Celebrating Mother’s Day in the Nursing Home

Having just celebrated another Mother’s Day, many of us may have traveled long distances to visit with our mothers and our grandmothers. Many of us may not live close to our mothers and grandmothers and, as a result, we may not be able to see them as often as we would like. What do you do if you are traveling to visit your mom or your grandmother, and they are in a nursing home, and you have concerns about the care they are receiving at that nursing home? It can be very frustrating to care for a loved one when you don't live close enough to visit them often. It can also be very challenging to move somebody, particularly when you have to move somebody across the country. Many families have concerns about moving their loved one from one nursing home to another. Your mom or your grandmother may like the nursing home where she is living, even if she is not receiving exceptional care. She may like the other residents. She may like the fact that the place is familiar. There are lots of challenges to moving a person from one nursing home to another.

However, if you are concerned about the care that your loved one is receiving in a nursing home, you must act, even if it is difficult. Tragically, many nursing home residents die prematurely and unnecessarily in nursing homes every year. We at The Dickson Firm handle many cases where a nursing home resident has died due to neglect or abuse. These deaths are preventable. And tragically, if these families had been aware of the risk to their loved one, and had moved their loved one to a better facility, these deaths absolutely could have been prevented.

So what do you look for? Determining whether or not your loved one is getting appropriate care can be particularly difficult and challenging if your loved one is not able to communicate effectively with you due to dementia or aphasia or any number of other conditions that make communication challenging.

One thing you can do if you don't live near your loved one is try to set them up with some type of device, so you can face time with them. You can learn a lot more information from physically seeing your loved one than you can from a phone call. Even if your loved one can't communicate with you effectively, the staff should facilitate face time communications either on a cell phone or on a tablet, so you can really see your loved one and visually see their condition.

Another option is to encourage someone who does live close to your loved one, even if they are not a relative, to go visit your loved one and check on their condition on a regular basis. Anyone is permitted to visit a nursing home resident in a nursing home. Nursing homes are the homes where these residents live. And they are welcome to receive visitors at any time. There should be no visiting hours at the nursing home. There should be no restriction to anyone going to visit their loved one at the nursing home.

So, what should you or someone who is visiting your loved one on your behalf look for?

One of the things to look for is unexplained bruises or injuries. These would include skin tears, lacerations, etc. If your loved one has unexplained bruising or cuts, then you need to talk with the nursing home and find out the source of these injuries. Tragically, many nursing home residents suffer serious injuries and even suffer fatal injuries from falls in nursing homes every single year. Many of these falls are completely preventable. Often, a nursing home resident suffers a number of falls prior to the fall that causes them serious injury. If a nursing resident suffers a fracture, which limits their mobility, that can lead to pneumonia, it can lead to bed sores, and it can cause their death. If a nursing home resident falls and suffers a head injury, often those injuries are fatal.

Very often, residents suffer a number of falls prior to the fall that causes them the major injury. These bruises or bumps or swelling or lacerations can be evidence of these prior falls. If your loved one has any unexplained injuries, you need to talk with the staff at the nursing home and find out how these injuries occurred. If the nursing home cannot explain these injuries then you need to seriously consider moving your loved one to a different nursing home. The nursing home should be able to explain how any injury that your loved one suffered, occurred. They should also have a plan to prevent future falls and future injuries.

Another big category of injuries and harm in a nursing home are bed sores. Your loved one may have MASD which is an acronym which stands for Moisture Associated Skin Damage. This can be like diaper rash for a baby. If your loved one is incontinent, and they are wearing adult protectors or Depends, or even if they're not wearing adult protectors, and they have periods of incontinence, and they're not cleaned up promptly, this can lead to Moisture Associated Skin Damage. It can also lead to bed sores. It may be a difficult thing to check your loved one’s buttocks or coccyx area or sacral area. It may be uncomfortable, particularly if your loved one is of a different gender. However, this is one of the most common injuries that occur at a nursing home. Tragically, bed sores can cause severe harm to nursing home residents and can often be fatal. If your loved one has Moisture Associated Skin Damage, then they're likely not being cleaned up promptly after periods of incontinence. If your loved one has any type of skin breakdown, particularly if they have not had skin breakdown in the past, then they absolutely are being neglected.

A person who cannot turn and reposition themselves needs to be turned and repositioned at a minimum every 2 hours. The nursing home should be able to show you where in the care plan, your loved one has been care planned to be turned and repositioned every two hours and they should be able to show you documentation that they are being turned and repositioned. If they cannot show you documentation that your loved one is being turned and repositioned, then you should seriously consider moving your loved one to a different nursing home. Residents who cannot turn and reposition themselves and are not turned and repositioned are at great risk of suffering skin breakdown. Bed sores can go all the way to the bone. They can lead to serious infection. They can be fatal. They must be taken seriously both by the nursing home and by you.

If you do decide that you need to move your loved one to a new nursing home, the key is to find that better nursing home, and then to work with the people at the new nursing home to move your loved one. The people at the existing nursing home will often not be cooperative because they do not want your loved one moved out of their facility because they do not want to lose the revenue. However, the new nursing home will often work with you to facilitate the transfer. You can also talk with your loved one's doctor to facilitate the transfer. If your loved one is hospitalized, you can work with the people at the hospital, including the social worker, to transfer your loved one to a different nursing home when they are prepared to be discharged from the hospital.

We at The Dickson Firm sincerely wish each of you a very Happy Mother's Day.

If someone you loved has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at 1-800-OHIO-LAW, or e-mail me at BlakeDickson@TheDicksonFirm.com as it would be our pleasure to talk with you and help you in any way that we can.