Affordable, quality long-term care continues to be a critical issue for seniors, their families, and caregivers. There are an estimated 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults living in nursing homes throughout the nation. As many as half of all women over 65 and almost a third of all men in the United States will spend a portion of their remaining lives in a nursing facility. Nursing facilities provide room, board, assistance, and nursing services. While there are other categories of long-term care such as assisted living facilities, these institutions generally provide limited or unavailable health-related services.

Many nursing homes supply quality care and a compassionate living environment to their elderly residents. Unfortunately, lack of staff and poorly trained “caretakers” leave many residents over-medicated, hungry, isolated and ignored. A recent General Accounting Office study found that 25% of the nation's over 17,000 nursing facilities "...had deficiencies that caused actual harm to residents or placed residents at risk of death or serious jeopardy."

The Health Care Financing Administrations’ report to Congress in 2000 found that 54% of nursing home residents were injured due to inadequate staffing. The Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 requires that a nursing home “provide services and activities to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental and psychosocial well-being of each resident” in accordance with a specific plan of care. Nursing homes must be in compliance with federal regulations for long term care as prescribed in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations to take part in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Federal regulations dictate that a nursing home must:

• Have sufficient nursing staff to provide nursing and related services,
• Develop a comprehensive care plan for each resident,
• Prevent the deterioration of a resident’s ability to bathe, dress, groom, transfer and ambulate, Ensure that residents receive proper treatment to maintain vision and hearing abilities,
• Ensure that residents do not develop bedsores,
• Provide appropriate treatment and services to incontinent residents,
• Ensure that the resident receives adequate supervision and assistive devices to prevent accidents,
• Ensure that residents are free of any significant medication errors,
• Promote care for residents in a manner and environment that maintains or enhances each resident’s dignity,
• Ensure that the medical care of each resident is supervised by a physician and must provide or arrange for the provision of physician services 24 hours a day, in case of an emergency,
• Provide pharmaceutical services.

In Massachusetts, nursing home administrators provide subacute (generally more intensive than a traditional skilled nursing facility but less intensive than general hospital acute care), and long-term services to residents, as defined by the statutes and described in regulations. The Board of Registration of Nursing Home Administrators’ was created to protect the health and safety of nursing home residents by making sure those nursing home administrators are competent and perform their responsibilities properly. The Board monitors licensees’ continuing education as part of the license renewal process.  Physicians, nurses, attendants and administrators must also be properly trained to care for residents. When they fail in this capacity, they are liable for damage.

Because the need for quality care often begins in a time of crisis, seniors and their caregivers are often unable to investigate their options. Many facilities take advantage of this emergency situation and our loved ones suffer. Even when we are able to thoroughly examine options for care of our loved ones, we may blind-sided by immoral homes and staff. Abuse and neglect can be difficult to recognize and may be covered-up by staff while their vulnerable victims may be too frightened or incapacitated to report the abuse.

Elderly nursing home residents may suffer abuse and neglect, or both. Those abused may suffer assault or battery, sexual assault or battery, rape, unnecessary physical restraint, insufficient food or water and the improper use of medication. Neglect refers to the negligent failure of any person having care or custody of an elder or a dependent adult to exercise that degree of care which a reasonable person in a like position would exercise. When a resident is neglected, they suffer from failure to receive proper personal hygiene, lack of medical attention, bedsores, malnutrition, slip and fall accidents, and lack of protection from safety hazards.

There are a number of ways that you can file suit in against an abusive or neglectful nursing home including fraud, neglect, financial irregularities, failure to provide adequate care, wrongful death, breach of contract, pain and suffering, or failure to comply with nursing home statutes. If you know an elder who has been injured in a nursing home, seek the immediate help of a qualified nursing home abuse attorney. By taking legal action, you will hold those abuse and neglect the vulnerable accountable for their mistreatment of the elderly. Litigation is one of the most effective ways to improve the lives of nursing facility residents. By taking legal action when problems are discovered, you help to prevent the continued violation of basic human rights, as well as federal and state laws.