Nursing homes and health care facilities can face scrutiny and reputational damage when involved in allegations of patient neglect or abuse. While this is a big problem for these facilities, the fact is that in many cases, these situations may start with minor oversights and missteps.
Nonstop compliance challenges
There are countless rules for operating a nursing home, and staying in compliance with these rules is an incredible undertaking. Changing regulations and newly passed legislation makes this even more difficult.
As one article on compliance challenges puts it, care supervisors often don’t have the time or the bandwidth to tackle daily issues when they must put so many resources into addressing larger, newer compliance issues.
Thus, over time, infrequent or minor compliance issues can grow into bigger problems.
Inconsistent responses
Staffing is an issue at many nursing homes. Facilities can struggle with employing enough people, hiring the right candidates and ensuring they are all capable of following protocols. Because of this, there can be inconsistencies in how individuals respond to potential care problems.
To avoid the complications of inconsistency, care facilities can dedicate themselves to providing thorough and ongoing training – especially when there are changes in laws or facility practices.
Issues that slip under the radar
Oversights in a nursing home can happen. Understanding that they may start very small and grow into more significant issues can help facilities appreciate the importance of identifying and resolving them as soon as possible.
