Massachusetts Nursing Home Elders Hurt by Drug Over Prescription
State and Federal Nursing Home Regulations prohibit unauthorised use of Drugs to sedate nursing home residents unless their particular medical condition requires a Doctor prescription for their use. Too often, against Nursing Home Regulations and in violation of Patients Rights, Massachusetts residents are given unnecessary doses of antipsychotic drugs by nursing staff.
Why? Because they make the resident easier to care for if they are over drugged. They sit in their beds and wheelchairs asleep or in a passive stupor for long periods of time and the staff, often insufficent, can ignore the resident's needs. It is illegal to focus care according to the convenience of staff instead of the needs and individual care plan of each resident.
According to the Center for Medicare Advocacy, drug misuse in Nursing Homes is pervasive. A Federal report found that more than 25% of Nursing Home residents were given antipsychotic drugs and that more than half of those "took doses exceeding maximum levels"
A Massachusetts Law has been introduced to regulate this wdespread abuse by Nursing Homes.
