Challenges Facing Nursing Homes in 2018
Over the past few years, there have been many scandals in nursing homes all over the world regarding the mistreatment of patients. And with these scandals has come an erosion of trust as people look for alternative living situations for their elderly relatives.
As well as harm to their reputations, nursing home abuse attorneys have also worked to seek damages from the centres which have been proven to have acted in negligent and harmful ways. There is no doubt that nursing homes face a wide variety of challenges in 2018, and these are just a few of them
Organisation
There are so many different moving parts in a nursing home, meaning that good organisation is essential. As well as this, there tends to be a fairly high turnover rate amongst employees, so staff training and development has to be slick and efficient. Just one member of the team who is not following the correct procedures can end up bringing the whole operation down. The person in charge of logistics and organisation bears a lot of responsibility in the success or failure of a nursing home.
Staffing Issues
Following on from the previous point, nursing homes really do have a tough time when it comes to keeping hold of employees. In turn, this can end up affecting the quality of care at all levels. Keeping hold of good staff in a challenging working environment is always going to be up amongst the most difficult challenges facing nursing homes. But there is also an issue in making sure that negligent members of staff don’t slip under the radar and act in a way which is harmful to patients.
Medical Malpractice
In extreme situations, nursing home residents can end up suffering lasting physical and mental trauma from their treatment – and death is also a sad possibility. Nursing homes need to be especially vigilant to make sure that medical malpractice is not something which is happening in their centres. With more focus being put on nursing home treatment these days, any problems can quickly escalate and result in serious consequences for those who have been deemed to have committed the offence.
Family Disputes
Family disputes occur frequently in nursing home environments, and centre managers and staff need to be on-hand to help resolve these conflicts before they escalate to a high level. When people are giving conflicting information about how their elderly relative should be cared for, communication is important between the centres and the families.
Nursing homes have faced a barrage of negative press in recent years through some shocking stories which have emerged. And they need to react quickly to address the major concerns of people who are in any way closely connected to these institutions. These are just four of the main challenges which are facing nursing homes in 2018. Obviously, the solutions are never going to be straightforward, but it is clear that in many centres, improvements need to be made.