Did the nursing home’s carelessness cause the death or injury of your loved one? Do you desire compensation for your losses through legal action? Then you are at the right place. Keep reading to learn more about nursing home abuse and negligence lawsuits.
An assisted living or nursing home employees fail to meet the required level of medical care due to negligence. Legal action like suing a nursing home can be taken by the plaintiffs (victims of abuse and their family members) against the defendants (usually the nursing facility, its staff, and administrators).
Difference Between Nursing Home Elder Negligence and Abuse
According to a recent report by the national council of aging (NCA), approximately 5 million Americans have been abused annually, and only 1 out of every 23 cases are reported to proper authorities. Many seniors cannot differentiate between abuse, neglect, and the right to file a lawsuit, which is why most cases go unreported.
Keep reading to learn the difference and the rights of your loved ones.
Let’s clarify the common misconception about abuse and neglect. Abuse is not the same as neglect.
Elder abuse occurs whenever a caregiver or other individual intentionally causes direct injury or harm to a senior. In contrast, neglect refers to a caregiver’s failure (intentional or unintentional) to meet the adult’s fundamental medical requirements.
It does not need to be deliberate but indicates that the victim received subpar medical attention from the nursing facility.
Examples of nursing home neglect include:
The elderly are treated with dignity and respect in many nursing homes or assisted living facilities. However, a few nursing home workers fail to care for elderly patients properly. Ignoring residents’ basic needs is unacceptable, and the victim of their families must pursue justice.
The common types of neglect at nursing homes include:
- Hygiene neglect: This includes neglect of hygienic routines. Here, the caregivers fail to change clothes or bed coverings for nursing home residents consistently. This could harm the patient, cause infections, or complicate existing medical conditions.
- Medical neglect: medical professionals can be negligent in their disease preventive duties, which can lead to the worsening of diseases such as bedsores, diabetes, and other dermatological conditions.
- Essential need neglect: Nursing home residents, especially elderly ones, need uninterrupted access to basic social amenities and needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. In some cases, the healthcare workers can deprive the elderly of these needs leading to medical complications and harm.
- Emotional neglect: After being accustomed to a nursing home, many residents will refer to it as their new home. So, residents are abandoned or ignored by medical professionals or healthcare workers. They become lonely, stressed, and depressed, which harms their mental and emotional state.
Taking legal action against a nursing home can help you receive compensation for the harm done to you or your family member. Nursing home negligence cases require litigation to get resolved. A lawsuit might be filed on behalf of anyone harmed at a nursing home. However, our nursing home abuse lawyers will require specific evidence that depends on the nature of your claim.
Contact us to find out the evidence needed to pursue your claim
Examples of nursing home elder abuse include:
Nursing home abuse is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “the willful infliction of injury or risk to the health or safety of an elderly person in a nursing home. The different forms of elder abuse include:
- Physical abuse: physical abuse such as kicking, shoving, hitting, slapping, and pushing harms an elderly physically.
- Psychological torture: Neglecting an older adult, intimidating them, or threatening them are all psychological abuse, mainly when they directly cause emotional suffering or distress.
- Sexual abuse: Any sexual contact between a caregiver and a nursing home resident without the patient’s consent is sexual abuse.
- Financial Exploitation: Financial abuse includes theft, misappropriation, and concealment of a victim’s money, possessions, or assets.
- Healthcare abuse: Abuse in the healthcare industry includes inappropriate behavior from medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, and hospital staff who lack ethical standards.
A nursing home abuse lawsuit can be filed if an elderly resident suffers direct injury due to the above classifications. At JustPoint, we are ready to give you a free case evaluation and can also help you file a nursing home abuse lawsuit right now.
Get Professional Help. Talk to a Nursing Home Abuse attorney now.
Suing a Nursing Home for Negligence
Suspending or suing a nursing home for negligence begins with an investigation. The process will involve an expert review and require medical evidence documentation. Often, nursing home residents might be held liable for the accident if they fail to prove the medical professional’s negligence caused the damage suffered.
Medical malpractice in nursing homes, also known as medical neglect, occurs when the facility or its staff engages in careless or incompetent conduct that harms a resident. A good attorney-client relationship is needed to get the best from a nursing home abuse lawyer.
