Archive for the 'Nursing Home Injury' Category

Ask Marvin Lundy…About Staying Safe in the Hospital

marvinlundy July 30th, 2010

My doctor once said something that has stuck with me: “Hospitals are a bad place to be when you’re sick.”

What he meant is that hospitals are Petri dishes, filled with germs that want to make themselves at home in you.

These germs can be lethal. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) nearly 100,000 people die from hospital acquired infections. While you can’t always avoid a hospital stay, there are some of things you can do to protect yourself, or those you love. Here are 10 suggestions from RID, the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths:

1. Ask that hospital staff clean their hands before treating you, and ask visitors to clean their hands too. This is the single most important way to protect you in the hospital. If you’re worried about being too aggressive, just remember your life could be at stake. All caregivers should clean their hands before treating you. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are more effective at removing most bacteria than soap and water. Do not hesitate to say: “Excuse me, but there’s an alcohol dispenser right there. Would you mind using that before you touch me, so I can see it?” Don’t be falsely assured by gloves. If caregivers have pulled on gloves without cleaning their hands first, the gloves are already contaminated before they touch you.

2. Before your doctor uses a stethoscope, ask that the diaphragm (the flat surface) be wiped with alcohol. Stethoscopes are often contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria that causes staff infections.

3. If you need a “central line” catheter, ask your doctor about the benefits of one that is antibiotic-impregnated or silver-chlorhexidine coated to reduce infections.

4. If you need surgery, choose a surgeon with a low infection rate. Surgeons know their rate of infection for various procedures. Don’t be afraid to ask for it.

5. Beginning three to five days before surgery, shower or bathe daily with chlorhexidine soap. Various brands can be bought without a prescription. It will help remove any dangerous bacteria you may be carrying on your own skin.

6. Ask your surgeon to have you tested for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at least one week before you come into the hospital. The test is simple, usually just a nasal swab. If you have it, extra precautions can be taken to protect you from infection.

7. Stop smoking well in advance of your surgery. Patients who smoke are three times as likely to develop a surgical site infection as nonsmokers, and have significantly slower recoveries and longer hospital stays. OK, maybe this is easier said than done, but won’t you be thrilled with the results?

8. Avoid a urinary tract catheter if possible. It is a common cause of infection. The tube allows urine to flow from your bladder out of your body. Catheters are sometimes used when busy hospital staff members are too busy to walk patients to the bathroom. If you have a catheter, ask your caregiver to remove it as soon as possible.

9. If you must have an IV, make sure that it’s inserted and removed under clean conditions and changed every 3 to 4 days. Your skin should be cleaned at the site of insertion, and the person treating you should be wearing clean gloves. Alert hospital staff immediately if any redness appears.

10. On the day of an operation, remind your doctor that you may need an antibiotic one hour before the first incision. For many types of surgery, a pre-surgical antibiotic is the standard of care, but it is often overlooked by busy hospital staff.

Ideally, you should choose a hospital with a low infection rate, although finding out this information can be nearly impossible. While many states collect data on infections that lead to serious injury or death, few publish this data.

Pennsylvania is one state that has begun publishing hospital infection rates. For a breakout of the best and worst infection rates in Pennsylvania, take a look at the Pennsylvania Department of Health 2009 Technical Report Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) in Pennsylvania Hospitals, starting on page 23.

The Consumers Union provides an annual report card on hospitals in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, although they require a subscription to access the data.

Ultimately, you can have an impact on your safety by demanding that certain steps be taken. Don’t take no for an answer. It’s your health at stake.

If you believe that your hospital infection was caused by unsafe conditions in a hospital, you need to talk with an attorney.  Call the medical malpractice attorneys at Lundy Law. We’ll let you know if you have a case.

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Many hospitals do not report doctors they discipline

marvinlundy April 23rd, 2010

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer (4/20, Suchetka) reported that “for almost 20 years, federal law has required hospitals and medical boards to report doctors they discipline — for medical incompetence, unprofessional conduct, substandard care, and the like — to something called the National Practitioner Data Bank.” However, “many hospitals don’t appear to be following the law, says the nonprofit consumer group Public Citizen.” Investigators “there found that 49 percent of hospitals in the United States hadn’t reported a single doctor to the Data Bank from when it began, in 1990, until the end of 2007.”

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Ask Marvin Lundy…About Preventing Nursing Home Abuse

marvinlundy March 6th, 2010

There are 1.5 million people in the United States who live in nursing homes today. They are among the most vulnerable of us, depending on others for the very basics of life: food, hygiene, safety and medical care.

Unfortunately, not all nursing homes meet an acceptable standard of care. You can prevent nursing home injuries before they occur. This article will provide you with information that you need to evaluate nursing home facilities and to understand your rights.

