Nursing Homes Statistics

Nursing Homes Statistics

  • In 2016, there are an estimated number of 15,600 nursing homes in USA.
  • Most of these nursing homes are for-profit and hires professionals and are well-paid, there are around 69.3% in the total pool of owners who are for-profit.
  • A total of 1.7 million beds are recorded in 2016.

There are numerous causes of deaths in nursing homes that are fatal. Some of them are negligence, medical malpractice, self inflicted injuries and the most common is Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related neurological diseases. It is said that deaths among elderly inside nursing homes are notable and slow given these neurological diseases do exist among them, some death are sudden and surprising that the other day they were so energetic and day after, they suddenly die due to age. It is heartbreaking and emotionally-boggling that these events escalated quickly and they were not in their family’s care and suddenly disappear without any proper farewell.

In this blog, we are going to let you know what are the tendencies and the current state of nursing homes in these previous years, how are nursing homes be situated in the next years and how to legally deal with a death or injuries sustained by a elder family member while inside a nursing home.

According to National Library of Medicine (NLM), 1 out of 5 deaths are sourcing from nursing homes. In relation to this, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, specifically Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, are the leading cause of death that mostly of the victims are elder and most of them are from the said nursing homes. That said, it is true that age-related diseases are deadly especially in the presence of negligent care and left unchecked. Here are some main causes of death’s breakdown in a study for 6 months led by National Library of Medicine (NLM):

  • Alzheimer’s/dementia has recorded 14 cases and deemed as a primary cause of death among nursings homes and shares 36% out of the total death counts.
  • While cardiac/cerebrovascular contributes 30% of all total deaths in the same sample.
  • There are 9 recorded cases of pulmonary fatalities which makes of 23% of total death counts.
  • And 3 death for hematologic and other malignancies or infectious disease which accounts for 7% of the deaths and 1 ESRD.
  • There are 66% patients on hospice or hospitals for terminally ill individuals.
  • In 2015, there are 1.3 million residents on all nursing houses on USA.

In 2020, occurences of fatalities of patients in nursing facilities has became more often than ever, deaths has skyrocketed by 32% last year, with concurrent spikes 2 quarters of a year interval and it is said that it is because of COVID-19. The virus common nature, based on its first focused studies, children and elders tend to be vulnerable as they have low body defensive mechanism espeically in respiratory system.

In a report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) uncovers that there are about 40% nursing home patients are likely infected with COVID-19 in 2020 and has caused death counts to increase dramatically to 169,291 compared to the previous year before the said virus exist. But with the help of World Health Organization’s (WHO) effort to formulate health protocol against COVID-19, these numbers alleviate as well but damages has been already dealt.

If your family elders has been a victim of medical negligence that caused his death or he has sustained significant injuries while inside a nursing home, you are entitled to file a medical injury claim or wrongful death claim. Ryan Injury Lawyers is an injury law firm that is based in Ohio and professionally represents its clients in the most favorable way possible for its client’s sake. Call our offices now for free legal advice.