Common Nursing Home Cases
We have successfully handled these types of cases and more.
Pressure Ulcers or Pressure Sores
Simply put, pressure ulcers are a breakdown of the skin and tissue caused by prolonged pressure. This often happens with residents who are confined to a bed or wheelchair. Unfortunately, they don't always get turned and repositioned enough, and develop nasty wounds as a result.
To make matters worse, these wounds are often at or near the resident's buttocks, so fecal matter can get into the bloodstream and cause an infection.
Pressure ulcers are also commonly found on heels, but can be other places in the body too. In early stages, they can be fixed, but if left to later stages (sometimes they get so deep you can see the bone) they can be nearly impossible to heal.
If your loved one has suffered a pressure ulcer in a nursing home, call us today!
Medication Errors
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, medication errors that cause serious injury or death are "never events" that should not happen.
The formula to fix this is simple- right patient, right drug, right dose, right time
and right route.
Unfortunately, from the beginning of a nursing home stay this can go wrong. Medication lists can be transcribed wrong, some can be omitted, some can be neglected or forgotten.
In many cases, this can have tragic consequences. If a loved one of yours died or was seriously injured by a nursing home medication error, call Zimmerle law today.
Falls
Nursing homes are required by law to keep their environment as free from hazards as possible and to provide all residents adequate supervision and assistance to prevent accidents.
Part of each resident's care plan should be a fall risk assessment. Everyone is at some risk for falls - even us. Many nursing home residents are at a very high risk for falls. Unfortunately, when elderly people fall, many times they don't ever recover.
In nursing homes, many residents have some level of dementia and/or some form of balance problems. Many of them need assistance to walk, but staff doesn't always respond to call lights in time.
Preventing falls used to be easy - they tied people down! Luckily that isn't allowed anymore. While there is no single solution to nursing home falls, a robust facility-wide fall risk intervention program, as well as individual assessment and care can minimize risk and keep residents upright and healthy.
Nursing Home Abuse
Unfortunately, we at Zimmerle Law have seen some ugly things. Nurses and CNAs taunting residents. Staff filming residents. Physical abuse. Sexual abuse - by staff or by other residents.
Many of these cases go beyond "that lady was mean" and truly have a serious effect on the most vulnerable people in our society.
Hopefully you'll never need to call us for this, but if you do, we're here.