Neglect from Poor Hygiene in Nursing Homes

When a nursing home fails to keep a facility clean and ensure that each resident has their personal hygiene needs taken care of, it can cause multiple health issues, including illnesses and infections. Many elderly residents have medical conditions that affect their immune system’s ability to fight off germs that are caused by poor hygiene on the part of nursing home staff.

Statistics also show that if there are issues with understaffing at a nursing home, causing the quality of staff hired to suffer, there is often issues with poor hygiene of staff members. This also puts residents at risk for conditions that come about because of their weakened immune systems.

If nursing home staff fail to keep the facility, the residents, or themselves clean, this impacts every single resident who lives at the home. Most nursing home residents need assistance with activities such as washing, brushing their teeth, changing their clothing, and going to the bathroom. Many patients need to wear adult diapers because they are bedridden.

When nursing home staff fail to help residents with these activities, fail to change their diapers, clothes, bathe them, change bandages on wounds, or meet other hygienic needs of the residents, they create a ticking time bomb of germs and bacteria which can cause illness and injury to those residents they have been entrusted to care for.

It is also critical for staff to keep the facility itself clean. Germs are lurking everywhere. High risk areas, such as bathrooms and showers, need to be sanitized every day, otherwise, germs can spread to residents can cause serious medical issues.

The same is true for areas where residents’ meals are prepared, where the meals are served, and where residents eat their meals. Contaminated food can make residents ill. There also needs to be care given to tables, chairs, counters, and any other surfaces that are touched in order to prohibit germs from being spread.

One of the main causes of poor hygienic issues at nursing homes is understaffing. When there are not enough staff available to care for residents or the staff is overworked because of short-staffing, one of the areas that suffer is proper hygienic practices. A rushed nurse’s aid who has too many residents that they are responsible for may forget to wash their hands after caring for one resident and before moving on to the next. This causes germs to be spread to residents and to staff.

Understaffing also causes high turnover of employees, with many that are hired having inadequate training and experience and may not be aware of just how critical proper hygiene practices are to resident safety.

Any family who believes their loved one has been injured or become ill due to poor hygiene on the part of the nursing home staff should contact a nursing home abuse attorney who will know the legal steps to take to protect the resident.

Contact a Nursing Home Abuse Attorney for Help

If you believe your elderly loved one has been injured due to negligence of nursing home staff, contact a compassionate nursing home abuse attorney, to find out what legal recourse your family may have against those responsible for your loved one’s injuries. To schedule a free and confidential consultation, contact a law office today.