There are a number of medical errors that have been determined to be all too common but which should never happen. Those in the Florida medical profession call these “never events.” That is, there are practices that should be standard operating procedure so that such things never happen.
The term has only been around since 2001, but according to the government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there are now 29 different events grouped into six categories. And one of the most commonly occurring ones is the development of pressure ulcers or bedsores.
These are sores that can develop when a person is in such a state of health that he or she is unable to change positions regularly on their own. Nursing home residents naturally fall into this category. So might anyone who is dependent on a wheelchair to get around.
As the Mayo Clinic’s website explains, the onset of pressure sores can happen fast and be hard to treat. That makes preventing them a priority and the best way to do that is consistently changing a patient’s position to relieve the focus of pressure on the skin of particular parts of the body: ankles, heels, hips and tailbones.
Such measures are so well known that it’s legitimate to expect that a care facility would make preventive repositioning the norm. And yet sometimes sores develop. The reasons may be many, but if someone suffers bedsores, it likely would be acknowledged that it had to have happened because of abuse or neglect.
Therefore, as an identified never event, the occurrence of pressure ulcers might warrant seeking remediation, compensation in order to hold the responsible agency and agents accountable. Speaking with an attorney to determine if a case exists is always advised.