Personal Injury Law

5 Years Since Tennessee Nursing Home Fire

It has been five years since 16 people died in a nursing home fire at the NHC home in Nashville. The fire brought to the forefront the need for facilities to have mandatory fire evacuation plans and better systems to get residents to a safe place in case of a fire. According to the Tennessee Department of Health every nursing home is in compliance when it comes to fire safety.

Unfortunately, problems with basic care still exists. These quality problems led to admission suspensions in 24 facilities in 2007. The number stands at 19 for this year. So often the care issues are a result of simply not having enough quality staff at the homes. Without enough staff at these homes the basic needs of the residents can't be meet and our loved ones suffer.

Maybe this year the Tennessee legislature and the nursing home industry can work on cutting these quality of care problems. We only ask that our loved ones be treated with dignity. My office sees to many neglect cases they could have been easily avoided if the nursing home would have worried less about profits and more about caring for the residents.

Full post as published by Tennessee Law Blog on September 27, 2008 (boomark / email).