Nursing Home Malpractice - Nursing Home Abuse Resource

Nursing Home Malpractice

Nursing home malpractice is any intentional act or negligence committed by a nursing home professional that has the potential to cause physical, mental, or psychosocial harm to nursing home residents. Nursing home malpractice is a devastatingly widespread form of abuse in the United States. Approximately 1.6 million people are cared for in nursing homes every year and a quarter of all Americans will receive long term care at some point in their lifetime.

The frequency of nursing home malpractice is largely under reported in the United States. The discrepancy in power and dependency that characterizes many nursing home-patient relations makes detecting and reporting nursing home malpractice more arduous. USA Today reported in 2003 that half of all nursing home patients suffer from untreated pain. Nursing home malpractice is to blame when patients do not receive adequate and proper care in a nursing home facility.

Comprehensive federal government studies have indicated that at least thirty percent of all long term care facilities are guilty of some degree of nursing home malpractice. In one study the government found nine thousand cases of nursing home malpractice throughout the United States. Another study found that almost five thousand nursing home patient death certificates listed starvation, dehydration, or bedsores as the primary cause of death. All three of these conditions is a result of nursing home malpractice.

Nursing home malpractice can harm patients physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, and/or financially. Any act or failure to act perpetuated by a nursing professional that does harm to a patient is considered nursing home malpractice. Physical signs that may indicate a patient has been victimized by nursing home malpractice can include the following: bedsores, pressure sores, infections, dehydration, malnutrition, unexplained ailments, slip and fall accidents, medication errors, inappropriate physical restraint, untreated pain, and related indications of injury to nursing home patients.

Nursing home malpractice can also be financial in nature if nursing professionals cause injury and loss to patients with respect to their monetary affairs. Inadequate staffing, inexperienced or under-trained staff, and negligent supervision, and patient isolation are also considered instances of nursing home malpractice.

In response to widespread nursing home malpractice in the United States, the federal government passed a comprehensive nursing home law in the late 1980s. The objective of this federal law was to establish a set of minimum standards governing the nursing home industry. Both quality of care and quality of life are stressed in the standards mandated by this law. When any of these standards are not met, the party responsible can be held responsible for any damages caused by the nursing home malpractice. The law also established a regulatory body responsible for investigating and punishing cases of nursing home malpractice.

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