Nursing home employees are often responsible for several residents at the same time. In some cases, a nursing home might find itself severely understaffed, with not enough nurses or nurse’s assistants to care for the residents. According to US News, understaffing is one of the reasons that led to the death of a patient in a Missouri nursing home.
88-year-old Lois Moreland had nicknamed the whirlpool that she bathed in every night before bed her “boat.”
It was part of her nightly routine to wash up in her whirlpool bath before being helped into bed while a patient at St. Sophia Health and Rehabilitation Center.
However, after helping her into the bath at approximately 8:30 p.m. on March 22, 2016, the nurse’s assistant “forgot” about the patient and did not return until nearly 8 hours later. Moreland’s body was discovered still in the whirlpool, the water cooled, and the jets still running at about 4:30 a.m. the following morning.
The patient’s son, Steven Moreland, is suing the facility, claiming that the nursing home’s negligence caused his mother’s death and suffering. The suit also alleges that St. Sophia puts profits ahead of health care by keeping the facility chronically understaffed.
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The evening of Moreland’s death, St. Sophia had one nurse, two certified nursing assistants, and a medication technician to care for 35 residents living in the Honeysuckle Hill unit. There were 165 residents living in the entire facility at the time. The nursing assistant had only been assigned to Moreland’s until two days before and stated she felt “overwhelmed” by the workload.
In the investigation following Moreland’s death, inspectors determined residents were in immediate jeopardy, and fined the facility $39.260 and required the facility to file a “plan of correction.”
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