Seniors living in a nursing home or rest home are entitled to receive proper care and facilities. Since they are frail and cannot perform activities like people of productive age, they deserve good treatment. Regrettably, some nursing homes neglect their residents, prompting their families to file a nursing home negligence lawsuit.
Busy work schedules are the reason families leave their seniors in nursing homes. Hence, they can work without worry because seniors will receive proper care and facilities. This article will blow the whistle on the other side of the eye-opening facts about nursing homes. Further, this article will also assist you in navigating lawsuits.
What Is a Nursing Home Neglect?
A rest home is supposed to be a welcoming, safe, and comfortable place for seniors. For this reason, this place is specifically used to care for the elderly so they receive proper and humane treatment. Unfortunately, some nursing homes actually neglect their residents, causing illness, physical injury, or even death.
Since neglect of seniors is contrary to humanity and morals, you can take legal action to stop this immoral act. In addition, filing a nursing home negligence lawsuit is also important to obtain justice and compensation. The reason is that both seniors and their beloved families suffer financial and emotional losses due to neglect.
How Serious Are Nursing Home Negligence Levels?
Quoting information from the Nursing Home Abuse Justice page, reports of senior abuse cases caused by negligence reached 15.3%. These seniors do not get respect and adequate care in the rest homes where they live. Although not all rest homes neglect seniors, this has sparked concern for senior families.
Common negligence made by rest home staff is not providing seniors with basic needs such as food, drink, medicine, and facilities for seniors. If you don’t want your beloved senior to suffer unacceptable treatment, contact a personal injury lawyer to file a nursing home negligence lawsuit.
3 Types of Neglect in Nursing Homes
The Duffy Duffy Law page shares the types of negligence that seniors may experience while living in a rest home. Let’s find out the negligence, as follows!
1. Medical Neglect
The type of neglect commonly experienced by nursing home residents is medical neglect. You should not consider this a trivial problem since it is closely related to senior health. Medical neglect includes staff not providing care according to protocol for seniors who suffer from diabetes or dementia.
Allowing seniors to remain lying in bed and causing decubitus ulcers is also negligence on the part of the caregiver staff. Along with that, caregivers are also considered negligent if they do not report being overweight, losing weight, or signs of infection to the nurse or doctor.
If your beloved senior experiences medical negligence that could worsen his health condition, then file a nursing home negligence lawsuit to hold the service provider responsible.
2. Neglecting Basic Life Needs
While living in a rest home, seniors have the right to receive adequate basic living needs. You can find out if the rest home is negligent in providing the necessities of life by paying attention to the following points.
- Staff or caregivers do not change clothes or bed linen for nursing home residents regularly;
- The caregivers and/or staff are not providing help with personal hygiene tasks such as washing hands and brushing teeth;
- Staff or caregivers do not provide fresh clothes and bathrooms for seniors with incontinence.
3. Emotional and Social Neglect
Like social creatures, seniors also need socialization with other nursing home residents. Staff or caregivers who prevent seniors from interacting and socializing with other seniors are considered to be neglecting residents’ emotional and social well-being.
Examples of emotional and social neglect include closing the curtains in a resident’s room so others cannot hear. Another illustration is leaving the senior with mobility devices such as a wheelchair or cane for walking.
Get the best personal injury attorney in the area to navigate a nursing home negligence lawsuit because emotional and social neglect can be detrimental to a resident’s mental health.
What Sparks Nursing Home Negligence?
The Nursing Home Abuse page informs that three primary reasons spark negligence in the nursing home. Let’s discover it below!
1. Inadequate Staff
Staff are an essential element in a nursing home because they are the ones who will care for and serve the residents. Inadequate staff is often a common reason seniors suffer neglect. The impacts of inadequate staff include poor work performance, frequent absences, and prone to experiencing stress.
On the flip side, staff do not work optimally because they get low wages for long working hours. Correspondingly, the residents will be victims of neglect.
2. Negligent Hiring
Nursing home negligence lawsuits can also be caused by negligent staff recruitment. Recruiting staff without considering their background and qualifications to meet standards is another important reason that causes negligence among rest home residents.
In fact, incompetent and unqualified staff have the potential to commit violence against residents.
3. Poor Training
Caring for seniors is not easy because it requires skill and patience. Therefore, service providers must not only recruit qualified and competent staff to care for seniors but also provide training.
The truth is some service providers provide inadequate training so staff can work immediately. Consequently, these staff have the potential to neglect nursing home residents unintentionally. Poor training will also have an impact on the safety of seniors.
Who is Liable to Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit?
Referring to information from Ben Crump’s page, determining who is liable for a senior neglect case, depends on who is involved. Since the staff is the party that deals directly with seniors, there is a big chance of them getting sued.
If you want to find out who is at fault and who is liable properly in this case, you need to work with a personal injury lawyer to conduct an investigation. Through this investigation, lawyers can find evidence to determine who is the party at fault and who should be liable.
Let’s Reach Out To Your Attorney to File a Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit!
Once and for all, to file a nursing home negligence lawsuit you need to get an attorney first. The legal representative you appoint will not only provide legal assistance but will also conduct investigations and collect evidence.
The perks of working with competent and professional personal injury is getting maximum defense and a fair chance of getting adequate compensation.
