Did the nursing home cause my loved one’s bedsores?

Nursing Home abuse Morrow

Transcript:

Bedsores are a very common injury. In fact, nearly ten percent of nursing home residents have a bedsore at any given time.

But is the nursing home responsible for your loved one’s bedsore? Possibly. It will depend on what the nursing home did prior to the injury.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) places bedsores into two categories: Avoidable and Unavoidable.

Avoidable means that the nursing home did not properly evaluate your loved one’s risk of bedsores, implement bedsore preventions that are tailored to your loved one’s risk factors, or continually monitor and evaluate those interventions. Unavoidable means that a bedsore developed despite the nursing home taking all of these steps.

So for example, a bedsore would be considered avoidable if it occurred because the nursing home did not conduct an evaluation, like the Braden Scale, upon your loved one’s admission. Or if the bedsore occurred because the nursing home failed to keep your incontinent loved one clean and dry. Or, even if the bedsore occurred because the nursing home did not reposition your loved one frequently enough.  

The CMS insists that nursing home residents be monitored at least once a day for changes in skin condition. Once a bedsore has been identified, the nursing home should reevaluate their care methods and make the appropriate adjustments.

At the end of the day, most bedsores are avoidable. This means that the nursing home did not do what it was supposed to do. Under Georgia law, if your loved one developed an avoidable bedsore, then your loved one has the right to compensation for pain and suffering, medical bills, and other costs.

If your loved developed bedsores at a nursing home and you are wondering if you have a claim, then please, feel free to call and speak to one of our experienced Georgia nursing home neglect lawyers today. Our consultations are always free. If you would like more information about this topic, be sure to click on our other videos, or better yet, click the subscribe button to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thank you.