515-283-2116.
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With over 450 nursing homes in located within the state of Iowa, finding just the right one for your family member’s needs could be a challenging endeavor. Ideally your search for long-term care should take place before it is ever needed. Unfortunately, many of us do not start the process of researching and visiting nursing homes for our family member or loved one until a medical event takes place or a worsening of conditions such as Dementia or Alzheimer’s disease make it too difficult to care for a family member at home. Whatever your situation may be, you want to make sure that you find a good nursing home for your loved one so you can be sure they are well-cared for.
Slow Down Slow down is the most important advise you will receive. Although you may feel rushed to select a nursing home, experts say, slow down and take your time when you are looking for a reliable nursing home. This is one of the most important decisions you will ever make for someone else so do not feel pressured into making a hasty choice on which nursing home is best suited to your loved one’s needs and well-being. Ask friends, clergy, the primary care physician, the geriatric physician, the hospital’s discharge office or the social work office for referrals and recommendations. If your family member is hospitalized, you have a right to tell the hospital that your family member is not ready for discharge and you/they need more time to able to secure reliable long-term care that meets their needs. Key Factors When Choosing a Nursing Home
(Note: just because a nursing home facility is medicare and medicaid certified does not mean that it has a Government endorsement of good quality nursing home care, nor does it mean the facility has not had serious nursing home violations in the past).
Iowa Nursing Home Ratings. Compare Iowa’s more than 400 nursing homes that are receiving Medicare and Medicaid payments and their rating on a 1-to-5 star basis for the past two years. Click here to read the Iowa Nursing Home Resident Rights. If you have concerns about a particular nursing home or one of its employees, contact Iowa nursing home resident rights attorney John T. Hemminger at 515-283-2116. Officials are working to update Iowa’s dependent abuse law to include violations to nursing home residents’ privacy following incidences of employees posting compromising pictures of residents to social media sites.
Currently, Iowa’s dependent abuse law, updated in 2008 and before the current social media revolution, does not protect nursing home residents from long term care employees snapping and sending pictures online as long as the photos are not sexual in nature, which would include showing certain parts of the body. Unfortunately, the law, as currently written, is falling woefully short on protecting the elderly from sexual exploitation and abuse in the digital age. Recently, an Iowa certified nursing assistant escaped charges despite posting degrading and humiliating pictures of a dementia-addled resident to SnapChat simply because her photos did not meet the definition of sexual exploitation. As a result, the employee remains eligible to work in any nursing home in the state. Back in 2012, ProPublica, documented 47 cases of inappropriate social media posts by nursing home workers. With the explosion of social media since 2012, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Until the law is updated to address incidences of nursing home employees using social media or electronic devices to the detriment of the residents in their care, nursing homes can only hope that training and diligence will fill the gap. For many families who have a loved one being cared for in a nursing home, this may be an unsettling prospect. To protect your family member from abuse or neglect in a nursing home, it is important to be alert to the signs of problems and stay in regular communication with your family member and nursing home staff. If you suspect abuse or neglect, it is advisable to visit with an attorney that has experience with nursing home neglect and elder abuse cases. Contact an Experienced Iowa Elder Abuse Attorney If your loved has suffered elder abuse or sexual exploitation by long-term care employees, contact Hemminger Law Firm. We provide personalized, focused, dedicated legal service to those seeking justice for elder and nursing home abuse. To schedule a free initial consultation, call us today at 515-283-2116 Nursing homes designated as special focus facilities are required to fix lapses in care or risk losing federal funding of Medicare and Medicaid. Special focus status is reserved for the worst of the worst nursing homes across the country and is considered the federal government’s strictest form of oversight.
Unfortunately, despite the increased scrutiny that comes with the title, a recent analysis found that more than 50 percent of nursing homes that graduated from special focus status went on to provide dangerous care. In fact, recurrences of patient harm rarely translate into a return to the watch list and, more often than not, nursing homes do not lose Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements so there is little incentive to improve. Many nursing home abuse and neglect violations include giving patients the wrong medications, failing to protect residents from violence and harm at the hands of other residents or staff, and neglecting to tell families and physicians about patient injuries that may worsen without intervention. Most care facilities have too few nurses or staff to provide needed care. The recent findings are disheartening for many who have family members who receive nursing home care. It is unacceptable that poor performing facilities entrusted with the care of the elderly can continue to operate putting patients at risk for injury or death. Contact an Iowa Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorney If you or a family member has been injured in an Iowa nursing home, it is important to contact an experienced nursing home neglect and abuse lawyer to hold the facility accountable and get the compensation needed to recover your losses. Des Moines personal injury lawyer John T. Hemminger can help. Contact our Iowa Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect team for a free consultation of your case today at 515-283-2116. In 2016, employees of at least 18 nursing homes and assisted care facilities posted unauthorized photos and videos of residents on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. Unfortunately, some of the material shared was vulgar and demeaning to residents and, sadly, one third of the incidences happened here in Iowa.
