New Tool Allows Nursing Homes to Track Infections

A welcome upgrade to nursing home care and safety.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America have released a tool that's designed to help long-term care facilities track infections more effectively. This system allows them to offer better prevention methods. According to an article in Infection Control Today, research shows that infections in healthcare facilities could affect up to 2.8 million people in the long-term care facility population every year. For many people in these facilities, an infection can be deadly.

Better science, better methods.

Between more advanced computer technology, a constantly expanding body of information regarding the science of healthcare and other advances, nursing homes have more and better tools than they ever have had to provide good care to their patients. Unfortunately, infections remain one of the leading causes of deaths in nursing homes and other long-term healthcare facilities. In some cases, people are simply so weakened by their age and their health conditions that they are extremely susceptible to infections and there is little that can be done to prevent them. In other cases, however, the situation is really quite different.
Recurring and serious infections are among the common signs of nursing home mistreatment. Anyone with a first-grade education understands that keeping clean is imperative to keeping healthy. In nursing homes that are not run up to proper standards, residents are sometimes not given appropriate hygiene, which can lead to very serious infections. In some cases, bed sores can become so bad that they end up tunneling into the deep tissue of the body, presenting a horrible risk of infection that can quickly turn fatal.
Not all nursing home abuse involves somebody hitting a resident, sexually abusing them or psychologically intimidating them. Some nursing home abuse is really just neglect. That neglect can be as deadly – and oftentimes deadlier – than a physically abusive nursing home care provider could ever be.
Nursing homes really have no excuse for not offering proper care these days. There is good technology out there and institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are always finding better ways to keep people healthy. If a nursing home has been neglectful to someone you love or to you and that has caused you or your family to come to harm, talk to a lawyer. They will be able to tell you what your rights are and lawyers will most certainly not listen to excuses from nursing home providers.