Burns 

Burns in a care facility come from bath water that was never checked, heating pads left on fragile skin, and hot liquids served to residents who cannot hold a cup, and a nursing home burn lawyer reads the policies the staff did not follow.

California regulations require facilities to control hot water temperature at fixtures residents use. Thin, aging skin burns at temperatures that would only redden a younger person’s. A resident with dementia or neuropathy may not feel a heating pad burning through the skin or pull away from a scalding bath. Every one of these injuries has a policy behind it, and every one of those policies was written because the injury had happened before.

Common Causes

• Bath or shower water above the regulated temperature

• Heating pads and warming devices applied without orders or without checks

• Hot coffee, soup, or tea given to a resident who cannot manage it safely

• Radiators, space heaters, and hot pipes in resident rooms

• Smoking without supervision when supervision was ordered

What We Investigate

• Water temperature logs and the facility’s monitoring policy

• Orders for any heating device and the skin checks around it

• Dietary orders for temperature and assistance with meals

• The incident report and the facility’s report to licensing

• Wound care records and the burn center’s assessment