When you place a loved one in the care of a nursing home you expect that they will be well taken care of by experienced and attentive staff. You expect that the staff has experience and has been thoroughly trained on systems and procedures necessary to thoroughly and effectively care for nursing home residents.
Sadly this is not always the case.
In our experience, there are three critical components of proper nursing home staffing. In almost all of the cases we have handled, one or more of these components has not been fulfilled.
Adequate Staffing
Adequate staffing is critical to the care given in a nursing home or care facility. When a nursing home is inadequately staffed by trained professionals, the number of accidents and medical emergencies arising from unattended residents dramatically rises. Conversely, accidents and emergencies decrease when proper staffing is implemented.
Unfortunately, some facilities reduce staffing or fail to employ professionals trained to work with the elderly or others requiring assistance so that they can save on expenses. Often, they hire individuals without nursing home or health care experience. In other cases, nursing homes will hire trained and experienced staff, but the number of staff is far less than needed to provide adequate and proper care.
Supervision
Adequate staffing helps to eliminate the occurrence of nursing home accidents, but that is not enough; the staff must be adequately supervised. Supervision is key to minimizing the risk of accidents occurring in a nursing home; it is also important to make sure that all staff are doing their jobs correctly.
Training, Support, and Assistance
Providing staff with the training, support, and assistance they need is necessary to maintaining a safe environment for residents. Staff need to be taught how to do their jobs correctly. Managers and staff should interact to discuss safety and various other matters that might develop, and to create solutions to problems. Staff sometimes need the assistance and cooperation of mangers in order to do their jobs better.
We Can Help
When a family member retains us to represent a loved one in a nursing home abuse or injury case, we want to know why the event occurred. Very often it is because the facility didn’t have enough professional staff, or that they didn’t properly train or supervise their staff.
If you have a loved one who has been injured or who has suffered an injury or accident in a nursing home or long-term care facility, please call us. Once we have had an opportunity to learn about the event, we explain your options for seeking fair compensation.
