Wrongful Death in Nursing Homes: What Families Need to Know

You trusted a nursing home to care for someone you love. Now that person is gone, and something does not feel right. You may have questions about what happened and whether it could have been prevented. You are not alone in asking. More than half of all adverse events in nursing homes are preventable. When a preventable failure leads to death, families deserve answers.

If your loved one died in a nursing home due to sepsis, malnutrition, medication errors, or other preventable causes, you may have a wrongful death claim. A nursing home neglect attorney can review what happened and explain your options – at no cost to you.

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What Is Wrongful Death in a Nursing Home?

A wrongful death in a nursing home happens when a resident dies because the facility failed to provide proper care. It does not mean the death was intentional. It means the death was preventable – and the nursing home’s actions or inactions caused it or contributed to it.

Common causes of preventable nursing home deaths include untreated infections that progress to sepsis, malnutrition, and dehydration. Other causes include medication errors such as wrong doses or missed prescriptions, falls from poor supervision, and delayed hospital transfers when a resident’s condition worsens.

Federal law requires nursing homes to provide care that helps each resident reach their highest possible level of well-being. When the facility falls short and a resident dies as a result, the family may have grounds for a wrongful death claim.

Not every death in a nursing home is wrongful. Some residents are admitted with terminal conditions. The question is whether the facility met the standard of care for that resident’s needs. If it did not, and the failure contributed to the death, the death may be wrongful under the law.

Warning Signs That a Death May Have Been Preventable

Knowing what to look for can help you decide whether to investigate further. These signs suggest a nursing home may have failed in its duties:

• Sudden weight loss or visible signs of malnutrition in the weeks before death
• Repeated infections, especially urinary tract infections or pneumonia, that were not treated quickly
• Bedsores that worsened without adequate wound care
• Confusion, agitation, or sudden changes in mental state that staff did not address
• Falls that happened because the resident was left unsupervised
• Medication changes that were not explained to the family
• The facility discouraged questions or limited your access to your loved one
• Staff could not explain what happened or gave conflicting accounts
• The resident complained about care, pain, or being ignored before they died
• The death certificate lists an infection, sepsis, or other condition that often results from neglect

If any of these apply, the death may warrant closer examination. Request the medical records and review what care was actually provided.

When the Nursing Home Is Responsible

Nursing homes accept a legal duty of care the moment they admit a resident. Federal regulations require each facility to provide services that meet professional standards. This includes adequate staffing, proper medical care, infection prevention, nutrition, hydration, and supervision.

The standard is not perfection. The standard is reasonable care given the resident’s condition. A nursing home must assess each resident’s needs, create a care plan, carry out that plan, and adjust it when the resident’s condition changes.

Research shows that staffing levels directly affect outcomes. A study in Health Services Research found that greater registered nurse staffing significantly decreases adverse outcomes. A 50 percent increase in RN hours was projected to reduce pressure sore rates by roughly 66 percent. When nursing homes cut staff to save money, residents pay the price.

The Government Accountability Office found that abuse-related deficiencies in nursing homes more than doubled between 2013 and 2017, rising from 430 to 875. Gaps in oversight and referral processes allowed problems to persist.

Ask the facility directly: “Can you show me the care plan, staffing records, and notes from my loved one’s final weeks?” If the answer is incomplete or evasive, that is a red flag.

What Happens When Negligence Goes Unchecked

Preventable nursing home deaths do not happen in an instant. They follow a chain of failures. An infection goes untreated. Nutrition declines. Medications are missed. Each failure makes the next one worse.

Nursing home residents are among the most vulnerable people when care breaks down. A study in the Journal of Critical Care found that nursing home residents are 7 times more likely to develop severe sepsis than the general population. Their in-hospital mortality rate from sepsis is 37 percent, compared to 15 percent for non-nursing home patients.

The CDC reported 201,092 sepsis-related deaths in 2019 alone. Three-fourths of those deaths were among adults 65 and older. For adults 85 and older, the sepsis death rate reached 750 per 100,000.

Medication errors compound the risk. The American Journal of Medicine found 1.89 adverse drug events per 100 resident-months in nursing homes. Of the fatal, life-threatening, and serious events, 72 percent were preventable.

All-cause nursing home mortality rates remained above pre-pandemic levels through mid-2023, with a peak of 5,692 deaths per 100,000 residents in December 2020. These numbers represent real people whose families are left asking whether their loved one had to die.

When a nursing home fails to act, the consequences escalate. An untreated urinary tract infection becomes sepsis. Missed meals become malnutrition. A skipped medication dose causes a dangerous reaction. Each step in this chain was a moment when the facility could have intervened and did not.