Yes, nursing homes have a responsibility to assess your loved one’s needs and to meet those needs, including bathing and other personal care. Specifically, Kentucky regulations require nursing homes to provide personal care services including, “assistance with bathing, shaving, cleaning and trimming of fingernails and toenails, cleaning of the mouth and teeth, and washing, grooming and cutting of hair.” (902 KAR 20:048 Section 4).
When Nursing Home Staff Fails to Provide the Required Personal Care Services
While nursing homes are required to provide personal care services—including bathing assistance—to residents who need help, this doesn’t always happen. For example, nursing home staff may fail to provide bathing assistance if:
- Staff members have not been trained properly. Lack of training may mean that staff do not know that they have to help with personal hygiene or that they do not know how to help with bathing.
- The nursing home is understaffed. Without sufficient staff to meet the needs of the residents, the staff members who are working may not have time to take care of hygiene issue for residents who need it.
- Staff members are distracted or simply don’t know what to do. When staff members fail to provide the care other staff members would provide in similar situations, including hygiene care, they may be considered negligent.
Lack of bathing can result in serious injuries including rashes, infections, and other illnesses or injuries.
Nursing Home Residents Should Be Treated With Dignity and Respect
If your loved one’s hygiene was neglected in a Kentucky nursing home and your loved one was hurt as a result of that neglect, your loved one may have the right to recover legal damages in a nursing home neglect case.
Our experienced nursing home injury lawyers are committed to helping injured nursing home abuse and neglect victims make the fair recoveries they deserve. To learn more about your loved one’s rights and potential recovery, please download a free copy of our book, Fight Back Against Nursing Home Abuse: What Families Need to Know to Help Their Loved One.
Has Your Loved One Been Injured In A Nursing Home?
If you believe your loved one is being subjected to nursing home abuse you need to speak with an experienced Kentucky nursing home neglect attorney as soon as possible. Contact us online or call our office directly at 888.450.4456 to schedule a free consultation.
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