A particularly dangerous form of infection for nursing home patients is often a result of taking antibiotics. Clostridium difficile, usually abbreviated as c. diff., has become more widespread and deadly for nursing home and hospital patients.

Many hospital and nursing home patients have to take antibiotics for some type of infection. For example, very sick nursing home patients sometimes have to use a catheter because of a urinary tract disorder. This raises the risk of a urinary tract infection which requires an antibiotic to resolve.

Unfortunately the use of the antibiotic can cause the death of both the bad bacteria causing the infection and good bacteria in the digestive tract. This creates an opportunity for the c. diff. organism to grow. Public health officials have recently estimated that the disease is now killing from 15,000 to 20,000 people per year.

One of the ways the disease causes death is through severe dehydration. C. diff. causes extended and serious diarrhea which in turn can result in dehydration. Therefore at any time a nursing home resident has had a course of antibiotics followed by diarrhea it is especially important for the resident’s family to be on the lookout for signs or symptoms of dehydration.

We have seen a growing number of cases in which the nursing home staff in Daytona Beach, Volusia County, Deltona and Ormond Beach do not recognize the symptoms of severe dehydration soon enough. For information about these nursing homes see the Florida Nursing Home Guide. A nursing home resident should be transferred to the hospital emergency room for treatment of severe dehydration as soon as possible. Therefore, if you start to see symptoms of even mild dehydration insist that a physician evaluate your family member.

Symptoms of dehydration include thirst, muscle weakness, headache, dizziness, lightheadedness, dry mouth, lack of sweating, shriveled skin that does not bounce back when pinched into a fold, low blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, delirium, altered mental status, and fever. For more information on c. diff. see a recent article in the New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope, Stomach Bug Crystallizes an Antibiotic Threat, and for more information on dehydration see an article on the Mayo Clinic website.

]]> http://www.daytonanursinghomeandmedicalmalpracticelawyer.com/death-by-antibiotics-in-a-nursing-home/feed 0 http://www.daytonanursinghomeandmedicalmalpracticelawyer.com/medicare-rates-two-nursing-homes-the-lowest-in-volusia-county http://www.daytonanursinghomeandmedicalmalpracticelawyer.com/medicare-rates-two-nursing-homes-the-lowest-in-volusia-county#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:40:25 +0000 Daytona Nursing Home and Medical Malpractice Lawyer http://daytonabeachinjurylawyer.wordpress.com/?p=24 Medicare rates nursing homes throughout the country with a five star rating system created to help consumers and their families to compare nursing homes. The ratings are based on health inspections, staffing levels and a variety of quality measures. Trained inspectors from state agencies do on-site inspections. Federal surveyors check on the state agency work to make sure they are following the national process.

The ratings look at the number of staff compared to the number of residents and how many of the staff are trained nurses.  Many of the nurses in nursing homes are not registered nurses. A substantial number of nurses working in nursing homes have a license as a licensed practical nurse, “LPN.”  These nurses have much less training than registered nurses.

The ratings take into account the differences in how sick the nursing home residents are in each nursing home since that will make a difference in how many staff are needed. A nursing home with insufficient staff is much less likely to be able to provide the quality care and attention necessary to prevent residents from falling and from developing bedsores.

Medicare explains that the Five-Star Quality Rating System is not a substitute for visiting nursing homes. When evaluating whether a nursing home will meet your needs, it is important to use the Five Star Rating together with other sources of information.

The two lowest rated nursing homes in Volusia County as of the date of this article were Woodland Terrace Extended Care in Deland and Sandalwood Nursing Center in Daytona Beach. Both of these nursing homes were rated only one out of five stars.

While the national average for percent of high risk, long stay residents who had bedsores is 12% Woodland Terrace’s percentage was 42%. Similarly the national average for low-risk patients is 2% and Woodland Terrace’s percentage was 23%.

For staffing standards, Woodland Terrace ranked two stars out of five based on the number of staff hours per resident. While the average number of CNA hours in Florida for each resident is three hours, Woodland Terrace’s was one hour, 34 minutes. This means the nursing assistants at Woodland Terrace had substantially less time to turn and reposition their assigned residents.  Thus, it is no surprise that more Woodland Terrace residents had bedsores.

When evaluating whether or not a nursing home is best for your needs or whether a nursing home is providing good care to someone you love, the information in this rating system can be very helpful. For more information and for the ratings for each nursing home in Volusia County you can go directly to the Medicare website.