You are concerned about your loved one in a nursing home… how can you tell if they are being neglected? What can you do about nursing home neglect?
Work with an experienced law firm that will fight for you. Contact us today.
You are concerned about your loved one in a nursing home… how can you tell if they are being neglected? What can you do about nursing home neglect?
Find out from the nursing home lawyers at MSW Law Group what qualifies as nursing home neglect, who is liable for nursing home neglect, what legal rights nursing home residents have, the types of nursing home neglect you might see, signs of nursing home neglect, and what you can do about nursing home neglect.
If you believe your family member is suffering neglect in a nursing home, call MSW Law Group for immediate help.
Care, treatment, or conditions falling short of the applicable standard of care for nursing homes may lead to neglect. But what is the applicable standard of care for nursing homes?
In 1987 Congress passed legislation called the Nursing Home Reform Act requiring nursing homes participating in Medicare and Medicaid to “provide services and activities to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident in accordance with a written plan of care.”
To participate in Medicare and Medicaid, nursing homes must:
The owners of the nursing home may be liable for neglect due to inadequate staffing or negligent supervision, training, or hiring of staff. Individual professionals employed by the nursing home or attending residents in the nursing home may also be liable for neglect if they failed to adhere to the applicable standard of care.
The Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 gave nursing home patients specific rights they can act upon if those rights are not upheld. State law may grant additional rights above and beyond federal rights. Nursing home residents also have rights regarding their care and treatment by medical professionals, including medical assistants, nurses, doctors, therapists, and others.
Nursing home patients can file complaints with the applicable state or federal agencies, but more importantly, they have the right to file a civil lawsuit against the nursing home and any professional who has a hand in their neglect. The sooner an elder abuse lawyer gets involved, the sooner the neglect can be remediated.
Neglect takes any number of forms in a nursing home environment. Here are a few to watch out for in particular:
If a patient does not receive their medications timely, the efficacy is reduced, causing harm to the patient. If a patient is not periodically assessed by a doctor or their meds adjusted accordingly, the patient is at risk of harm. If a patient is not given the correct medications or is given the wrong dose, the patient may suffer harm. All of this can constitute neglect.
Under federal law each nursing home resident is entitled to a good quality of life, to choose activities in which they wish to participate, and to be treated with respect. Unfortunately there are many, many complaints of family members visiting their loved ones and finding them alone in bed in their room in the middle of the day, or finding them sitting in their wheelchairs in front of a TV in a common area with all other residents.
If your loved one is not provided with the social stimulus they require, this could constitute emotional neglect.
This too is a common complaint. Nursing home residents are entitled to regular bathing, personal grooming, and oral hygiene, and they are also entitled to assistance with these functions if they are unable to do them themselves. Incontinent residents are entitled to regular changes of incontinence aids, upholding both hygiene and respect requirements.
Family members frequently complain that their loved one is not bathed, their dentures not cleaned, their hair not cut, and that they have been sitting in a wet wheelchair for what seems like days. Not only are these situations a health hazard for residents, but they undermine the requirement that they be treated with dignity and respect, and can constitute neglect.
What are basic needs? For a nursing home resident, basic needs include food, water, sleep, toileting, bathing and grooming, medical care, medications, and social activities. If any of these are missing or insufficient, that may be neglect.
Where family members are unable or unwilling to visit regularly and check on their loved one or their loved one is bedridden, the resident is at risk of abandonment in the form of being left alone for long periods, not attending the common room activities, not having any social outlet, and not receiving the same level or attention other residents receive.
Depending upon the type of neglect, a nursing home patient may decline in physical and mental health, experience a poor quality of life in their final, most vulnerable years, and die sooner than they would have with proper care.
Bedsores are a sign staff is failing to adhere to a repositioning protocol for patients who are unconscious, cannot move, or cannot shift themselves for whatever reason.
Malnutrition and dehydration are all too common in nursing homes, resulting in significant weight loss that impairs a patient’s strength and ability to heal.
If your loved one has unexplained injuries, you need to inquire as to the cause. They may have been unsupervised or trying to get up themselves and fallen having waited an hour or two for a nurse to respond to the call button. Worse, they may have been struck by a staff member, another resident, or a visitor.
If you find the common areas and/or your loved one’s room dirty, this is a sure sign of neglect. Debris or food on the floor, overflowing trash cans, dirty toilets, and trays with past meals present are indications the facility is negligent in their cleaning.
If prior to entering the nursing home your loved one could walk or at least sit up, but is suddenly in a wheelchair or bedridden, this may indicate one or more forms of neglect.
If you notice your loved one is upset, angry, or withdrawn, ask their care team why. Rather than medicate a resident to make them compliant, they should find the root cause of the change in the resident’s emotional or mental health. Neglect can be a cause, especially for residents who are cognitively impaired and have trouble expressing their needs and preferences.
Neglect is almost always a staffing issue in nursing homes.
If there is not enough staff to administer medications timely, help with personal care regularly, and respond to call buttons within a reasonable amount of time, that can lead to neglect.
If staff do not have the knowledge to provide the services they are required to provide by law, those services will either not be provided at all or provided incorrectly. Worse, a nursing home manager or supervisor may require staff to complete tasks for which they are not qualified or trained. This leads to neglect.
Nursing home owners must adhere to certain requirements in hiring staff, among them checking an applicant’s criminal record. If a nursing home hires someone with a history or violence or sexual abuse, and a resident suffers harm, that is negligent hiring.
There are a number of steps to take if you suspect nursing home neglect:
If you suspect your loved one is being neglected, call the elder abuse lawyers at MSW Law Group. We will help you remediate the situation, get your loved one the care they deserve, and hold the nursing home accountable by getting the compensation your loved one deserves for their suffering. Call us today.
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