In Hilton Head Island, South Carolina a caregiver at an assisted living center was charged with elder abuse that she committed against several of the women staying there. The Hilton Head assisted living center reported that the 41-year-old Sonia King of Estill will be charged with three counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult.
Continue Reading...A nursing home facility located in Clawson, Mich is being investigated for a recent outbreak of an illness in their facility. An outbreak of an gastrointestinal virus was reported at Cambridge North Health and Rehabilitation Center after several of the residents had symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
Continue Reading...This article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette details efforts by groups around the country to change the culture of nursing homes. The culture change movement focuses on increasing choice and independence for the elderly and moving away from the traditional institutional nursing home model.
Continue Reading...Many patients remain in the nursing home setting for the balance of their lives. Their final years can either be comfortable or tragic depending on the quality of care they receive.
It is difficult for an individual family to influence the nursing home’s management to improve patient care.
The best opportunity for success in improving patient care is through the nursing home’s Family Council.
Members of the council are the families of the residents. They can set their own agendas and present the facility with their concerns which must be addressed by management.
There are care issues that are common in nursing homes. The following is an outline of several of them and how they can affect nursing home patients’ quality of life.
1. Nutrition. When there is a shortage of staff in the facility, patients who are unable to feed themselves independently, suffer.
2. Hydration. A lack of adequate fluid intake is a cause of significant problems for residents including confusion, falls, and urinary tract infections.
Residents must have water conveniently located in their room. The water container must be regularly filled. Patients must be encouraged to drink water throughout the day.
Once again, inadequate staffing is usually the underlying problem when patients are dehydrated.
3. Assistance with Activities of Daily Living. Another area of concern is the insufficient number of nursing assistants to provide patients with assistance in their activities of daily living.
These activities include: bathing, dressing, grooming, transfers to bed and chair, ambulation, toileting, and eating (as discussed above).
The Family Council through its family members can provide factual accounts of care concerns at the facility and request that the facility provide adequate staff to attend to their vulnerable patients.
If cooperation isn’t forthcoming, the Council should then request the Arizona Department of Health Services to investigate the inadequacy in the facility’s level of care.
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