New Federal Data: Many Nursing Homes Exaggerate Staff Size
Inadequate Staffing Increases Risks of Nursing Home Injuries
The new data provides an opportunity to more closely evaluate the role of staffing in nursing homes. By law, nursing home and assisted living facilities have legal obligations when it comes to providing acceptable standards of care required by residents, and taking steps to reduce risks of preventable injuries. With insufficient staffing, these risks can be substantially increased, and residents more likely to not receive the care, treatment, and support they deserve.
Here are just a few examples of how inadequate staffing can lead to nursing home residents being harmed:
Medicare doesn’t currently have or enforce rules about minimum numbers of staff or minimum guidelines for staff-to-resident ratios, but it does have laws requiring what types of nurses these facilities need to employ and when they need to be on duty. Still, nursing homes are responsible for employing an adequate number of trained and qualified staff and nurses in order to provide an acceptable level of care and keep patients safe from preventable harm. When they fail to do so and residents are harmed, nursing homes can be held liable for damages through nursing home lawsuits.
Fighting for Victims & Families
At Brown & Barron, LLC, our Baltimore nursing home injury attorneys are committed to fighting on behalf of victims who suffer preventable injuries due to the failures of nursing homes and staff, as well as families who have lost loved ones due to unacceptable errors, neglect, or abuse.If you would like more information about your rights following a nursing home injury you believe could and should have been avoided, please call(410) 547-0202orcontact us onlinefor a free consultation. Our team is available 24/7 to help!