Are Tennessee Nursing Home Residents Are at Risk of Not Receiving CPR When Needed

While not every nursing home resident wants life-saving measures like CPR to be administered if they are found unresponsive, nursing home staff are required to abide by the wishes of their residents as they are spelled out in their advance directives. If a resident does not have an advance directive, the default directive is to give CPR. Unfortunately, there are a growing number of cases where nursing home residents whose advance directives indicated a desire for CPR have died as a result of the failure of staff to administer CPR to them when it was needed. Over the past three years, there have been at least one hundred and sixty one CPR-related deficiencies, including some deaths and staffing problems, noted in inspection reports from nursing homes across the United States.

Last year, a resident of a Maine nursing home died after staff failed to give them CPR. Two complaints were filed against the nursing home in the week following the resident’s death, and a health inspection was scheduled. The health inspection indicated that the resident had signed an advance directive indicating that they wished for CPR to be administered if they were found unresponsive. The resident’s doctor had also signed an order which indicated that the resident was to be given CPR. While CPR will not save the life of every person to whom it is administered, this particular resident had been alive, responsive, and speaking to nursing home staff just twelve minutes before they were discovered in an unresponsive state. Depending upon when cardiac arrest occurred, it is possible that CPR may have been effective if it had been administered.

Prior to this resident’s death, the Mainee nursing home where they resided had done well in health inspections, and had not been assessed any fines for the previous two years. This is concerning, because it means that even residents who are in nursing homes that provide good care overall are at risk for not getting the potentially lifesaving care that they believe that they will receive as a result of completing their advance directives.

As part of the health inspection, inspectors spoke to nursing home staff about a variety of things, including nursing home policies. The staff seemed confused about the nursing home’s resuscitation policy, and the charge nurse who should have attempted to revive the aforementioned resident stated that she was unaware of their code status. The resident had full code status, which means that every attempt should have been made to keep them alive, including CPR. In addition to the problems with the staff’s understanding of when they should attempt to resuscitate residents, inspectors discovered that the nursing home did not always have CPR-certified staff members in the building.

When nursing home staff do not provide the care that their residents request in their advance directives, they violate federal law, which specifies that nursing homes are to follow their residents’ comprehensive plans of care. Failing to have CPR-certified staff on duty at all times is also a violation of federal law. If someone in your family has died or suffered harm as a result of the failure of nursing home staff to follow their advance directive or code status, you need the assistance of a knowledgeable nursing home abuse and neglect attorney. The skilled Tennessee nursing home injury attorneys at Bailey & Greer, PLLC will evaluate your case, answer all of your questions, and help you determine the best course of action. Please call us at 901-680-9777 to schedule a time to discuss your case.  At Bailey & Greer, PLLC, we are small enough to care, big enough to fight, and experienced enough to win.

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