Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.
In an ideal world, a nursing home would be a safe place where all seniors can spend their golden years happy and safe. In the real world, it’s all about money and there are nursing homes out there that have absolutely zero regard for their residents. Sometimes, those horrific cases of neglect and abuse come to light. The general public reads the headlines in utter shock and we’re all left asking ourselves if the tragedy could not have been prevented.
It could have, of course. Unfortunately, it usually takes a tragedy or two before we start seeing serious changes. Behind those tragic cases are shattered, grieving families who have fought relentless legal battles before laws could be changed and before things got better.
Tragedy can be the cause of change, and more often than not, that’s the only thing that can spark it. In this article, we’ll look over some of the cases that forced the system to change and see why their lessons are still relevant today.
Tragic Cases That Made Changes
Over the years, cases of neglect and abuse in nursing homes have caused truly heartbreaking incidents. Some of them, however, led to changes being made and those cases had significant legal consequences.
In some instances, nursing home wrongful death cases involving 3.1 million (USD) settlements have drawn the attention of the entire nation and pointed out the devastating cost of negligence.
Here are 3 landmark cases that exposed how unbelievably flawed the system was.
-
The Beverly Enterprises Case (1997)
Back in 1997, Beverly Enterprises was the largest nursing home chain in the US. But behind the seemingly successful business was rampant neglect across all the facilities.
A lawsuit in Texas revealed horrifying details about how the nursing home treated Ruth Waites, a resident who died because of extreme neglect. During her stay at one of the Beverly Enterprises nursing homes, she suffered severe dehydration and developed extreme bedsores. Eventually, this led to her death.
Once the investigation of the case started, what was revealed was more terrible than anyone was suspecting. There was a disturbing pattern of systemic negligence in the facility – they were incredibly understaffed, the caregivers had hardly any training, and in general, their priority was money, not the welfare of their patients.
The legal battle ended with Waites’ family getting $83 million, which, at the time, was one of the largest penalties for a nursing home case. But before the case was ended, it got national attention, which prompted the government to introduce stricter inspections and better oversight at facilities. This case was a turning point for holding big nursing home corporations accountable.
-
The Joseph F. Smith Case (2001)
This is still one of the most tragic examples of neglect in nursing homes. Joseph F. Smith was a senior resident in a Kentucky facility who passed away from dehydration, a highly preventable condition. This was clear evidence that the facility in question wasn’t able to provide even the most basic care. Later, his family revealed that the staff didn’t pay attention to his fluid intake for days, which led to his health deteriorating so bad, that there was no way he could have recovered. Of course, his family filed a lawsuit, which showed that the staff in the facility hadn’t been trained well enough and that they weren’t able to provide specialized care for each resident.
This case became very well-known and the public was outraged. As tragic as it was, it led to important reforms, like mandatory personalized care plans that assessed each resident’s specific medical needs. States also introduced stricter protocols for reporting and investigating neglect, which meant that nursing homes would have a much harder time hiding incidents.
-
The California Ventilator Case (2016)
In 2016, a nursing home in California faced serious legal issues after several cases of death that were caused by improper use of ventilators. As you can imagine, this was another case that outraged the public.
The facility in question took care of residents with complicated medical needs, but their staff weren’t trained to handle neither the residents nor the equipment. The result? Some of their residents died from respiratory complications because the ventilators weren’t set up correctly. Once the investigation started, it became obvious that the facility didn’t train their staff and they didn’t have proper protocols for equipment maintenance.
This tragic case showed how dangerous it is to cut costs in nursing homes, especially when it comes to staff and their training. Still, the general public was so mad that states had to change their regulations. From then on, all nursing homes had to provide training for staff that handles medical devices and they had to comply with stricter schedules for maintaining equipment.
Conclusion
Laws and changing regulations aren’t much of a consolation to families affected by these horrible incidents, but the fact is, they made the government and the public take a good, hard look at the issues with the system. They were a wake-up call that showed the worst side of humanity.
But still, they also showed that change is always possible, even if it has to be the result of some truly dark moments.
Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.
