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Emergency Room Visits Threaten Nursing Home Residents
According to recent research, nursing home residents face a greatly increased risk of infection, either respiratory or gastrointestinal, after a trip to the emergency room.
CHICAGO, IL, February 21, 2012 /Healthcare PR News/ -- Emergency room visits are not uncommon for most residents of nursing homes. Whether a visit is the result of negligent care at the nursing facility, or the health challenges that naturally accompany advanced age, each visit poses a risk to the patient and to other residents of the home. According to recent research, nursing home residents face a greatly increased risk of infection, either respiratory or gastrointestinal, after a trip to the emergency room.
Hospitals have long been aware of the potential for infection among their patients. Starting in the 1950s, most hospitals instituted programs designed to prevent and control hospital-onset infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have surveillance in place to monitor this known danger. This recent data connects emergency room visits with the potential spread of deadly infections among seniors in the nursing home setting in a way that may help protect patients in the future.
A Potential Epidemic
A single hospital-acquired infection can have a terrible impact on a nursing home, when the emergency room patient returns. A flu outbreak, for example, can claim the lives of 1 percent of nursing home residents and lead to substantial expense in caring for the affected individuals. The potential consequences of an outbreak make it imperative that nursing homes have programs in place to identify infections and to prevent an outbreak whenever possible.
The real culprits here are emergency room facilities and their workers. When hospital personnel ignore proper procedure, they risk causing illness or even death to the patient in question, and to anyone who might come in contact with them while they are contagious. The failure to adhere to accepted infection-control procedures constitutes medical malpractice when it harms a patient.
While most emergency room errors lead to immediate harm and are restricted to the patient, this form of error has the potential to affect countless individuals. Hospital personnel and the nursing homes themselves must take proper steps to ensure that those in their care are protected from infection.
Article provided by Seidman Law Offices
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