Older adults and their family members turn to nursing homes for safety and support. When an individual has particularly high care needs or when their family members cannot provide the medical assistance they require, nursing homes can provide that support.
Nursing homes typically have a responsibility to meet all of the basic needs of the residents living there. Nursing home workers administer medication, provide nutritious food and maintain sanitary facilities. Unfortunately, not all nursing homes prioritize cleanliness the way that they should.
Infestations can spread aggressively in nursing homes. Nursing home employees can also easily spread infections among residents. Concerned family members may have grounds for nursing home negligence lawsuits in scenarios where vulnerable older loved ones have suffered major complications due to preventable infestations and infections.
Why pests and illness spread quickly
Understanding why infestations and infections provide grounds for malpractice lawsuits requires an understanding of how they spread. Frequently, infections spread because nursing home staff members fail to take proper precautions between interactions with different residents. The right procedures can drastically reduce the spread of pathogens and pests.
They wear the same gloves or gowns. They fail to properly sequester those who are seriously ill from other residents. They may not sanitize equipment brought from room to room. All of that can easily transfer infectious materials, including bacteria, viruses and even fungal spores.
Infestations also often spread through close contact. Scabies, head lice and bedbugs typically don’t travel large distances on their own. They hitch a ride on clothing or worker equipment. Proper cleaning of people and spaces can go a long way toward preventing the spread of infestations and infections.
Unfortunately, many nursing homes are chronically understaffed. They have the fewest number of people scheduled as they legally can, and workers have to constantly balance basic cleaning and maintenance with sudden demands from residents. Cleaning and similar functions often take a back seat to sudden resident emergencies that people cannot plan for in advance.
Simply developing an infection or suffering the consequences of an infestation may not be an adequate reason to allege negligence at a nursing home. Instead, concerned family members of sickened residents may need to gather evidence of firming that inadequate sanitization or facility maintenance contributed to unsanitary conditions.
In many cases, nursing home infections and pest infestations are preventable with proper facility maintenance and appropriate care practices when dealing with residents. Pursuing a nursing home negligence lawsuit can potentially help families diminish the financial harm caused by a poor standard of care.
