Abuse/Neglect question

Specialties Geriatric

Published

Specializes in Geriatrics.

Does anyone consider it to be either abusive or neglectful for a LTC facility to not have enough staff to care for the number of residents? According to the state regs the staffing ratio is ok, but the acuity of residents is very high and not providing enough staff/assistance is causing harm (broken bones from falls/elopements) . I am hesitant to report due to the fact that I have no trust in our management team and think they will somehow put the nurses at fault when it is the managements decision as to how many staff we have working. For example 1 LPN for 50 residents with 2 CNAs. This is in assisted living and not skilled, but a lot of residents should not be living in assisted living due to cognitive issues/needing a lot of physical assistance etc.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

The regulations for assisted living are very different from those in a nursing home. One nurse for 50 in assisted living should be okay if the residents are appropriate for AL.

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

I recently saw a Frontline program called "Dying in Assisted Living"-It's available on line for free and worth a view. The AL industry is not regulated like LTC and it needs to be,IMHO. Go up your chain of command with all of your concerns but expect to loose your job.

The largest chain in this area is all about keeping the beds full and I have seen with my own eyes the results.They will keep a resident until they run out of money no matter what kind of needs they may have.As soon as the money runs out they kick them to the curb. We have admitted severely cachexic folks,people with numerous fractures and pressure ulcers. We have seen a few whose clothing was so dirty we had to throw it away. These folks could clearly NOT feed themselves, turn in bed, walk independently,toilet themselves or wash themselves.We also admitted a resident with Norwegian scabies and there is NO way that someone did not know she had a skin problem.

Our admissions officers evaluate them on site and can tell you horror stories about the condition of their apts, furniture saturated with urine, BM smeared on the bathroom wall.

I floated to an AL wing in a LTC years ago-these folks were supposed to be independent with their meds.They weren't....not at all. It was a joke.Several of them are with me in LTC now-they ran out of funds.

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Other posters are on point. ALF's aren't regulated like SNF's. In my facility there are 70 some residents to one lpn, which sounds unreal, but we have med techs that pass meds, lpn's are only dealing w the pts that are ill, or having other issues.

Maybe half of those pts are appropriate for assisted living.

It kills me to see new pts brought in that need skilled care, a lot of hospice pts that we are not equipped or staffed to care for.

It is all about $$$ for management and corporate.

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