Wednesday, December 18, 2013
The population of Pennsylvania is aging, we are currently ranked 4th in the U.S. by percentage of population of residents age 65 and older. This translates into almost 2,000,000 Pennsylvania residents that are 65 and older. Pennsylvania has approximately 710 nursing homes which houses, on average, 81,000 Pennsylvania residents. This number is only going to rise, and by 2020, Pennsylvania’s 60 and older population is expected to balloon to more than 3,000,000 people, or 25% of the total population.
With the demand for nursing home care so high and only rising, these facilities are currently understaffed, and the employees are poorly trained. These two factors are a perfect recipe for disaster because the residents depend on the staff for the most basic requirements of life like food, water, medicine, and personal hygiene. If a nursing home fails to provide appropriate treatment to maintain the resident’s health to the best of its ability, the facility may be negligent. Nursing home negligence may take many forms, but the most common include: (1) failure to prevent malnutrition or dehydration; (2) failure to assist with personal hygiene, including providing adequate services for incontinent residents; and (3) failure to prevent and/or treat bedsores.
In fact, two of our most recent nursing home cases have involved bedsores, otherwise known as pressure sores, or decubitus ulcers. In both cases the nursing home failed to properly prevent and treat the bedsores and they became infected.
Because nursing home litigation can be quite complicated you need to have an attorney with the experience and knowledge to handle these claims. If you or someone you know has been the victim of nursing home negligence please allow Attorney Douglas V. Stoehr and Attorney Aaron Ling to evaluate your claim today to determine if you have a case against a nursing home. Please give us a call at (814) 946-4100.
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