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“Nursing home and assisted living overdoses happen frequently. They may happen by staff over-prescribing or over-dispensing. A resident may be pain-drug-dependent and be using extra drugs on the side. No matter what the situation is, nursing home or assisted living residents are under the care of the facility, and the facility is responsible for their safety, including ensuring that no matter what the source, they are not victims of overdoses,” said Fort Myers Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer, Randall Spivey of Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A. 

Over-Prescribing & Over-Dispensing Medications 

Fox9 in Minnesota reported on January 31, 2018 that a nursing home in New Hope, Minnesota killed one of its patients by administering more than 20 times the prescribed dose of an opioid pain killer. 

Shots Health News from NPR (National Public Radio) said on February 2, 2018: 

“A study published Monday by Human Rights Watch finds that about 179,000 nursing home residents are being given antipsychotic drugs, even though they do not have schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses that those drugs are designed to treat.

Most of these residents have Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia and antipsychotics are not approved for that. What's more, antipsychotic drugs come with a ‘black box warning’ from the FDA, stating that they increase the risk of death in older people with dementia. The study concluded that antipsychotic drugs were often administered without informed consent and for the purpose of making dementia patients easier to handle in understaffed facilities.” 

Pain-Drug-Dependency 

It may be difficult to imagine that an elderly or disabled loved one is abusing illicit drugs or medication. However, substance abuse is also as great a threat to nursing home and assisted living residents as any other demographic. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities fail to address issues like substance abuse when they admit residents or create care plans for them, according to the North Carolina News. 

For example, the police were called to a Pennsylvania nursing home at around 5:50 p.m. Monday, January 22, where they learned that a 67-year-old woman patient had overdosed. Ambulance and Fire Department personnel, who arrived first, were administering naloxone to revive her. The police report states that the woman had snorted heroin. The police then learned that another resident, a 63-year-old male, was suffering from an overdose in the hallway of the facility. Both victims were taken to Jameson Hospital, the police report says. 

In La Porte, Indiana, two staff members at the Golden Living Center found a 64-year-old resident on the floor looking confused and bleeding from her nose. The woman revealed she had taken heroin. Police say a small amount of the drug was found inside the woman's purse. According to police, a man related to another resident of the nursing home gave her the heroin, telling the resident to ''take a little". 

Can Legal Action be Taken? 

Nursing homes are responsible for providing care to residents, and this includes taking precautions to prevent harm associated with over-prescribing, over-dispensing and substance abuse. 

Under Florida law, nursing home patients are entitled to a basic set of rights when living in a nursing home. Florida nursing home laws require that a nursing home provide patients with a “safe, clean, comfortable, and homelike environment.” Nursing home residents have the right to nutritious meals, daily exercise, social activities, compassion, access to emergency health care, access to medication, mental counseling (if needed), and the right to peaceful living free of any form of abuse. If a caregiver or professional employee of the nursing home staff violates any of these rules, the incident should be reported immediately.

“If at any time you feel that your loved one is receiving substandard care or is being abused or neglected, you should contact our experienced attorneys to determine your rights. There are no costs or attorney fees unless we make a monetary recovery for you,” said Attorney Spivey.

Florida Nursing Home Negligence Attorney,Randall L. Spivey is a Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney – the highest recognition for competence bestowed by the Florida Bar and a distinction earned by just one (1%)percent of Florida attorneys. He has handled over 2,000 personal injury and wrongful death cases throughout Florida. For a free and confidential consultation to discuss your legal rights, contact the Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A., in Lee County at  239. 337.7483 or toll free at 1.888.477.4839, or by email to Randall@SpiveyLaw.com.  Visit SpiveyLaw.com  for more information. You can contact Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A. in Charlotte County at 941.764.7748 and in Collier County 239.793.7748.