Report: Nine in 10 Nursing Homes in the US are Understaffed

Nursing homes have woefully inadequate staff to care for their residents

Caring for nursing home residents, by definition, is labor-intensive work. People are placed in nursing care because they need extensive assistance with their activities of daily living, close supervision, and medical monitoring. As such, it’s vital that nursing homes have enough staff to provide services to their residents.

Unfortunately, in practice, that’s not the case. A recent report found that approximately 90% of nursing homes nationwide are operating with too few staff, and some facilities are critically understaffed.

The report is based on nursing homes’ own assessments of their staffing needs

The report was based on federal data compiled by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and analyzed by the Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC). Notably, the LTCCC’s methodology was based on facilities’ own, firsthand evaluations of their residents’ needs, rather than fixed staffing benchmarks.

Overall, the study found that the average U.S. nursing home is approximately 25% short of expected staffing levels, equivalent to more than one nurse staff hour per resident. That’s a dramatic difference between the level of care nursing homes are supposed to provide and the level of care they are actually staffed to provide.

Understaffing can lead to a wide range of injuries in nursing homes

• Choking incidents: Mealtimes are one of the biggest tests of staffing. If there are insufficient staff to monitor residents while they are eating or drinking, the risk of choking incidents increases dramatically.
• Falls and broken bones: Many nursing home residents need staff assistance to move around the facility or to get in and out of bed. In understaffed facilities, residents with mobility issues are particularly at risk of falling.
• Untreated infections: Nursing homes need to regularly change residents’ clothes and bedding to reduce the risk of urinary tract infections and perform regular body audits to detect bedsores before they can become infected. In an understaffed facility, infections are likely to fester, which can lead to deadly complications such as sepsis and septic shock.
• Wandering and elopement: Understaffed facilities may not be able to properly supervise residents and prevent them from wandering away from the facility, which can be extremely dangerous.
• Nursing home abuse: In understaffed facilities, staff may resort to unsafe and unethical methods such as excessive physical restraints or even “chemical restraints” (deliberately over-medicating residents to keep them docile). Furthermore, understaffed facilities may hire staff without background checks or retain staff who show warning signs of abusive behavior because they are particularly desperate to fill available positions.

If your loved one was harmed in an Alabama nursing home, we can help

While understaffing in nursing homes is a national crisis, it’s ultimately up to individual facilities to provide the level of care their residents need, which includes having enough staff to deliver those services. When nursing homes cut corners on staffing, residents can be seriously hurt or even killed. Our job is to hold them accountable.

If your loved one was injured in a nursing home, we can explain your legal rights and options in a free consultation. Give us a call or contact us online to speak with our experienced nursing home neglect attorney at Shuttlesworth Law Firm, P.C.

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