Articles Posted in Infections in Nursing Homes

Nursing home negligence and abuse is a huge problem in Maryland and across the entire country. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year, this blog reported on Maryland nursing homes’ negligence and the devastating effects it can have on residents and their families. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made matters even worse in many nursing homes. A recent news report documented the harsh realities of COVID-19 within nursing homes and how a widespread lack of safety and sanitation protocols has become potentially deadly.

The report discusses one nursing home that received a citation in October of 2019 for failing to “provide and implement an infection prevention and control program.” The report that accompanied the citation found that staff members would engage in shocking behavior—one, for example, used a soiled towel to wipe a resident’s buttocks and then failed to wash their hands before going back to work. In the aftermath of this report, however, residents’ relatives said that the home did not take steps to change their behavior. One woman discusses the care her 93-year-old mother received, saying that she could not rely on the nursing home staff to take care of her or keep her healthy, and witnessed her being injured or roughhoused. Once, she had to clean fecal matter from her mother’s fingernails or dispose of adult diapers left on her bed. Tragically, the woman’s mother passed away in early April from a COVID-19 outbreak that the nursing home failed to control.

The concerns discussed in this home are not unique. In fact, nursing homes across the nation and in Maryland have very similar problems, with substandard living conditions for residents and a lack of proper sanitation. This caused problems before the COVID-19 pandemic, but has worsened since the pandemic spread across the United States in March of this year, causing outbreaks and deaths among nursing home staff and residents.

Recent figures now show that nursing homes make up many of the country’s COVID-19 deaths. In fact, according to a recent report by the New York Times, 43 percent of coronavirus-related deaths in the United States are linked to nursing homes and long-term care facilities. In Maryland specifically, long-term care facilities make up a staggering 60 percent of the state’s COVID-19 deaths.

Throughout the country, COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities account for at least 54,000 deaths. So far, many large groups of coronavirus cases have occurred in nursing homes, prisons, and food processing facilities, where social distancing is difficult or impossible. And although there were more cases in prisons and food processing plants, the deadliest clusters have been mostly in nursing homes, where residents are particularly vulnerable because of their age and underlying health problems.

The report found that where large outbreaks occurred in nursing homes, 17 percent of people infected with COVID-19 died, compared to around a five percent death rate among COVID-19 patients in general. In three states, over 75 percent of all COVID-19 deaths are linked to nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

For several years, we have written about Maryland nursing home abuse and neglect cases, which can have tragic consequences for residents and their families. Unfortunately, instead of the situation improving, some reports suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic could be making the situation worse, as thousands of residents are passing away in nursing homes, potentially due to negligent care. Any facility that has a large number of residents living in one community can be dangerous during the pandemic, and more than 37,000 residents in nursing homes have died since early March, raising concerns of inadequate protections or staffing.

Recently, ABC News reported in-depth on the issue. The article detailed the story of seven daughters who decided to move their father, a former corrections officer, into a Maryland nursing home this past February. Unfortunately, within three months of being in the home, their father died after testing positive for COVID-19. But before he died, he was in a severe condition, leading his daughters to believe that inadequate care at the nursing home may have contributed to or even caused his death. One daughter reported that, when her father originally went to the hospital (weeks before he died), the hospital staff told her that her father had lost 30 pounds and that he was so dehydrated “his blood was like mud.”

Typically, when someone is injured due to negligence or abuse in a Maryland nursing home, they have the ability to bring a personal injury lawsuit against the facility to recover for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and more. However, Maryland is one of the several states across the country that has laws in place to protect healthcare providers during a declared public health emergency. Now, during the COVID-19 pandemic and its severe effect within nursing homes, Congress is considering instituting similar protections for nursing homes. This could be a major barrier for plaintiffs who want to bring claims against nursing homes, making these suits an uphill battle. Supporters of the measures claim they protect nursing homes from frivolous claims against them, but critics point to how important it is that families affected by a nursing home’s negligence have an avenue of relief.

Healthcare providers across the United States continue to grapple with challenges related to providing care to patients suffering from COVID-19, otherwise known as the novel coronavirus. Almost 60% of COVID-19 victims in Maryland are long-term care and nursing home residents. In response to the disproportionately high rate of infection in nursing homes, many states, including Maryland, have asked lawmakers to provide nursing facilities with immunity from lawsuits related to their care during the pandemic. Despite the inherent difficulties many residents and their families face pursuing lawsuits against negligent nursing homes, these facilities continue to push for additional protections against liability.

Even though the spread of disease and illness can become challenging to control, these entities have a responsibility to provide their residents and visitors with a safe environment and appropriate treatment. This includes ensuring that their staff is trained in proper hygiene and safety practices, providing staff and residents with protective gear, quickly diagnosing and identifying patients suffering from infectious diseases, and notifying visitors of any changes in visitation protocol. Despite these steps, outbreaks can still occur, and these facilities must have a plan in place to combat these instances. Infection control protocols include implementing stricter sanitation requirements, changing safety equipment requirements, and isolating high-risk or infected residents. The failure to respond to an outbreak effectively can result in deadly consequences for residents and staff.

Many families are beginning to file lawsuits against these facilities for their response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In response, many Maryland nursing home groups are asking the state to provide immunity based on the governor’s emergency declaration. A few states, including Maryland, protect providers during state and national emergencies. Nursing homes are anticipating that many lawsuits will include claims that the facilities did not have enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect their staff and residents. However, many residents and families are claiming that a lack of PPE is only one problem of many, and that clinicians and staff failed to diagnose and treat their loved ones quickly.