MRSA in Nursing Homes
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by Founding Partner, Terry Crouppen who has more than 40 years of legal experience as a personal injury attorney. Our last modified date shows when this page was last reviewed.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by Founding Partner, Terry Crouppen who has more than 40 years of legal experience as a personal injury attorney. Our last modified date shows when this page was last reviewed.
- Last Modified:
- July 25, 2025
Nursing home abuse refers to the physical abuse or emotional abuse of the elderly and other vulnerable adults that takes place in residential, long-term care facilities, nursing homes, or assisted living facilities. It is also sometimes referred to as institutional elder abuse, and in the worst cases, can result in the wrongful death of the patient. Caring for elderly family members is one of our most sacred duties as a society, yet many nursing home residents suffer personal injury and mistreatment from the very care facilities we entrust with their proper care.
- What Is MRSA, and Why Are Nursing Home Residents Vulnerable?
- How Does MRSA Spread?
- How Can Nursing Homes Prevent the Spread of MRSA?
- Common Causes of MRSA Infections in Nursing Homes
- Recognizing MRSA Symptoms in Nursing Home Residents
- What Happens if MRSA Remains Untreated?
- Reporting MRSA Concerns and Filing Complaints
- How To File a Nursing Home MRSA Lawsuit
- Why Choose Brown & Crouppen as Your MRSA Infection Attorneys
- Let Experienced Attorneys Fight for Your Rights
- Reach Out to a Nursing Home Attorney Today
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterial infection that spreads through contact with an infected person. Nursing home residents are at high risk because of close living quarters, and their medical vulnerability means that MRSA in nursing homes can be extremely dangerous.
Outbreaks of MRSA in nursing homes often reflect systemic deficiencies in care. The experienced St. Louis nursing home abuse lawyers at Brown & Crouppen are here to fight for the rights of affected residents and their families, and to pursue compensation for MRSA-related losses.
What Is MRSA, and Why Are Nursing Home Residents Vulnerable?
MRSA is a type of infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as staph. Many staph infections are highly treatable, but MRSA is resistant to common antibiotics such as methicillin, amoxicillin, and ampicillin.
MRSA is extremely dangerous in the elderly because the immune system weakens with age. Compared to younger individuals in the community, nursing home residents may be more likely to contract MRSA and more vulnerable to severe outcomes.
How Does MRSA Spread?
MRSA spreads through contact with someone who has the illness or carries the bacteria without showing symptoms. MRSA often “colonizes” an individual, meaning they carry the bacteria in their nose or on their skin without ever getting sick.
MRSA spreads through contact with someone who is infected or colonized, or by touching contaminated surfaces. MRSA bacteria can survive on surfaces for weeks, making the sanitization of bedding and medical devices extremely important.
There is a high risk of MRSA in elderly homes because residents live in close quarters, where it is difficult to control surfaces and person-to-person contact. Something as simple as wheelchair transport can be a vector if staff fail to sanitize the chair between patients.
In one study of nursing homes in California, 16 percent of objects tested positive for MRSA. When the researchers tested sanitation protocol with UV markings that disappeared with cleaning, only 22 percent of marks were cleared. Facilities with more frequent cleaning practices had fewer positive results, showing that prevention efforts make a difference.
How Can Nursing Homes Prevent the Spread of MRSA?
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most important steps for controlling MRSA spread in nursing homes include:
- Washing or sanitizing hands before and after contact with a patient
- Cleaning and disinfecting medical equipment and rooms
- Treating active infections quickly and completely
- Implement recommended contact precautions when treating patients with MRSA
Contact precautions are specific protocols for treating patients whose condition is contagious through bodily or environmental contact. These precautions include:
- Housing MRSA-positive patients in a separate room when possible
- Keeping a minimum of three feet between beds when multi-bed rooms are necessary
- Requiring care personnel to wear a gown and gloves when interacting with the patient or potentially contaminated surfaces
- Discarding personal protective equipment when leaving the contamination risk area
With these protocols readily available to facilities and healthcare professionals, failure to implement standard infection control procedures may constitute a breach of the duty of care nursing homes owe to residents, especially when that failure results in preventable harm.. Our trusted attorneys have the knowledge and experience to expose prevention failures and hold nursing homes accountable for residents developing MRSA.
Get started with a free consultation with one of our skilled Personal Injury Lawyers today.
Common Causes of MRSA Infections in Nursing Homes
Multiple factors affect a nursing home’s likelihood of experiencing an MRSA outbreak. Likely causes include:
- Staff training gaps: Failure to teach proper sanitation procedures and familiarize staff with warning signs can increase risk of infection.
- Sanitation failures: Negligent cleaning, particularly in the presence of a known MRSA infection, significantly increases the chance of an outbreak.
- Crowded conditions: Because MRSA can be transmitted from person to person and through contaminated surfaces, overcrowding increases the risk that MRSA will spread before a facility can contain it.
- Understaffing: Researchers have found a correlation between sufficient staffing and lower risks of MRSA infections. Failing to hire qualified staff is a safety issue.
- High-need patients: Overall, facilities have a higher rate of MRSA infections when patients have more intensive clinical and functional needs. The need for tubing equipment, including nasogastric and gastronomy tubes, increases the risk of surface contamination.
- Negligent care: Even with proper staff numbers, some nursing home caregivers may be lax in their attention to patients. Facilities are responsible for supervising their staff and addressing negligence before it puts residents in danger.