A legal nursing home neglect lawsuit can help you hold the facility accountable for hurting your loved one. If the nursing home resident was harmed, they could receive financial compensation or file suspension for the nursing home staff. But this is only possible if they have the proper medical records to back up their claim.
What Evidence Do You Need to Sue a Nursing Home?
This is one of the most common Nursing home abuse FAQs, and it depends on the evidence required to hold the liable parties accountable for the malpractice. This evidence is needed to avoid abuse of process lawsuits. Usually, people try to capture incidents or neglect at nursing homes using photographs, medical equipment records, or eyewitness accounts, all of which can be used as evidence in a court of law.
Hiring an experienced nursing home attorney can help select the best evidence that supports your negligence claim.
Why File a Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuit?
Filing a nursing home abuse lawsuit is the most effective way to get compensation for the unfortunate incidents or ill-treatment suffered at a nursing home. These compensations pay for your expenses and the emotional and psychological trauma sustained. It also penalizes the nursing homes for acting negligently. Some nursing home lawsuits might impose a fine on the liable parties.
Nursing home lawsuit compensation can pay for:
- Medical bills
- Household expenses (groceries, utilities)
- Lost wages
- Therapy expenses
- Mortgages or rent
- Funeral costs
A nursing home abuse attorney could help you understand your legal options and file Wrongful Death Lawsuits for your loved ones if the abuse led to the victim’s death.
What Are Nursing Home Abuse Cases?
Nursing home abuse claims may be filed when a patient is injured while living in nursing homes. A lawsuit against nursing home negligence allows residents or families to claim damages for the facility that has wrongfully treated them (defendants).
If someone is abused at a care facility, they must know how to sue a nursing home and file lawsuits.
The lawsuit aims to compensate elders abused at the nursing facilities for at least $1m or more in damages, depending on the evidence brought forward and the severity of the case. Note that the legal process for filing a wrongful death suit can take several months, so you must seek the services of an experienced nursing home abuse attorney to help speed up the process.
Speak with a trusted nursing home abuse lawyer today for a free legal case review.
Most Frequent Nursing Home Complaints
While many nursing homes treat residents with the utmost care, others will mistreat residents without dignity or respect.
Some of the most common complaints about nursing homes include:
- Lack or delayed assistance from the staff
- Low-quality food
- Social isolation
- Insomnia and tensions in shared bedrooms due to neglect of nursing staff
- Misplaced or stolen valuables
Preventing Nursing Home Neglect
Research shows that good relationships can help to reduce the risk of aggression between staff and residents. Nursing home abuse can also be prevented by:
- Creating good patient care policies and procedures
- Fostering frequent visits from volunteers and social workers
- Installing quality monitoring systems
- Consistent elder neglect abuse training for employees
Who Can File a Lawsuit on Behalf Of Neglect Victims?
Lawsuits can be filed by nursing home residents who believe they have been abused or neglected. Close family members and the patient’s legal representative can also file on behalf of a person who cannot do so independently.
In addition, if they have the resident’s power of attorney, distant relatives or non-relatives (such as friends or trusted lawyers) may be permitted to take the case to court.
File a Lawsuit today for Nursing Home negligence and get the compensation you deserve. JustPoint is here to help you.
Nursing Home Neglect Lawsuit Process
Nursing home residents can file a legal claim in a court of law. However, due to the complexity of the process, it is advisable to trust legal experts trained in nursing home neglect cases.
Nursing home neglect litigation usually consists of three stages. The stages include:
Gathering Information
You should immediately consult an attorney if you have suffered abuse at the care facility. The lawyer representing you will get a free case report describing your case. It could contain documents like hospital records or other documents. Sometimes the plaintiff and defendant can try to agree on a compensation fee outside the court.
Filing the lawsuit
After analyzing and verifying the evidence presented, nursing home abuse lawyers can take the case to court if both parties do not reach an agreement. The defendants are required to respond to this lawsuit within 30 days, or they may lose the claim automatically.
Settlement
In many situations, settlements are used to resolve a legal matter. A nursing home lawsuit settlement helps the plaintiff to obtain legal compensation before or after the court proceedings.
Appeal
The parties can appeal the decision of a court if they believe an unfair judgment was passed. The court then decides if the appeal is accepted, and a change of verdict is required.
Contact us now and take the next bold step.
