Iowa Nursing Homes Cited for Health and Safety Violations
When a family is searching for a quality nursing home, they need to conduct research, including frequent visits and interviews of patients and staff, in order to make sure they are placing their loved one into the right hands. Sadly, there are thousands of nursing homes cited for violations every year, which makes the job of choosing a nursing home for your family member all the more stressful.
There are many different reasons why Iowa nursing homes are cited for violations. Mainly they are cited for a myriad of safety and health concerns. Ten common citations state inspectors in Iowa and throughout the country give out include:
- Failure to sanitarily store, prepare, and serve food (inadequate nutritional services)
Failure to give quality of care to residents
- Failure to turn residents, resulting in bed sores and pressure sores
- Failure to provide detailed care plans on how the staff should care for a resident (failure to train staff)
- Failure to prevent accidents and keep the residence free of hazards
- Failure to portray their accurate care giving abilities
- Failure to control resident assault
- Failure to have sufficient staff
- Failure to transcribe physician orders
- Failure to conduct background checks
Consumer Reports compiles a state-by-state "Watch List" warning consumers of nursing homes that have been identified as being in violation of health and safety standards. When they updated the report this year, they found that one-third of 1,708 nursing homes remain on the "Watch List" due to repeated or new violations.
The findings showed that 536 facilities have repeatedly been on the list, which means these facilities have not corrected their previous violations or they have been cited for new violations. Nursing homes in the state of Iowa had the second highest percentage (43%) of facilities that were repeatedly on the "Watch List."
When making your choice on which nursing home facility to send your loved one to, make sure you conduct ample research and find out if that facility has been cited health and safety violations. While not every nursing home is a bad one, it's just harder to find a good quality nursing home amongst the bad ones.
If your loved one has suffered nursing home abuse in Iowa due to malnutrition, neglect, bed sores, resident-on-resident assault, or medication errors, you should contact a skilled attorney to handle your Iowa nursing home abuse case. Contact our Iowa personal injury attorneys at Brady Preston Gronlund for a free, no-obligation consultation today at (319) 866-9277.