Nursing Home Responsibilities:

Nursing homes are responsible for ensuring the safety and care of its residents. They must ensure that its residents have secure and clean living conditions, proper nourishment, hygiene and medical care. The following are some instances where a nursing home may be negligent:

  • Not providing food or water or failure to prevent malnutrition or dehydration
  • Not assisting in personal hygiene
  • Not providing safe, clean living conditions
  • Not providing adequate treatment and services for incontinent residents
  • Not providing appropriate supervision and assistive devices to prevent accidents
  • Not providing adequate medical care and acquire and dispense proper medications, as well as failing to ensure that residents are free from serious medication errors
  • Not preventing a resident from developing pressure sores; or, if a resident already has pressure sores, failure to provide proper treatment to promote healing

Most residents of nursing homes need assistance with the basics of daily living. Many of these people also have medical needs as well. To maintain this care requires proper staffing, training and supervision.

The majority of nursing homes are for profit institutions, many of which are owned by large corporations.  One of the easiest ways to increase profits is to reduce staffing costs. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, many nursing homes operating in the United States are understaffed to the point where they endanger the welfare of their patients.

So, what can you do if someone you love requires nursing home care? The best thing is to be an informed customer by doing your research. Following are some resources that you can use to help you in selecting a nursing home:

  • Center for Medicaid Services
    The Center for Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes a useful guide to choosing a nursing home. It provides useful information on how to find and compare nursing homes, paying for care, resident rights and where to call for help. CMS also provides a five-star rating system to help you compare the quality of a particular institution.
  • AARP
    AARP provides a State-by-State Guide to nursing home performance that can provide you up-to-date statistics on local facilities. In addition, AARP provides a variety of insider tips to help you make choices, and a checklist that can help you ask the right questions when evaluating a nursing home.
  • Subscription Services
    There are online fee-based subscription services such as Angie’s List, which provide customer-based of reviews of facilities. While these are not officially rated, they can provide useful insight into other’s experiences.

Making a Site Visit:

To really get to know a nursing home, you need to see it for yourself. AARP recommends making an unscheduled site visit to really get a sense of things. If it’s during regular business hours, stop in and ask for the administrator, who should be on site. If not, ask for the next person in charge to show you around. Be sure to ask about the ratio of caregivers to residents or seek a copy of the staffing schedule.

Sights and sounds will be your guide. Look at how the facility is maintained. Is it clean? How does it smell? The smell of urine or feces is a big red flag that says go elsewhere. Also, visit the bathroom. What you really want to check out is the hot water. A common complaint is the lack of hot water, especially in larger homes.

Beyond this, observe how the staff interacts with residents. Do the residents seem happy? Do they seem engaged, or are they just sitting around in wheel chairs? Is anyone calling out repeatedly without being answered or attended to?

What is the quality of the food? Do the residents like their food, or just leave on trays? Hang around during meal time. Many nursing home residents require assistance with eating their meals. Is there enough time feed all the residents, or is staff rushed?

Conducting a thorough visit and knowing what to look for can help you to make an informed choice.

Detecting Abuse:

Even with the most carefully planning, abuse can occur. Your loved ones won’t always tell you about abuse. In some cases, they may unable to due to physical or mental limitations. In other cases, they won’t discuss the abuse because they are afraid it will become worse, or they don’t want worry you. You need to know the signs of abuse. These may include:

  • Unexplained bruises, cuts, burns, sprains, or fractures in various stages of healing
  • Bedsores or frozen joints
  • Unexplained venereal disease or genital infections; vaginal or anal bleeding; torn, stained, or bloody underclothing
  • Sudden changes in behavior
  • Staff refusing to allow visitors to see resident or delays in allowing visitors to see resident
  • Staff not allowing resident to be alone with visitor
  • Resident being kept in an over-medicated state
  • Loss of resident’s possessions
  • Sudden large withdrawals from bank accounts or changes in banking practices
  • Abrupt changes in will or other financial documents

What You Can Do:

These are some steps that you can take if you suspect abuse or neglect:

  1. Visit as often as possible to show your presence. Nursing home management and staff are likely to pay more attention if they know that you are involved with your loved one’s care. As well, you will be in a better position to catch any problems early, before they get out of hand.
  2. Talk to your physician or medical professional, or a health-care administrator or employee at the facility. They may be legally obligated to report the abuse to the appropriate agencies. In some states, a member of the clergy is also mandated to report suspected abuse, so they may also be a source of assistance.
  3. Seek an alternative facility.
  4. Take action yourself by calling Adult Protective Services (APS) in Pennsylvania,  New Jersey or Delaware

Finally, if you believe that a loved one has been the victim of neglect or abuse in a nursing home or assisted living facility, get legal counsel. You may be able to collect damages. To learn more about your legal rights, call the nursing home experts at Lundy Law.

We’ll fight for you and your loved ones.

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