Since the problem has come to the attention of regulators and nursing homes, they have pledged to crack down. However, it appears that the number of reported incidences has risen, which some attribute to either more reporting due to raised awareness or that the abusive practice has simply become more widespread. According to a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, the uptick in reports is expected with nursing homes practicing more oversight. However, officials acknowledge that lack of regulations has made it difficult to hold caregivers accountable. That is due to change. Proposed law will soon define dependent adult abuse to include “the taking, transmission, or display of an electronic image of a dependent adult by a caretaker, where the caretaker’s actions constitute a willful act or statement intended to shame, degrade, humiliate, or otherwise harm the personal dignity of the dependent adult.” Those who engage in abuse and employers who turn a blind eye will be subject to more severe consequences moving forward. Contact an Experienced Iowa Nursing Home Adult Abuse Attorney If you or a family member has suffered from nursing home abuse or neglect, contact Iowa nursing home adult abuse attorney John T. Hemminger for immediate help at 515-283-2116. Medication errors are a wide scale problem in the U.S. and are only becoming more common as prescription drugs become the “go to” source for medical professionals to treat a growing list of ailments afflicting Americans. This matters because medication errors can lead to serious damage to a person’s mental and physical health. Health complications arising out of medication errors include, for example, cancer, strokes, and heart failure to name a few. One group in particular that has been hard hit by this wave of medication errors has been the elderly.
In 2005, the F.D.A. mandated that anti-psychotics include a warning label that the drugs may increase the risk of death for dementia patients. Despite this warning label, Medicare claims in 2007 revealed that about 88 percent of anti-psychotics, which were prescribed to elderly nursing home residents, were prescribed to dementia patients. While there are cases where anti-psychotics have been legitimately prescribed to elderly nursing home patients, research indicates that there are many cases where such drugs should not have been prescribed and this has had a negative impact on elderly individuals’ health throughout America. Indeed, according to medical research cited in a recent PBS news article, “older adults account for 35 percent of all hospital stays but more than half of the visits are marred by drug related complications”. Contact a Nursing Home Medication Errors Attorney If you or a loved one has experienced over medication errors, it may be time to consult an attorney who can advise you in choosing the correct course of action as well as recover the costs arising from over medication errors. Contact the Des Moines Iowa nursing home neglect and nursing home medication errors attorney John T. Hemminger for assistance if you or a family member has been harmed at 515-283-2116. Opioid addiction is an epidemic across the nation, but it is not usually associated with senior citizens. However, because seniors undergo more surgeries including hip replacements or other procedures which require pain treatment, opioid addiction among the elderly is on the rise.
Because seniors are sometimes shuffled between hospitals and nursing home facilities they are often cared for by multiple physicians and caretakers who may not be tracking their prescription drug intake – an issue of nursing home neglect. On top of oversights in the process, nursing homes often fail to provide elderly residents with substance abuse counseling when they are taking prescription meds and do not train staff adequately to be on the look out for problems. Negligent care can very well lead to abuse or misuse of these powerful painkillers, which can set seniors up for addiction leading to serious health issues or even death. A recent report found that millions of older Americans receive prescriptions for commonly abused opioids so the potential for problems is significant. Increased diligence on the part of nursing home doctors and caretakers is crucial to prevent seniors from harm. Contact an Iowa Nursing Home Neglect Lawyer If you or a family member has been a victim of nursing home negligence, call an experienced Iowa nursing home neglect lawyer, John T. Hemminger, for assistance today at 515-283-2116 or email us through this website. The financial exploitation of the elderly is growing problem and raising awareness is important to protect family members who are vulnerable to this crime.
