Skin and Wound Infections in Illinois Nursing Homes

Attorneys for Nursing Home Residents With Pressure Sores, Chronic Infections, and Cellulitis

Skin and wound infections are among the most common and most serious healthcare problems affecting residents of nursing homes. In long-term care settings, wounds that would be minor for a younger, healthier person can progress to deep tissue injury, chronic infection, sepsis, and even death. In Illinois, as across the nation, pressure injuries (commonly called bedsores), surgical-site wounds, vascular and diabetic ulcers, and minor skin breaks that become infected are frequent sources of suffering and avoidable harm in nursing homes.

At John J. Malm & Associates, we are dedicated to protecting nursing home residents who depend on caregivers for their safety and wellbeing. With over 90 years of combined experience representing victims of nursing home neglect and abuse throughout Illinois, our firm has built a reputation for compassionate advocacy and proven results. We understand how devastating it is to discover that a loved one’s infection or wound was caused by preventable neglect. Our team of dedicated Illinois nursing home neglect attorneys works tirelessly to hold negligent facilities accountable, uncover the truth behind their failures, and secure full and fair compensation for families who have been betrayed by the very institutions entrusted with their care.

“Nursing home residents depend on their caregivers for the basics of safe care, through repositioning, nutritious food, clean skin, and timely wound treatment. When those basics are ignored, preventable infections can become catastrophic. Families deserve answers and accountability.” — John J. Malm, Naperville nursing home neglect attorney

How Common are Skin and Wound Infections?

Estimates vary by source and method, but infections in nursing homes are widespread. Large reviews and surveillance studies estimate that roughly 1.1 to 3.8 million infections occur in U.S. nursing homes each year, and skin and soft-tissue infections, including infected pressure injuries, cellulitis, and wound site infections, account for a substantial share of those cases. Advanced pressure injuries and infected wounds significantly increase hospitalizations, long-term morbidity, and mortality among residents.

Pressure injuries alone are common in long-term care. National surveillance and population studies have historically found that about 10–20% of nursing-home residents have pressure injuries at any given time, with variation by risk factors and facility. These wounds create an obvious entry point for bacteria and are frequently complicated by infection when prevention and wound care are inadequate.

Beyond national figures, Illinois has repeatedly documented facility citations related to failures in preventing, monitoring, and treating pressure injuries and wound infections. Illinois Department of Public Health investigations and deficiency reports show dozens of instances where facilities failed to perform necessary skin assessments, failed to refer residents for proper wound care, or otherwise allowed wounds to worsen and become infected. These enforcement actions reflect real resident harm in Illinois facilities.

Why Nursing Home Residents Are at Risk for Serious Skin Infections and Wounds

Several interacting factors make residents of nursing homes uniquely vulnerable to skin breakdown and infection:

• Immobility and chronic pressure: Residents who are bedbound or chairbound develop prolonged pressure over bony prominences (heels, sacrum, hips), which causes skin and tissue breakdown (pressure injuries) that easily become colonized by bacteria.
• Multiple comorbidities: Diabetes, vascular disease, malnutrition, frailty, and impaired circulation all impair wound healing and raise infection risk.
• Age-related immune decline: Older adults often have weaker immune responses, making them less able to fight invading organisms.
• Incontinence and moisture: Urine and fecal exposure macerate skin and increase susceptibility to breakdown and infection.
• High antibiotic use and resistant organisms: Long-term care settings are reservoirs for multidrug-resistant organisms; when wounds become infected with resistant bacteria, treatment is more difficult and outcomes worse.

Because these factors cluster together in many residents, a seemingly small lapse in prevention (missed turning schedule, delayed dressing changes, inadequate nutrition) can rapidly lead to a worsening pressure injury and an infected wound.

Common Types of Skin and Wound Infections in Nursing Homes

• Infected pressure injuries (bedsores): Pressure injuries that progress from superficial redness to deep tissue loss are highly prone to bacterial colonization and infection, which can spread to muscle, bone (osteomyelitis), or bloodstream (sepsis).
• Cellulitis: A bacterial infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissues that often follows minor skin breaks, fungal infections, or insect bites. Cellulitis can progress quickly in older adults and frequently requires hospitalization and intravenous antibiotics.
• Surgical-site infections: Residents who undergo surgical procedures (e.g., vascular access, orthopedic repairs) are at risk for wound infections due to comorbidities and impaired healing.
• Diabetic foot ulcers and arterial/venous ulcers: Chronic lower-extremity ulcers in residents with diabetes or vascular disease commonly become infected and can precipitate limb-threatening complications.

How Inadequate Care Leads to Skin Infections

When infections occur in nursing homes, investigators frequently find preventable system failures. Typical problems include:

• Failure to perform or document routine skin checks and risk assessments.
• Inadequate repositioning and pressure-relief protocols for immobile residents.
• Poor wound care practice: infrequent dressing changes, non-sterile technique, or failure to consult wound-care specialists.
• Understaffing and high staff turnover that reduce time for individualized care.
• Failure to monitor and treat early signs of infection (redness, warmth, drainage), leading to delayed antibiotic therapy and progression to sepsis.
• Insufficient infection-prevention procedures (hand hygiene, barrier precautions) and lack of policies for multidrug-resistant organisms.

IDPH deficiency reports from Illinois nursing homes often document these precise breakdowns: missed assessments, inadequate monitoring, and failure to refer residents for appropriate wound-care interventions. Such lapses are not merely paperwork errors, they are failures of basic clinical care that put residents’ lives at risk.

