The Guardian Blog : Arizona Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Solomon & Relihan Law Firm : AZ Assisted Living Neglect & Abuse : The Guardian Blog

Elderly patients in nursing homes spend thousands of dollars on their medications alone. As the elderly age their health problems become apparent and therefore more prescriptions are administered to them. If your loved one resides in a nursing home, you trust that the pharmacists are properly medicating them and that the medications will not affect them in a negative way. Among 32 investigations from May 2010 to June 2011, 17 of the 32 pharmacists had failed to red-flag cases that nursing home residents were inappropriately prescribed strong antipsychotic medications like Seroquel, a drug used to treat schizophrenia.

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The family of a woman in Bakersfield, CA is accusing her nursing home of not treating severe burns and allowing them to spread over a large portion of her body.   Doctors believe the burns were a result of medication the woman was taking, but the failure of the nursing home staff to notice and take proper action caused the problem to become much more severe.  This case highlights what can happen when nursing home staffers are inattentive and neglectful.

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An important yet overlooked consideration in the care of the elderly is the impact of medication on nutrition.

It is not uncommon for nursing home residents to be taking 9 or more medications. It is also not uncommon for physicians and nurses caring for nursing home patients to fail to consider the impact that medications may have on their patient’s appetite and their ability to absorb nutrients.

The remedy is simple and simply overlooked.

There is a dietary guide (Drug-Nutrient Resource) available in nursing homes and used by dietitians to assist them in evaluating unplanned weight loss.

The guide outlines the nutritional side effects of medications including appetite changes, weight changes, edema, altered taste, thirst, dry mouth, the risk of dental problems, GI distress, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, blood pressure changes, drowsiness/weakness, etc.

However, in nursing homes, where communication among disciplines is poor; physicians, nurses and dietitians don’t customarily discuss common interactions between medications and nutrition.

Informed advocates and families may be the only source of information pertaining to this risk.
 

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