A Texas nursing home abuse lawyer at Street & Ragsdale will fight your Texas nursing home abuse case for you.
Dallas nursing home abuse lawyers Dan Street and David Ragsdale have more than 50 years of combined experience handling personal injury and wrongful death cases involving nursing home abuse in Texas.
Personal injury law is our specialty at Street & Ragsdale. We have collected tens of millions of dollars for personal injury victims. We have handled thousands of nursing home abuse and personal injury cases.
A Street & Ragsdale personal injury lawyer will fight to recover the compensation you deserve if a loved one has suffered personal injury or wrongful death due to nursing home abuse. Contact an experienced personal injury lawyer today and we will evaluate your case absolutely free!
Texas Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers
(Nursing home abuse throughout the United States)
Many Texas Nursing Homes Fail to Meet Federal Standards for Adequate Care
There are 1,148 nursing homes in Texas that accept residents covered by Medicaid or Medicare. These facilities serve almost 85,000 residents. Eighty-six percent of Texas nursing homes violated federal health standards during recent state inspections. Over one-third of the nursing homes had violations that caused actual harm to residents or placed them at risk of death or serious injury. Moreover, over 90% of the nursing homes in Texas did not meet the recommended minimum staffing levels identified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
86% of Nursing Homes in Texas Did Not Meet Federal Standards Governing Quality of Care
The vast majority of nursing homes in Texas violated federal standards governing quality of care. Of the 1,148 nursing homes in Texas, only 161 facilities (14%) were found to be in full or substantial compliance with the federal standards. In contrast, 987 nursing homes (86%) had at least one violation with the potential to cause more than minimal harm to residents or worse. On average, each of these 987 nursing homes had 9.8 violations of federal quality of care requirements. Many nursing homes in Texas had violations that caused actual harm to residents. Of the 1,148 nursing homes in Texas, 443 facilities, 39% of all facilities, had a violation that caused actual harm to nursing home residents or placed them at risk of death or serious injury. The 443 nursing homes with actual harm violations or worse serve 37,417 residents and are estimated to receive over $440 million each year in federal and state funds.
Most nursing homes in Texas did not provide adequate staffing. During their most recent annual inspections, the vast majority of nursing homes in Texas,1,060 of the 1,124 facilities for which staffing data was available (94%), did not meet minimum staffing levels. Compared to other states, Texas nursing homes rank 43rd in the nation in hours of nursing care provided to residents each day.
Texas nursing homes that failed to meet the minimum staffing levels were over three times as likely to have violations that caused actual harm to residents compared to nursing homes that met all minimum staffing levels.
Individuals who are admitted receive very inadequate, sometimes shockingly deficient care that is likely to hasten the deterioration of their physical, mental, and emotional health. They are also likely to have their rights ignored or violated, and may even be subject to physical abuse.
Prevalence of Violations
Only 161 of the nursing homes in Texas were found by the state inspectors to be in full or substantial compliance with federal health requirements. The remaining 987 nursing homes, 86% of all facilities in Texas, had at least one violation that had the potential to cause more than minimal harm to their residents or worse.
Many nursing homes had multiple violations. State inspectors found a total of 9,624 violations in facilities that were not in complete or substantial compliance with federal requirements, an average of 9.8 violations per noncompliant home.
Additional Steps Needed
Some of the greatest safety concerns are posed by nursing homes with violations that cause actual harm to residents or have the potential to cause death or serious injury. 79 nursing homes were cited for violations that caused or had the potential to cause death or serious injury. An additional 364 nursing homes were cited for violations that caused actual harm to residents. In total, 443 nursing homes in Texas, 39% of all facilities, had serious violations that caused actual harm to residents or had the potential to cause death or serious injury. Many of these facilities had multiple, actual harm violations. The 443 facilities had 1,160 violations that caused actual harm to residents or had the potential to cause death or serious injury. Over half of the nursing homes, 238 of 443 facilities, had two or more actual harm or worse violations. Fifty-eight facilities had five or more such violations.
