Bedsores are a complication of long-term care or hospitalization that should never happen. Medicare agrees with this statement. This government health care agency includes bedsores on its lists of “never events,” which are, in other words, events that should never happen. Medicare will not pay to treat bedsores for this reason. A resident of a long-term care facility who has developed bedsores has every right to turn to negligent parties and expect them to cover the cost.
Ultimate costs of bedsores can be much more than medication and doctors’ visits. A bedsore can result in very dangerous infections and even death. In the case of a nursing home resident who experiences a downhill spiral of bad health after developing a bedsore, it is difficult to calculate the actual cost. But it is clear that negligent parties should be held responsible.
In a nursing home negligence case, responsible parties may include caregivers in a nursing home, care managers who did not properly monitor the person’s care. There is no good reason for a nursing home resident or a patient in a rehabilitation facility to develop decubitus ulcers or bedsores. If he or she does, it means that caregivers did not follow acceptable standards of care. They did not take the proper steps to prevent the injury from occurring — or to treat a bedsore aggressively once it appeared.
Sometimes it happens that a hospital will release a patient who has developed bedsores to a care facility. Then who is to blame? Both parties may share responsibility: the hospital, for allowing the condition to occur, and the nursing home, for not screening properly or treating promptly upon discovery.
