You tour the nursing home and it seems great. Everyone is nice and friendly and it looks clean.
After you move your elderly relative into the home, though, you start to worry. Is everything as perfect as it appeared?
It may be fine, but you do need to know the reality so that you can watch out for warning signs of neglect and abuse. Below are six stats you may be surprised by:
- Abuse happens in about 30 percent of homes. In some cases, other residents are the abusive parties, but it can also come from staff workers
- Most nursing homes have deficiencies. One study found them in a full 91.7 percent of the homes health inspectors checked.
- Most abuse never gets reported. One study said that 80 percent of cases went unreported and only 20 percent came to light. Reasons are many, but they could include mental difficulties experienced by aging residents.
- Thirty residents may be cared for by just a single staff member. Many staff members are overworked, which can be problematic if there is an emergency.
- Negligence could lead to around 5,000 deaths in a single year. That’s the total that were linked to negligence, including starvation and dehydration, in one study.
- Each nursing home averages 20 complaints per year. Obviously, the total in any given home may be higher or lower, but the average shows that issues are common. And that’s not even counting issues that are never reported and complaints that are never filed.
Are you worried that your loved one was injured through negligence or abuse? Be sure you know all of your legal rights.
Source: Masters in Healthcare, “15 Shocking Statistics on Nursing Homes,” accessed Nov. 29, 2017
