Nursing Home Negligence
Carma Henson and Thomas W. Henson, Jr. announce the settlement of a case against a nursing home, its owners and managers; the medical director of the nursing home who was also the resident’s attending physician; and the wound care physician who was tasked with ordering and providing proper wound care to the resident for the total sum of $2,200,000.00.
Plaintiff’s decedent was eighty-eight years old. She was admitted to the nursing home due to dementia, but was still able to walk. Less than two months after her admission, she was injured by a wander guard bracelet, which caused a small blister bruise on her ankle. That blister bruise never healed, but instead continued to worsen over the next three months, such that by the time she was sent to the emergency room just over 3 months later, 80% of her right lower leg was decomposing, according to the hospital treating physicians.Plaintiff brought claims against the nursing home and its owners and managers for medical negligence, corporate negligence, and punitive damages.
Plaintiffs alleged that the nursing home was negligent in failing to ensure that the resident and her worsening condition was properly assessed and treated. Instead of ensuring that the patient was assessed by a registered nurse, the owners and managers allowed a licensed practical nurse who had recently been placed in the treatment nurse job position without adequate training to perform assessment and treatment. This LPN implemented inappropriate treatments without physicians’ orders to do so, and then proceeded to violate physician’s orders when they were issued. This LPN failed to recognize that this non-healing wound indicated that this resident had underlying venous and arterial insufficiency which needed to be evaluated and treated.
Additional allegations of poor care resulted from systems failures that reached the highest level of the corporate chain. The owners/managers of the nursing home did not have systems in place to ensure that wounds were being properly assessed, monitored and treated at the local facility nor at the corporate level, and did not ensure that their nursing staff received adequate training. This was established through the depositions of the Director of Nursing as well as the Corporate Wound Care Director, both of whom admitted the absence of systems and adequate oversight.
Plaintiff also alleged that the facility was understaffed, which was directly related to the poor care received by this resident. In addition to low staffing levels overall, plaintiff also alleged that the facility chose to employ significantly more licensed practical nurses than registered nurses, despite the fact that registered nurses are the health care providers allowed to perform a nursing assessment under North Carolina law. Plaintiff’s claims against the attending physician/medical director and against the wound care physician were based on their failures to properly treat this resident when it was clear that she had underlying arterial and vascular compromise that was preventing the healing of her wound. The attending physician testified that he knew the patient’s arterial system was compromised, but yet failed to implement proper treatments. Plaintiffs alleged that the wound care physician, who was new to the wound care world and received inadequate training in that field, was negligent in that he failed to recognize that her wounds were worsening due to the arterial and vascular compromise, failed to order the testing necessary to determine such, and failed to refer the resident to a physician who could assess and treat the underlying arterial insufficiency, which would have allowed her wounds to heal. By the time the resident was sent to the emergency room from the nursing home, she was severely dehydrated and malnourished, and too hemodynamically unstable to undergo any surgical procedures that would have been necessary to save her life.
The case was defended by three different law firms representing three insurance companies and the defendants. The settlement was reached after suit was filed, depositions were taken, and a mediated settlement conference occurred. The settlement amount was fully collectible.