Are you suspicious that your loved one is being harmed by the nursing home care that is supposed to be nurturing him or her?
A new study shows that you may be right, even if you don’t want to believe it.
According to AARP, one of every three skilled nursing home patients were harmed by the treatment he or she received. The study was released by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Harm” includes infection, medical errors and conditions such as extreme bleeding, kidney failure, blood clots and fluid imbalances, according to AARP. The patients consisted of those who received care following a hospital stint.
The study said that physicians found 59 percent of the mistakes preventable, while 1.5 percent of the mistakes contributed to a patient’s death.
Those numbers translate into 1,500 patients dying in one month alone as a result of complications from nursing home mistreatment, out of around 22,000 patients harmed, according to AARP.
Much of the mistreatment resulted in hospital re-admittance, to the cost of up to $208 in a single month for Medicare, according to AARP. When stretched over a full year, those costs balloon to $2.8 billion, the report says.
Click here to read the full AARP article.
Click here to read the study by the Department of Health and Human Services / Office of Inspector General, entitled “Adverse Events in Skilled Nursing Facilities: National Incidence Among Medicare Beneficiaries.”
The Kosieradzki • Smith Law Firm represents clients in cases involving catastrophic injury caused by nursing homes and other care facilities that fail to provide proper care. If you believe your loved one has been harmed due neglect or abuse in a nursing home, take action and contact the Kosieradzki • Smith Law Firm online or call us toll-free at (877) 552-2873 to set up a no-cost, no-obligation consultation.
