How Do I Know If A Nursing Home Is Understaffed?
You may be aware that understaffing in nursing homes leads to the abuse and neglect of nursing home residents. What you may not be aware of is just how common understaffing is among nursing homes in the United States. It is estimated that over half of the nursing homes in America do not have adequate staff on duty to provide proper care for their residents. If someone that you love is living in a nursing home, it is important that you understand what nursing home understaffing looks like, so that you can take steps to ensure that they are receiving the care that they need.
It makes sense that many cases of elder abuse and neglect are caused by understaffing. When the staff of a nursing home have more residents to care for than they should, they have less time to spend with each resident who is in their care. As a result, important things like repositioning, hygiene, hydration, and feeding may happen less frequently than they should. Also, when caregivers are under pressure to provide care to too many residents, they can become stressed. Stressed out caregivers often lack patience, and may become irate when residents take longer than they would like to complete any given activity, such as bathing or dressing. Impatience and irritability are unpleasant enough on their own, but they can also lead to verbal and even physical abuse.
According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, each nursing home resident should be receiving two hours or more of care from nursing home staff each day. They should also be getting daily visits from registered nurses, even if the visits are brief. There are state and federal regulations which govern staffing levels in nursing homes, but even nursing homes which comply with the regulations may be considered to be understaffed if the care which is being provided to residents does not meet or exceed the applicable standard of care. In Tennessee, evidence of violations of state and federal nursing home regulations can be used in determinations of whether a specific nursing home has breached the standard of care that it owes to its residents. If the standard of care has been breached, there may be a cause of action based upon negligence.
Visitors to a nursing home may be able to get a sense of whether the facility is adequately staffed based upon their observations of and interactions with staff and residents. Staff members who are trying to care for too many residents at once may appear hurried in their work, and they may not have enough time to interact with you. If the resident whom you are visiting is receiving care while you are visiting them, make note of their demeanor, and of the manner with which they perform their work. If you begin to suspect that there are not enough staff members on duty to care for the residents, and you feel that your loved one could be experiencing abuse or neglect as a result, it is important that you contact a Tennessee Nursing Home Neglect Attorney right away. Your attorney will know which documents to request from the nursing home so that they can analyze the staffing situation at the facility and determine whether your family can pursue a cause of action against the nursing home for any harm that they have caused your elderly relative. To learn more, call the knowledgeable Tennessee Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys at Bailey & Greer, PLLC, at (888) 470-9143 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.