Failing to correct these issues increases the risk of MRSA and may constitute negligence in a lawsuit. Our attorneys are dedicated to pursuing justice in situations like these, where a vulnerable person suffers preventable harm.
Recognizing MRSA Symptoms in Nursing Home Residents
One of the most common symptoms of MRSA in nursing homes is a rash of swollen and painful red bumps on the skin. In the early stages of infection, they are easy to mistake for spider bites. If the infection progresses, these sores can worsen into deep, pus-filled abscesses that require surgery to drain.
In later stages of MRSA, the infection can spread deeper into the body, affecting the bones, joints, heart, blood, or lungs. Symptoms of MRSA below the skin include:
- Fever
- Cough
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain
- Muscle or joint pain
It can be easy to dismiss some MRSA symptoms as signs of aging or a mild condition, such as a cold or flu. This assumption can put the resident in serious danger.
“If you visit a loved one in a nursing home pay attention you know this person you've known them your whole life maybe they're a mother a father a grandparent an aunt or an uncle if they are not seeming like themselves don't gloss over that ask questions because not every one of these injuries is visible you may not know that there's a bed sore underneath them causing problems you may not know that they haven't been properly shifted you may not know that they had a fall that's been unattended to maybe they would just put back in their bed but nobody ever x-rayed them if they're in any kind of physical discomfort or if their personality is just off do not assume that it's because oh they're just depressed being in a nursing home and certainly don't assume it's merely because they've gotten older if your instinct tells you something is off give us a call and let us investigate if it turns out it's nothing great everybody can relax but if it turns out that what's happening to them is the product of neglect we got to take action not so that you can get some settlement but hopefully in time to get them the proper care they need to extend their life the whole reason they went there in the first.”
What Happens if MRSA Remains Untreated?
Untreated MRSA can have serious physical, emotional, and psychological effects. The condition itself can be painful enough to significantly impact the resident’s overall quality of life, even in its early stages.
If MRSA progresses with or without treatment, residents can develop life-threatening complications, such as respiratory failure, loss of limb, and septic shock. Patients who experience septic shock may suffer tissue damage and organ failure with permanent consequences.
Worsening MRSA infections can have a significant emotional and financial impact. Patients with complications often require additional care, which can incur further costs.
Isolation and Emotional Stress
A person with MRSA is also more likely to be in isolation, which exacerbates the high risk of loneliness in facility residents. Residents may be depressed, become less mobile and communicative, and even experience cognitive decline. Isolation combined with worsening illness may increase the likelihood of depression, anxiety, and mood challenges.
Families can help by staying engaged with their loved ones throughout their illnesses. If they feel negligence contributed to the infection, family members can advocate for their loved ones by pursuing legal action.
Reporting MRSA Concerns and Filing Complaints
If you suspect that negligence led to MRSA infection in a nursing home, the first step is to contact the facility and ask about its grievance process. If the facility fails to take action or you don’t feel comfortable reporting internally, you may report the nursing home to state authorities.
How To File a Nursing Home MRSA Lawsuit
If someone you love contracted MRSA in a nursing home, a lawsuit can help you recover compensation. The basic process resembles that of any other personal injury lawsuit.
The first step is to hire an experienced MRSA infection attorney. It’s important to reach out as soon as possible because you may have a limited amount of time to file a claim. In Missouri, the statute of limitations for most nursing home abuse cases is five years from the date of the incident.
Once you’ve signed a contract with an attorney, they will start gathering information about your MRSA case. You can help by providing any relevant documentation you have, including photos of the facility’s current conditions.
Once your attorney has prepared your case, the typical next step is to send a settlement demand to the nursing home’s insurance company. This typically begins a negotiation process which, if successful, results in an agreed-upon settlement. If a fair settlement proves impossible, your lawyer will prepare your case for trial.
Why Choose Brown & Crouppen as Your MRSA Infection Attorneys
If you’re suing for MRSA infection, you need an experienced and compassionate attorney who will fight for you. Our award-winning attorneys have represented injured individuals and their families since 1979. In that time, we have helped thousands of clients and secured over $1 billion in life-changing compensation.
We are one of the most honored law firms in the Midwest and are dedicated to going the extra mile for our clients. We level the playing field so families have a fighting chance against corporations, including nursing homes and their insurers.
Victories for Nursing Home Lawsuit Clients
Standout case results in nursing home abuse and neglect cases include:
- $900,000 for a nursing home patient who suffered bedsores and severe burns
- $748,848 for a patient who suffered neglect leading to bedsores, which progressed to severe infection
- $400,000 for a patient who suffered bed sores and sepsis from neglect
Every lawsuit is different. How much you can claim, and how long your case takes, depend on your situation and how the nursing home responds.
Let Experienced Attorneys Fight for Your Rights
Outbreaks of MRSA in nursing homes are frustrating to begin with, and fighting for a settlement can be even harder. Insurance companies can deny or minimize your claim, and the legal process feels confusing to navigate.
Our attorneys are here to help. We know the signs of nursing home abuse and neglect, and we’re not afraid to take on the insurance companies to protect you and your family’s future. Let us empower you and help you pursue justice for your loved one’s MRSA infection.
Reach Out to a Nursing Home Attorney Today
If you suspect negligence contributed to a loved one’s illness, it’s essential to speak with an MRSA infection lawyer as soon as possible. Let us stand up for your loved one’s right to a healthy environment—call Brown & Crouppen today at 314-501-9510 or contact us online for a free consultation.
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- Last Modified:
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