Total Hip Arthroplasty Turns Fatal in Nursing Home

A skilled nursing facility administrator was needed to testify in a lawsuit that claimed a nursing home’s insufficient care had caused one of their patients to pass away. The patient, a woman with a history of post-polio syndrome and failed total hip arthroplasty, had originally come to her surgeon with complaints of extensive pain in her left hip. She was scheduled for a revision of her left hip’s total hip arthroplasty, and was discharged to a nursing facility after the procedure for additional therapy. However, her health steadily declined; she was noted to have small bowel obstruction, which quickly developed into a diagnosis of sepsis and hospital-acquired pneumonia. After less than two weeks in the nursing facility, a combination of sepsis and respiratory failure caused her to pass away, leaving the trial to question the care administered to her by the nursing officials.

Question(s) For Expert Witness

1. Do you routinely treat patients like the one described above?

Expert Witness Response E-010573

I have been a Nursing Home Administrator for over thirty years and would be capable of reviewing the records to determine if the standard of care was met in this case. First of all, when a skilled nursing facility gets a referral, they need to make sure that they can meet the care needs of the resident. If they accept the resident like the one described they need to make sure that they have the personnel as well as the expertise to care for the resident.