Manhattanville Health Care Center, a Bronx nursing home, was documented in a Department of Health Deficiency Survey for failure to provide proper treatment to prevent and/or heal pressure sores. As we have discussed many times on this blog, pressure ulcers are a grave health risk to elderly individuals; they can lead to a variety of additional health issues, up to and including death.
Documentation for several residents admitted to the facility show failures to properly treat and care for pressure ulcers, including failure to turn and position. Relieving body weight from affected areas is an essential aspect to the treatment of pressure ulcers. As the name suggests, pressure ulcers develop and are exacerbated by failure to off-load the body’s own pressure, leading to skin and tissue breakdown. Manhattanville, in these instances, did not follow it’s own procedures by failing to turn reposition a patient with a Stage IV pressure ulcer at appropriate intervals, and by failing to turn and position a resident with a Stage III ulcer per physician’s orders.
As noted above, pressure ulcers can, and too often do, lead to death in elderly nursing home residents. Maintaining a system of treatment, including but not limited to turning and positioning, not only eases pain and suffering for these patients, but can also lead to healing and a prolonged life. Failing to take these essential steps toward possible healing is unacceptable. The entire DOH survey can be found here.