Renewed measures against illegal or improper use of senior’s money, property or assets are being considered in many states across the nation. Fraud prevention, including identity theft, are part of the conversation. A handful of states have strengthened their existing laws to punish those who prey on the elderly. For example, Idaho recently revised its definition of neglect of vulnerable adults to include financial exploitation and Illinois extended its statute of limitations from 3 to 7 years to prosecute those who take financial advantage of a senior. Despite various efforts, however, financial exploitation is routinely overlooked and underreported and, as the number of older, wealthier people grows, so does the number of people eager to prey on them. While states ramp up to address the problem, the federal government has made strides of its own to combat the issue.
So many elderly people either live independently or in nursing home facilities, where they may come in contact with a bad apple intent on financial wrong doing. As family members, we can help by recognizing danger signs, which can include the disappearance of large funds or assets, changes in wills deeds and power of attorney, large or frequent withdrawals of money from accounts or an inability to pay bills. Regularly talking to your elderly family member about their finances may help you determine if someone is exploiting them. If you suspect your elderly family member is a victim of financial abuse, it is important to alert authorities to protect their well-being. If you or a family member has suffered neglect or abuse in an Iowa nursing home facility, including financial exploitation, contact the Law Offices of John T. Hemminger for help today at 515-283-2116. One of the most common injuries in long-term care facilities are falls. A nursing home is responsible for making a safe environment for all patients but, unfortunately, many times this responsibility is overlooked.
It is a major misconception that falls are just a normal part of aging. Instead, falls are often an early sign of illness or stem from hazardous environmental conditions, which slip under the radar of an untrained or irresponsible staff. Falls can result in fractures of the femur, hip, humerus, wrist, ribs or a subdural hematoma in cases where an elderly nursing home resident strikes their head in a fall. Unfortunately, many injuries can lead to hospitalization where seniors run the risk of immobility complications or iatrogenic illnesses, increasing their risk for long term institutionalization or even death. Underscoring the seriousness of a fall, a recent finding indicates that the mortality rate in older adults increases 5 to 8 times three months after a hip fracture, with the risk persisting over time. To keep our elderly family members safe and healthy in a nursing home facility, fall prevention must be a top priority. To prevent falls, nursing home staff must be alert to medical conditions that may contribute to a fall and take protective measures to ensure the safety of those in their care. Falls may result in residents who experience orthostatic hypotension or who experience bouts of dizziness. Other causes may relate to the effects of prescription drugs residents are taking. Staff should know the medical status of each resident and what prescriptions they may be on to determine if these factors may contribute to a fall. Staff should routinely ask residents to self-assess their abilities and perform fall risk assessments such as a Timed Get Up and Go (or TUG) to determine if there is a risk for falls. To limit environmental factors that may cause a fall, nursing homes should ensure the availability of grab bars, provide adequate lighting, provide warnings of fall hazards such as slippery floors or uneven surfaces and avoid using throw rugs, cords or other objects that a resident can trip on. Staff should have training in fall risk reduction techniques to help to protect seniors in their care. If your family member has been injured in a fall at a nursing home facility, they may be at risk for complications stemming from the fall or be at risk for future falls due to the negligence of the staff. Contact Des Moines nursing home neglect and abuse lawyer John T. Hemminger for help if your family member has been hurt in a nursing home setting. We will hold the facility accountable to prevent future incidences of negligence and seek compensation for your loved one’s injuries. Call today at 515-283-2116. Sepsis is a serious medical condition, which is most common in elderly individuals. It is characterized by inflammation that spreads throughout the body in response to an infection, which can damage the body systems and sometimes result in death.
Preventing infections, or treating them effectively, is the first line of defense against sepsis. Properly caring for wounds or surgical sites and promptly treating respiratory, kidney or other infections can reduce the chance of developing this dangerous condition. If sepsis does develop, early detection and treatment, especially in elderly patients, is critical to an individual’s survival. Unfortunately, nursing home negligence may lead to an elderly resident succumbing to an infection. Failure to treat an infection promptly and properly, such as a infected bedsore or respiratory illness, may put your family member at risk for developing sepsis. If you believe that your loved one has suffered from sepsis due to the negligence of nursing home staff, it is important to contact an experienced nursing home neglect lawyer to hold the nursing home accountable. Contact the Des Moines nursing neglect lawyers of John T. Hemminger for help if your family member has been a victim of a negligent nursing home. |
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