New federal data shows that nursing home understaffing is too common, and that many facilities under-report the number of staff members they have.

Reportedly, many nursing home facilities around the country have fewer staff members than they report to the government. This trend could leave residents vulnerable and uncared for. There is already a trend of nursing home neglect, showing that many elderly people and nursing home residents don’t have all of their needs met.

According to the new federal data, the staffing at many facilities fluctuates widely from day to day, or between times of day.

The worst nursing home understaffing levels were most common on the weekends. Reportedly, on an understaffed day at a facility, a caretaker could care for more than twice the residents than they would on a fully-staffed day. Some facilities were even left with no care taking staff available on weekends.

Some industry leaders argue that staffing fluctuations are justified because on weekends, fewer activities are often conducted, and residents are spending time with family. Other leaders argue these fluctuations are not justified, because a resident’s needs do not change on the weekend — they still need care in order to be able to eat, use the bathroom, bathe, and perform other essential functions.

This new data about nursing home understaffing raises fears about resident neglect. Care takers that are over worked may not have time to care for each resident sufficiently, leaving them unable to fend for themselves and in need of help.

Bedsores are a condition that can quickly develop or worsen if a patient is neglected. Bedsores are wounds and dead tissue that occur when a patient sits or lies in one position for too long, and the pressure from their body causes tissue to lose blood flow and die.

Bedsores can be reversed, prevented, and improved by regularly moving a patient to a new position. However, moving a patient can be one of the first acts of care that is neglected when staff members are overworked.

Bedsores, like many other types of nursing home neglect, can result in the injury of residents, necessitating otherwise avoidable hospitalizations. In severe cases, patients can die from injuries they suffer as a result of neglect.

The potential for resident neglect in cases of nursing home understaffing is so dire that the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services has stated its worries about the trend, saying that the center “is concerned and taking steps to address fluctuations in staffing levels.”

The new federal data about nursing home understaffing was developed from payroll reports of numerous nursing home facilities. Again, some industry leaders have pushed back against this method of reporting, saying that payrolls never perfectly accurately reflect staffing levels, speaking to the difficulty in reporting payroll accurately.

Allegedly, the problem of nursing home understaffing is a constant battle — as nursing homes become understaffed, care taking staff become overworked, and are more likely to quit, thereby further reducing the staff available at a nursing home, and making the facility less attractive to new hires who are worried about being overworked.