The Human Cost of Wound Infections

Infected wounds lead to a cascade of problems:

• Increased hospitalizations: Wound infections are a frequent reason for emergency department visits and hospital transfers from nursing homes.
• Higher mortality: Severe infections and resulting sepsis carry substantial short- and long-term mortality risk among frail older adults.
• Prolonged suffering and functional decline: Chronic wounds cause pain, limit mobility, and reduce quality of life.
• Significant healthcare costs: Treating infected pressure injuries, chronic ulcers, and their complications drives up care costs for families and the health system.

Because many infections are preventable with adequate staffing, protocols, and clinical oversight, these costs frequently reflect avoidable harm.

Prevention of Skin Infections and Wounds

Research and clinical guidance identify clear prevention and treatment strategies that reduce skin breakdown and infection:

• Regular risk assessment and skin checks: Standardized tools (e.g., Braden Scale) and daily skin inspections to detect early redness or breakdown.
• Pressure-relief strategies: Frequent repositioning schedules, pressure-redistribution mattresses and cushions, and off-loading of vulnerable areas.
• Nutritional support: Adequate protein, calories, and micronutrients to support wound healing.
• Timely wound care: Evidence-based dressing selection, debridement when appropriate, and prompt referral to wound-care specialists or wound clinics.
• Robust infection control: Hand hygiene, barrier precautions when dressing wounds, and policies for managing multidrug-resistant organisms.
• Staff training and adequate staffing levels: Education on early warning signs and ensuring enough experienced staff to carry out prevention tasks. Studies and federal reports note that staffing quality strongly influences outcomes for residents with wounds.

When facilities adopt and consistently follow these measures, rates of pressure injuries and wound infections fall, yet inconsistent implementation and underreporting remain problems.

What Families Should Watch For To Prevent Skin Infections

Family members and advocates can play a decisive role in preventing progression to infection:

• Ask about the facility’s pressure-injury prevention program and turning schedules.
• Request documented skin assessment results and wound-care plans.
• Observe staff-to-resident interactions and whether wound dressings are changed promptly and with protective technique.
• Watch for early warning signs: new redness, swelling, unusual drainage, increased pain, fever, or sudden change in behavior.
• If a wound is worsening, insist on a prompt provider evaluation and a referral to wound specialists or hospital care if necessary.

Document concerns in writing and request incident reports. These records are vital if problems escalate and legal help becomes necessary.

Legal Remedies When Nursing Home Neglect Causes Infections

When a nursing home’s failure to prevent or treat wounds causes an infection that injures a resident, that failure may constitute negligence under Illinois law. Common legal claims in such cases include negligence, medical malpractice (if medical staff are implicated), and violations of statutory duty under Illinois nursing-home regulations. Key elements in a claim typically involve:

• Establishing the facility owed a duty of care and breached that duty (e.g., failing to reposition, monitor, or treat).
• Proving the breach caused the wound to worsen or become infected.
• Documenting damages: medical costs, pain and suffering, additional care needs, and, where appropriate, punitive damages.

Important evidence often includes medical records, nursing-notes, wound photographs, facility policies (or lack of them), staffing records, incident reports, and survey/deficiency reports from IDPH. In many cases, obtaining cellphone-photos of the wound progression, timestamps, and early clinician notes can be decisive. At John J. Malm & Associates, our Illinois nursing home neglect lawyers have experience subpoenaing these records, consulting wound-care and infectious-disease experts, and pursuing damages on behalf of residents harmed by preventable infections.

Frequently Asked Questions About Skin and Wound Infections in Nursing Homes

Q: How fast can a pressure injury become infected?
A: It can happen in days to weeks. Early changes (redness, increased drainage, foul odor, rising pain, fever) should prompt immediate evaluation. Severe infection and sepsis can develop rapidly in frail residents.

Q: Are all pressure injuries preventable?
A: Not all are avoidable. Some residents have unavoidable skin breakdown due to terminal illness or extreme fragility. But many pressure injuries are preventable with standard care; regulatory guidance requires nursing homes to take reasonable measures to prevent avoidable pressure injuries.

Q: What should I do if I suspect a resident’s wound was neglected?
A: Seek immediate medical evaluation for the resident, document observations with photos and written notes, request the facility’s incident reports, and contact an attorney experienced in nursing home injury cases. Early legal involvement can help preserve records and secure expert review.

Q: Can a family sue a nursing home for a wound infection?
A: Yes, if you can show the facility’s negligence or statutory violations caused or worsened the infection and led to damages. Each case is fact-specific. An Illinois nursing home injury attorney can assess the evidence and advise on possible claims.

How an Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Can Help

If a loved one has suffered a skin or wound infection in an Illinois nursing home, prompt action matters. At John J. Malm & Associates, our team can:

• Review medical and facility records for signs of neglect.
• Obtain and preserve wound photographs, incident reports, and staffing logs.
• Work with wound-care, infectious disease, and geriatric experts to document causation and damages.
• Pursue administrative reports to IDPH and, where appropriate, civil claims to recover compensation for medical expenses, additional care costs, pain and suffering, and other losses.

We combine medical investigation with legal experience to hold negligent facilities accountable and to help families secure the resources they need to care for their loved ones.

Contact the Compassionate Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers at John J. Malm & Associates

Skin and wound infections in nursing homes are not just a medical issue, they are a measure of whether residents are receiving the basic dignity and care they deserve. Many infections are preventable. When they occur because of missed assessments, staffing failures, or inadequate wound care, families have legal rights and options.

If your loved one has developed a pressure injury, a chronic ulcer, or an infected wound while in a nursing home, contact our firm for a thorough, no-obligation review. We will investigate the care provided, consult medical experts, and pursue every path to ensure accountability and recovery. Protect your family’s rights. Reach out today for a free consultation so you can focus on healing and the next steps forward.