If you have a loved one in a Virginia nursing home who is struggling with bedsores – and you think there is a problem, you are right. With proper care, bedsores should not develop on nursing home residents. The presence of bedsores on a Virginia nursing home resident indicates that something is very wrong.
When a resident arrives at a Virginia nursing home, they should be assessed by the staff to determine how likely they are to develop bedsores. The “Braden Score” is used to predict whether or not a resident is susceptible to developing pressure sores (another name for bedsores).
Depending on the resident’s Braden score, the nursing home should have developed a care plan that describes how staff will care for the resident and ensure that they do not develop pressure sores.
Nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect can arise in a variety of ways:
The nursing home fails to evaluate the resident’s likelihood to develop pressure sores, so nothing is done to prevent them.
The nursing home evaluates the resident, but does not perform the evaluation correctly. An incorrect evaluation can lead to the resident not being properly treated for pressure sore prevention.
The nursing home evaluates the resident, but does not develop a care plan after the evaluation. An evaluation is meaningless unless The nursing home evaluates the resident and develops a care plan, but the care plan does not adequately address issues found in the assessment.
The nursing home has a good resident assessment, has a good care plan, but fails to follow the care plan.
Finally, the nursing home can evaluate the resident, establish a care plan, and document that they’ve followed the plan – but they falsified the paperwork and really did not follow the plan after all.
If your loved one has developed a bed sore or pressure sore – no matter what stage it – you should get help immediately. Talk to the nursing home and consult a skilled nursing home neglect attorney like one at Dulaney, Lauer & Thomas. Please don’t accept the nursing home’s assertion that “bedsores cannot be avoided” – this simply is not true.
