Decubitis Ulcer Injuries May Be A Form Of Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing home abuse can be defined as any physical, sexual, verbal or psychological abuse against a resident of a nursing home or some sort of care facility. It’s a very broad topic, but there are many different levels of potential abuse that occur at these types of facilities. In addition to nursing homes, there's assisted living facilities and facilities that are typically created by the state where you may have children with emotional disorders, medical disorders or Down Syndrome that are living in residential homes. That all falls under the topic of nursing home abuse. However, one of the most common nursing home injuries in these facilities is known as a decubitis ulcer – which, if left untreated, can cause serious injury or even death.

Understanding Decubitis Ulcers

Decubitis ulcers are pressure ulcers that cause damage to the skin or the tissue around the skin that results from too much pressure, too much friction or sheering forces that usually occur over the bones. Typically, the cause of these are a resident who remains in the same position for long periods of time without being turned or moved on a regular basis.

These can range from what we would see on skin as little blisters to very large, destructive, holes where you can actually have bone that’s visible. So, these particular problems start from residents who are confined to their beds. There’s quite a few of these cases and there will undoubtedly be a lot more as our population continues to age. What is required is that these people must be turned and moved during certain periods of time every day. Our skin is simply not such that it can handle being in the same place with the same pressure, with the same friction on it for long hours every day.

Medicare Regulations Dictate Frequency Of Turns To Avoid Decubitis Ulcers

There are many laws which require how often a nursing home patient is turned; however, what every state ultimately goes by are Medicare regulations which dictate the frequency of those turns. As a matter of fact, this has become such a big issue that the federal government has come out and said that Medicare will refuse to reimburse a facility if that facility has people with a certain stage of a decubitis ulcer and that they will presume that those ulcers occurred because of negligence at that facility. So they simply will not reimburse them for the costs associated with that. It’s a growing and enormous problem that often leads to nursing home abuse lawsuits.

The federal government recognizes it’s a very big problem and it’s going be a big problem to these facilities because a lot of these places rely very much on Medicare and Medicaid to pay their bills. So now they’re going to really have to take care of these residents more properly or else be forced into a situation where they’re not going to get reimbursements from the state or the federal government when nursing home abuse or neglect is involved.