When your parents go into a nursing home facility, you trust the nurses and staff to provide them with proper care and treatment. Along with that care is ensuring they receive the medication they need to stay healthy and comfortable.
Unfortunately, some workers may put their own desires and addictions in front of patients. When facility employees steal medication, residents may end up suffering in unbearable pain. In a recent Florida incident, a nurse stands accused of stealing opioids from the people he was hired to help.
Residents in two separate homes reported accusations of theft
A nursing home in Largo had several complaints from residents about a nurse not giving them the pain medication they needed. Coworkers also reported the man seeming impaired. They claimed he couldn’t remember simple things and had trouble writing his own name on a report.
When the facility administrators asked the nurse to do a drug test, he resigned. He then found a new job within two weeks in Clearwater where the same complaints surfaced. He also resigned from his second nursing home. An investigation by the Florida Department of Health resulted in an emergency restriction order, barring the man from using his nurse’s license.
A quick turnaround put more residents at risk
While the first nursing home recognized the theft of one of their staff, they may not have done enough to alert the community about a dangerous caretaker. The nurse was able to quickly find a new position where he possibly put other patients at risk. While the state health department was able to find him and issue a restriction, he affected many lives before they denied him access to his job in nursing.
A lack of medication can hurt loved ones
When your parents’ care is on the line, their medication is important. If they live in constant pain, they may need pain pills just to get through the day. And if you can’t care for them 24 hours a day, you rely on the nursing home to ensure they have the medication they need to be comfortable.
If you worry that your parents don’t get the care they need, you may want to look for any signs of abuse or neglect. Contacting an attorney about malpractice may help both your loved ones and any future residents at risk of improper care.
