Like food and water, basic hygiene is another important building block of nursing home care. Unfortunately, it can go by the wayside when nursing home staff members are too overworked to give patients the care they need, or even intentionally neglectful. Lack of hygiene makes patients less comfortable and takes away a very basic source of dignity. It can also cause or worsen certain medical conditions, from skin problems to infectious pneumonia. In fact, insufficient hand-washing or sterilizing of equipment can lead to outbreaks of flu or other diseases throughout a nursing home’s population. Our Pennsylvania nursing home negligence attorneys believe homes should be expected to do much better.

Doctors wash their hands frequently and carefully because the links between disease and hygiene are well-known. Bad sanitation and bad hygiene are particularly risky in nursing homes for two reasons. One is that nursing homes are shared with many other people. The close quarters and shared facilities make it easier to spread disease than it might be in a neighborhood of single-family homes. The other problem is that nursing home residents are more likely to have weakened immune systems, often because of the same illness or injury that made them candidates for a nursing home.

Complicating matters, those health conditions mean that many residents need assistance with hygiene tasks from nursing home staff. This can include help with bathing or showering, bathroom visits, tooth-brushing and washing clothes and sheets. These are basic care duties, but staff members can overlook them for a variety of reasons. In some cases, staff members may genuinely not realize that residents need help; in others, they are too understaffed and overworked to give each resident the necessary time. And unfortunately, some nursing home staff members neglect residents’ cleanliness, or their own, out of laziness or frustration.

In the extreme cases, this can lead to situations that are unacceptable offenses to the residents’ dignity -- such as residents being allowed to spend days in soiled clothes and bedsheets. Our Philadelphia nursing home neglect lawyers know it can also have very real health consequences, including:

• The spread of infectious diseases, including potentially fatal illnesses like pneumonia
• Allowing existing bedsores to reach a dangerous advanced stage
• Gum disease, cavities and toothaches from bad dental hygiene
• Any kind of infection, including the extremely serious antibiotic-resistant infection MRSA

Nursing homes’ failure to pay attention to hygiene exposes some of America’s most vulnerable adults to serious illnesses. If you believe someone you love was neglected in a nursing home and their basic hygiene needs were unmet, Rosenbaum & Associates can help. Our Philadelphia nursing home abuse attorneys represent residents and their families from all over Pennsylvania and New Jersey. To tell us about your situation and learn more about your rights, please call us toll-free at 1-800-7-LEGAL-7 (1-800-753-4257) or send us a message through this site.