Rising nursing home violence spurs lawsuit increase

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, May 11, 2005 by Nora Lockwood Tooher

They have written policies that said if resident-to-resident abuse was either witnessed or suspected then certain steps must be followed, one of which was to remove the abuser from the rest of the population, said George F. McNally, a Reno attorney who is co- counsel for the plaintiffs.

There was an incident with this guy that occurred earlier in the day, said co-counsel Gordon Cowan, also of Reno. They did not follow the protocol in segregating him from other female residents, and keeping him under observation.

[They] disregarded common sense rules and their own rules, he said.

'Lord Of The Flies'

H. Kennard Bennett, an Indianapolis elder law attorney who represented the Beckers in their civil suit against the Indiana nursing home, said patient-on-patient violence is often related to understaffing.

You simply don't have the numbers of adequately trained staff to protect these residents from each other, he said. I worry that it becomes a 'Lord of the Flies' situation oftentimes in these nursing facilities because of the environment they're put in.

I think improving the quality of care will improve the issue of resident-to-resident abuse, Bennett added. Increase the number of staff and increase the training for those staff.

Miller agreed.

It all relates back to staffing, he said.

The facility has an obligation to provide a safe environment. They have to assess these people; they should know whether they're combative or have a history of this, Miller said.

And staff has to be properly trained to spot the potential for resident-to-resident abuse, he added.

Particularly when you've got mixed populations, Miller said, the staff really needs to be trained how to handle those folks.