My mom was in this nursing home that has changed hands so many times in Belleville Illinois because of bad inspections and Medicare Ratings. My mother came from St. Louis University hospital in St. Louis Missouri and was transferred to this place in Belleville Illinois where we live. My mom told me the night nurses told her when she wanted to go to the bathroom that is what her diaper is for they will get it when everyone wakes up at 6 am. They also gave her too little or too much oxygen when she was in the nursing home for shortness of breath and upper respiratory problems. They often forgot to give her her meds. They would turn their TV up blasting loud and then fall asleep and snore the only thing that woke these nurses up was a patient alarm. My mom ended up in the hospital emergency room yesterday. She now has pneumonia, fluid on the lung, COPD, and congestive heart failure all thanks to negligence of the nursing staff and a non existent Nurse Practitioner she ended up in the ICU to receive a higher level of care and now wears a Bi Pap machine Thank you bad nurses for making my life hell
Grace +Peace,
Bob
The allegation that the staff's negligence caused your mother's readmission could be confirmed by discussing with the attending physician. It is also possible that your mother's condition is too fragile to know for sure. An attorney experienced in medical malpractice will have a clinical staff who can dig through the medical documentation and arrive at a conclusion as well, but this takes time and effort, and if there is no lasting harm to your mother, an attorney may not want to invest this time and effort due to little or no money to seek for the minimal "damages".
EDITORIAL COMMENT: It is my conclusion after 40+ years working in nursing homes that they are models of efficiency, not models of compassion, which would be OK if there were more compassionate workers to fill the positions needed. But society has done nothing to improve how we reward compassion (compassion is not seen as a marketable skill) and the economic rewards for working in a nursing home environment ensure that many who may make truly good nurses and aides will end up somewhere else. (Nursing homes rely on reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid for the majority of their revenue, and these programs are constantly imposing limitations and cuts.)
I had serious complaints about a nurse accused of drug diversion on the 11-7 shift .The aide came to me and said she saw the nurse ingest pan medications from the floor stock in a locked cabinet. The issue this poor aide had was the the nurse taking the medications was a close personal friend of the director of nurses.and often went out together at night with their spouses.
I had an issue also, it was not my place to begin an independent investigation of the nurse as we both held the same license. I spoke with the administrator and I was given the clearance to begin the investigation. It took only two shifts to find out something was not right with the documentation The nurse refused help by the board and now has her license revoked.
This is a care issue for your mom. You need to be her advocate against some of these "for profit" nursing home conglomerates. These companies have billions to keep their name clear. There are ways to find out the history about nurses, Every state keeps a database about any discipline against a nurse or an aide. There is the countrywide database,nursys. "quick confirm" is the way to find out about an LPN or RN. Contact your state public health department about aides.
Stick to your guns, your mom was there for you and you must now be there for here. God bless