Washington County Coroner Cracking Down on Nursing Home Abuse
Feb. 25, 2013
Data from the federal government shows that as many as one in three patients in nursing homes and long-term care facilities may be the victims of Nursing Home Abuse or neglect. These numbers have prompted Arkansas officials to make extra efforts to help ensure such atrocities do not occur in the state.
According to an article from North West Arkansas, the Washington County Coroner, Roger Morris, announced he will begin to “spot check” cases of death inside these types of care facilities. When a person living in a nursing facility dies, that particular hospital has a deadline of five days to report the incident to the state regardless of what the cause of death is believed to be.
Morris says his office will now begin to closely examine certain cases potentially involving abuse. For instance, he recently investigated the death of a woman in a nursing home who died after suffering a skull fracture.
Morris’s hope is that more stringent investigations into these deaths will provide better accountability from nursing facilities and their staff. This higher quality of care should, in turn, reduce the number of nursing home abuse and neglect.
The Arkansas Personal Injury Attorneys with Rainwater, Holt & Sexton Injury Lawyers applaud the efforts being made to reduce the cases of abuse and neglect of the elderly in the state. The firm hopes the new strategy is effective in reducing the instances of nursing home abuse.
