Nursing Home Staff Shortages Are Not Just a Headline — They Are a Safety Crisis
By Jim Higgins, Nursing Home Neglect Attorney
Attorney Jim Higgins discusses what his firm uncovered in a recent nursing home neglect case tied to chronic staff shortages.
You have probably seen the headlines about nursing home staff shortages. The coverage tends to focus on the industry — recruitment challenges, turnover rates, the economics of long-term care. What gets less attention is what those shortages mean for individual residents.
I can tell you, because we see it in the cases we handle. We handle nursing home neglect cases every day, and the pattern we see is consistent.
What We Found
Our firm has a team that focuses exclusively on nursing home neglect cases. In every case we take, we try to answer the same question: why did this happen?
We recently settled multiple cases against the same facility for a significant confidential amount. The residents we represented had suffered from malnutrition, severe dehydration, and bedsores — injuries that are preventable with basic, consistent care. The facility’s position was that the residents’ underlying conditions were responsible for their decline.
That is a common defense. What made this case different was what we found when we started talking to the people who actually worked there.
What Employees Told Us
When we deposed staff members and tracked down former employees, the story they told was consistent. There were not enough people working. Residents were not getting turned. Meals and water were being missed. Caregivers described wanting to provide proper care and not having the time or support to do it.
That is not a failure of individual workers. That is a management decision — and in this case, the numbers confirmed it.
What the facility was paying its caregivers was, by any measure, inadequate for the demands of the job. These are people doing physically and emotionally difficult work around the clock. When a nursing home competes for staff by offering wages that cannot attract or retain qualified people, the residents absorb the consequences.
Putting profits over people in a healthcare setting is not just a business failure. It is a direct risk to the safety of the residents in that facility’s care.
The Injuries That Result From Understaffing
The connection between inadequate staffing and resident harm is not theoretical. It is documented, predictable, and in cases like this one, proven.
Bedsores (pressure ulcers) develop when a resident is left in the same position for too long without being turned or repositioned. It requires staff, present and attentive, on a regular schedule. When there are not enough of them, residents sit in the same spot for hours. Stage 3 and Stage 4 bedsores — the kind that reach bone and become life-threatening — are almost always the result of sustained failure to reposition.
Malnutrition and dehydration occur when residents are not being fed, not being offered water consistently, and not being monitored for intake. In a properly staffed facility, this is tracked. When staffing is thin, meals get skipped, fluids get missed, and no one catches the decline until it becomes serious.
These are not medical complications. They are the foreseeable results of a facility deciding that labor costs matter more than the people in its care.
How Families Can Protect Their Loved Ones
The most effective protection is presence.
Visit at different times — not just during scheduled family hours or on weekends. Show up on a Tuesday morning. Come back on a Thursday evening. What you see when a facility is not expecting you is often different from what you see on a Saturday afternoon.
When you are there, pay attention to the basics: Is the facility clean? Do staff members know your loved one’s name and care plan? Does your loved one appear well-fed, hydrated, and appropriately cared for? Are call lights being answered promptly? Talk to other residents and their families if you can.
A facility that is properly staffed feels different from one that is not. You do not need to be a healthcare professional to sense when something is wrong.
When to Call a Lawyer
If something does not feel right, contact us. You do not need to have proof of neglect before you call — that is our job.
The sooner we get involved, the more we can do. Records can be preserved. Former employees can be located. Evidence that might otherwise disappear can be secured. Waiting costs you leverage.
There is no fee unless we win. The initial review costs nothing. If what happened to your loved one is neglect, we will tell you. If it is not, we will tell you that too.
Frequently Asked Questions
When facilities are understaffed, basic care tasks — turning residents to prevent bedsores, ensuring adequate food and fluid intake, monitoring for changes in condition — simply do not get done consistently. Residents who depend on that care suffer predictable, preventable injuries as a result.
Yes. A facility that fails to maintain adequate staffing to meet the care needs of its residents can be held liable for resulting harm. The question in these cases is whether the facility knew or should have known that its staffing levels were insufficient, and whether that insufficiency caused the resident’s injuries.
CMS publishes staffing data for nursing homes at Medicare.gov. You can look up any facility’s staffing hours per resident per day and compare them to state and federal benchmarks. Facilities with staffing levels significantly below average warrant closer attention.
Document what you observe — dates, times, what you saw. Request your loved one’s medical records. Contact us for a free review. The sooner you act, the more options you have.
No. The review is free, and we handle these cases on a contingency basis — meaning we only collect a fee if we recover compensation for you.
We Can Help
Nursing home staff shortages are a real and documented crisis. But when a facility’s decision to understaff leads directly to a resident’s harm, it is not just a systemic problem — it is a legal one.
If your loved one has suffered serious injury or died in a nursing home, contact us. We handle these cases in Tennessee (Tennessee nursing home abuse lawyers), Illinois (Illinois nursing home abuse lawyers), Kentucky, and Georgia. There is no fee unless we recover for you.
Last Updated: May 2026
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Author Bio
Jim Higgins, founder of the Higgins Firm, is a seasoned personal injury attorney with deep roots in Nashville, Tennessee. A 4th generation Nashvillian, Jim carries on the legal legacy of his father, a judge for over 30 years. After graduating from the University of Memphis School of Law, Jim’s career began on the other side of the courtroom, defending insurance companies and learning their tactics for minimizing settlements. However, he soon realized his true calling was fighting for the rights of the injured, and for the past several years, he has exclusively represented plaintiffs in personal injury cases.
Since then, his dedication and skill have earned him membership in the prestigious Million Dollar Advocates Forum, an organization limited to attorneys who have secured million and multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for their clients. Licensed to practice in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia, Jim focuses on personal injury, product liability, medical malpractice, and workers’ compensation cases. His exceptional work has been recognized by his peers, earning him a spot on the Super Lawyers list every year since 2021, a distinction awarded to only the top 5% of attorneys in each state.
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