A Prescott veterans' nursing home receives a one star rating

A nursing home aide decides to move a resident on her own instead of following protocol and having a second person help. An elderly resident screams out in horror because they're being asked to bear weight when they can't or because they're not being handled gently enough.

This is just one example among many horror stories regarding how veterans are treated at nursing homes. One of the lowest rated nursing homes in the country is in Prescott, Arizona. It has a one out of five star rating.

In a poorly performing Massachusetts facility that houses 200 veterans, there have been excessive complaints about residents suffering from bedsores. At another facility, one man had to feed himself using his hands because staff members wouldn't help him, even though they knew that his hands didn't work properly. At many of the facilities, there have been countless reports of veterans left to lay in their own feces or urine.

There were even patients who died because the staff was negligent in taking care of them. At the Massachusetts facility, one patient whose heart tended to stop beating without warning died. His assigned caregiver was playing a computer game instead of checking on the resident on schedule.

During surprise inspections at many of the Veterans' Affairs (VA) nursing home facilities on December 31, 2017, at least half of them got a score of one star, the poorest they can get. Just three months earlier, only 13 of the facilities received as low of a score.

A spokesperson for the VA says that the scores of their facilities declined significantly this year but maintains that their overall ratings aren't all that different from those that private nursing homes receive.

No amount of money will take away the pain and suffering that your loved one endured due to caregiver neglect in a nursing home. A judgement in your case may protect others from experiencing the same poor standard of care. If you're facing a nursing home that hasn't provided adequate care for your loved on, you'll appreciate having a Tucson nursing home abuse and neglect attorney advocating for your interests in your legal matter.