Nursing Home Abuse Premature Deaths by the Thousands

Kahn Gauthier Swick is investigating any possible nursing home abuse lawsuit claim against a nursing home to recover for abuse injuries suffered by nursing home residents. There are more than one and one-half million elderly and disabled persons in 17,000 nursing home across the United States. It is estimated that as many as 35,000 of these nursing home residents die prematurely every year due to the nursing home negligence, nursing home abuse or nursing home neglect. At any particular time there are hundreds of abuse lawsuit pending against nursing home operators to recover for nursing home injury to, or even the nursing home lawsuit death of, a nursing home resident due to the nursing home abuse or neglect of the resident. These abuse lawsuit are brought by the injured abuse nursing home resident, or by his or her family members if the nursing home resident has died. Under some circumstances, the family members may assert their own lawsuit claims against the nursing home operator for financial loss or emotional abuse.

Federal and state laws require that nursing home develop a plan of care for each resident, and that the nursing home employ sufficient staffing to provide all the care listed on the care plan. Because many corporate-owned nursing home are not sufficiently staffed, they cannot provide all the care listed on the nursing home care plan. Consequently, nursing home residents are not taken to the toilet when necessary, develop painful and life-threatening bed sores, are not fed properly, are not given sufficient fluids, are over-medicated or under-medicated, are not cleaned or groomed, or are ignored and not included in activities, among many other possible abuse deprivations. According to a report called 'The Nurse Staffing Crisis in Nursing Home --A Consensus Statement of the Campaign for Quality Care,' released on March 14, 2001, by the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, nursing home abuse across the country are experience a staffing crisis that can jeopardize quality of care, and even the life, of nursing home residents.

Nursing home that receive federal funds must comply with federal laws requiring that nursing home residents receive a high quality of care. Since most nursing home participate in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, these nursing home must obey the laws. A federal statute known as the Nursing Home Reform Act provides that a nursing home 'must provide services and activities to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each nursing home resident in accordance with a written plan of care. In addition, the federal Older Americans Act requires each state to have an Ombudsman Program that addresses complaints and advocates for improvements in the long term nursing home care system.

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