Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys: Should I Call?
You’re probably asking yourself if you should call a few nursing home abuse attorneys. First, consider the following: Approximately 17,000 licensed nursing homes in the United States and approximately 45,000 residential care facilities. These numbers account for over 2 million people who make up the elderly population. For this reason, nursing homes in Las Vegas are a resource that many families have come to use.
While most homes provide excellent care to their residents, others are not as willing or capable of maintaining a safe and caring environment for the people under their care. Sometimes, this happens because of a lack of staffing. In other cases, insufficient training is the primary cause, so laws are in place to protect the aging population, including our honored veterans.
Nursing home abuse has become a significant problem in our country today. When a nursing home is often inadequately staffed and the employees have inadequate training, they can’t properly care for its clients. In addition, when a nursing home fails to provide treatment, care, goods, or services necessary to preserve a resident’s health, safety, or welfare, and the resident suffers an injury, the facility may be negligent. You may need to consider contacting one of our nursing home abuse attorneys to help.
While this might seem like an overwhelming issue to think about, you don’t have to try to weed through the overwhelming legal ease alone. Understanding the problems and the red flags and knowing what to do to get help is essential.
Defining the Problem
The legal definition of nursing home abuse or neglect differs by state, but there are a few things that residents and loved ones can observe. If any of the following things occur, seek the help of one of our qualified nursing home abuse attorneys right awayExamples of nursing home negligence include failure to:
- Provide food or water
- Prevent malnutrition or dehydration
- Assist in personal hygiene
- Provide safe, clean, and decent living conditions
- Give adequate treatment and services for incontinent residents
- Supply appropriate supervision with assistive devices to prevent accidents
- Issue adequate medical care
- Acquire and dispense proper medications
- Ensure that residents are free from serious medication errors
- Prevent a resident from developing pressure sores
- Provide proper treatment to promote healing
- Train on medical devices
Injuries from nursing home abuse are often severe and may include:
- Bedsores
- Dehydration
- Elopement
- Malnutrition
- Mental Abuse
- Physical Abuse
- Restraints
- Sexual Abuse
- Slip & Fall
- Wandering
Know About Liability
There are several factors to take into consideration when abuse or neglect is suspected. For example, if the facility was involved in negligent hiring practices or failed to provide sufficient training for employees, they could be found liable for injuries from neglect or abuse. In some instances, nursing homes work with outside contractors to provide care to their residents. As a result, those outside parties could also be held responsible. Your nursing home abuse lawyer can help you to determine who should be liable for damages or injuries.
You may have a family member or a loved one who is currently in a nursing home. These formerly independent and self-sufficient men and women are now totally dependent for their daily needs on the nursing home staff and administration where they live. Plus, this assisted care may cost as much as $40,000 up to $100,000 per year. Patients in nursing homes deserve the best care, but often they do not receive the care they deserve.
Civil vs. Criminal Cases
It is essential to understand that, while an action may be illegal, it does not necessarily mean it is a criminal act. Each facility should have:- Proper staffing and patient supervision
- Sufficient treatment plans for patients
- Appropriate methods for handling records
- Adequate equipment to care for residents
- Imposed civil penalties.
- Declined Medicare and Medicaid payments
- The facility is forced to be closed
- the organization receives monetary fines.
Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987
When the federal government passed the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, nursing home residents were guaranteed certain rights:
- To be free from verbal, mental, and physical abuse, corporal punishment, and involuntary seclusion.
- To be free from verbal, mental, and physical abuse, corporal punishment, and involuntary seclusion.
- To be free from chemical and physical restraints – except as authorized in writing by a doctor for a specified and limited time or when necessary to protect the resident or other residents from injury.
- To have safe, decent, and clean conditions.
- To be treated with consideration, respect, and full recognition of dignity and individuality, including privacy in treatment and care of personal needs.
- To be fully informed by a doctor of their medical condition, unless the doctor decides that informing the patient would be against the patient’s best interests, and to participate in medical treatment planning.
- To refuse medical treatment as permitted by law and be informed of the consequences of refusing medical treatment.
- To refuse to participate in experimental research.
- To have personal medical records treated in strict confidence.
- To have established daily visiting hours.
- To have visitation by an ombudsman, personal physician, family members, and all individuals that provide health, social, legal, or other services who wish to visit.
- To retain personal possessions and clothing as space permits, so long as doing so would not complicate a medical condition or infringe on another resident’s rights.
- To participate in and meet with social, religious, and community groups.
- To send and receive personal, unopened mail.
- To associate and communicate privately with other individuals as desired.
- To manage personal financial affairs or to delegate that task to another person of the resident’s choosing.
- To be fully informed of available services and related charges.
- To be encouraged and assisted in exercising rights as a patient and as a citizen, voice grievances, and recommend changes in policies and services to staff members or outside representatives without interference, coercion, discrimination, or reprisal.
- Not to be required to perform services for the nursing home that are not included in the resident’s care plan.
- If married, to be assured of privacy during spousal visits. If both spouses are residents of the nursing home, to be permitted to share a room, if medically feasible.
- To be transferred or discharged only for medical reasons, or for the resident’s welfare or the welfare of other residents, or for nonpayment (except as prohibited by Medicaid), and to be given reasonable advance notice of transfer or discharge.
- To be fully informed, as evidenced by a written acknowledgment, prior to or at the time of admission and during the stay, of all these rights and rules and nursing home regulations that govern personal conduct and responsibilities.