Some of the most common actual harm violations included:
- Failing to prevent physical or sexual abuse of residents or other forms of mistreatment and negligence (209 violations)
- Failing to prevent or properly treat pressure sores (156 violations)
- Failing to prevent falls and accidents, such as failing to provide proper supervision or assistance devices to residents (155 violations)
- Improper or inadequate medical care, such as failing to provide proper treatments or drugs to residents (136 violations)
- Failing to provide adequate nutrition and hydration to residents (111 violations)
Nursing Home Staffing in Texas
There are 1,148 nursing homes in Texas that receive Medicaid or Medicare payments. The vast majority of these nursing homes, over 90%, fail to provide adequate staffing to residents. Compared to other states, Texas ranks 43rd in the median number of daily hours of nursing care provided to residents.
Texas Ranks Near the Bottom in Nursing Home Staffing
Texas ranks near the bottom of the 50 states in nursing home staffing. The median nursing home in Texas provided just 3.19 hours of daily nursing care per resident. This figure ranks 43rd in the nation in the number of hours of daily nursing care per resident The median nursing home in Texas provided just 21 minutes of daily care by registered nurses for each resident, less than half of the HHS minimum. This ranks 46th in the nation.
Inadequate Staffing Is Linked to Inadequate Care
There is a direct correlation between inadequate staffing and inadequate care. The nursing homes that did not meet the minimum staffing levels identified by HHS were more likely to have serious violations of federal health standards than nursing homes that met the minimum staffing levels. There are 64 nursing homes in Texas that met all of the minimum staffing levels identified by HHS. Only eight of these facilities met the minimum staffing levels (13%)
430 of the 1,060 facilities (41%) that failed to meet at least one of the minimum staffing levels were cited for a violation that caused actual harm to residents. Thus, nursing homes that failed to meet at least one of the minimum staffing levels were over three times as likely to have violations that caused actual harm to residents.
As discussed above, 917 nursing homes in Texas did not provide the recommended 4.1 hours of daily nursing care per resident. Forty-two percent of these nursing homes, 384 of 917, were cited during recent annual inspections or complaint investigations for a violation that caused actual harm to residents. In contrast, of the 207 facilities that met the minimum staffing level of 4.1 hours, 54 facilities (26%) had violations that caused actual harm to residents. Thus, nursing homes that did not meet the minimum hourly staffing level were over 60% more likely to have violations that caused actual harm to residents.
CONDITIONS REMAIN POOR IN TEXAS NURSING HOMES
There appears to have been little change in nursing home conditions since October 2000. Since the release of the October 2000 report, there has been a slight increase in the percentage of Texas nursing homes violating federal health standards and a slight decrease in the percentage of nursing homes cited for violations that caused or had the potential to cause wrongful death or serious injury (from 8% in the October 2000 report to 7% in this report).
Staffing levels have also not changed measurably between reports. The October 2000 report found that Texas ranked 40th among the 50 states in the median number of daily hours of nursing care provided to residents; the current report finds that Texas ranks 43rd. In terms of the number of hours of daily nursing care provided to individual residents, the median nursing home in Texas in the October 2000 report provided 3.14 hours of care, compared to 3.19 hours in this report.
Thus, over the past two years, Texas facilities have added only three minutes to the amount of daily nursing care provided to residents. Moreover, there has been a 5% decrease in the number of hours of care by registered nurses provided by nursing homes in Texas from the October 2000 report to this report.
The 1987 nursing home law was intended to stop abuse in nursing homes by establishing stringent federal standards of care. Although the law and its implementing regulations require appropriate standards of care, compliance by the nursing homes in Texas has been poor.
Many nursing homes in Texas are failing to provide the care that the law requires and that families expect. Furthermore, most nursing homes in Texas did not meet the minimum staffing levels identified by HHS as necessary to provide adequate care to residents.
Stop Nursing Home Abuse
The best way to stop nursing home abuse is to make sure nursing home abuse violations are adequately punished. If a loved one has been injured by nursing home abuse or negligence, seek out an experienced Texas nursing home abuse lawyer as soon as possible.
The personal injury lawyers at Dallas law firm Street & Ragsdale are experienced in nursing home abuse cases, and will evaluate your nursing home abuse case at no cost to you. If we determine you have a nursing home abuse personal injury or wrongful death claim, we will handle your case aggressively, and you pay absolutely nothing unless we win your nursing home abuse case.