Common Types of Neglect in Nursing Homes

To participate in Medicare and Medicaid, nursing homes must:

• Have sufficient nursing staff.
• Conduct an initial assessment of each resident’s functional capacity.
• Develop a comprehensive care plan for each resident.
• Prevent the deterioration of a resident’s ability to bathe, dress, groom, transfer and ambulate, toilet, eat, and to communicate.
• If a resident is unable, provide the necessary services to maintain good nutrition, personal grooming, and oral hygiene.
• Ensure residents receive assistive devices to maintain vision and hearing abilities.
• Ensure residents do not develop pressure sores and, if a resident has pressure sores, intervene to promote healing, prevent infection, and avoid new sores.
• Provide appropriate treatment to incontinent residents to restore as much normal bladder functioning as possible.
• Ensure each resident is supervised and receives assistive devices to prevent accidents.
• Maintain acceptable parameters of nutritional status.
• Maintain proper hydration.
• Ensure residents are free of any significant medication errors.
• Promote each resident’s quality of life.
• Honor the dignity of each resident and treat them with respect.
• Ensure the resident has the right to choose activities, schedules, and health care
• Provide pharmaceutical services to meet the needs of each resident.
• Maintain accurate, complete, and easily accessible clinical records on each resident.