 who is responsible for the elder. The signs include:
- Unexplained weight loss
- Untreated wounds and injuries
- Unsanitary and/or unsafe living conditions
- Lack of proper sanitation facility
- Being left dirty or unbathed
- Improper clothing for the weather
- Desertion of the elder at a public place
Healthcare fraud and abuse is carried out by unethical doctors, nurses, hospital personnel, and other professional care providers. The signs include:
- Duplicate billings for the same medical service or device
- Over medication or under medication
- Inadequate care when bills are paid in full
- Poorly trained, poorly paid, or insufficient staff or crowding at the care facility.
Fight Nursing Home Abuse
Should you sue the facility for abuse? If any elder has been abused at a nursing facility, it is institutional abuse. Institutional abuse generally involves abuse committed by a person who has a legal or contractual obligation to care for the elder in a nursing home, foster home, or other similar facility. Nursing homes are licensed and heavily regulated under both federal and state law and are supposed to protect elderly residents from harm.
Elder abuse, especially at a nursing facility is unjustifiable. If your elder relative is a victim of abuse at a nursing facility, you should contact a nursing home abuse lawyer right away. There are several types of claims you can bring against nursing homes for elder abuse including actions alleging physical, sexual, or verbal abuse, false imprisonment, consumer fraud resulting in financial abuse, and financial exploitation. The victim must be an elder under the State law. This age to be considered an elder varies between states and usually ranges from 60 to 65.
You also file a lawsuit for neglect if the nursing home fails to provide reasonable care or fails to adhere to a specific industry standard and that failure causes injury to your relative.
Suing a nursing home for elder abuse can be a very effective remedy. There are attorneys and law firms all over the country specializing in this area of the law.
If you decide to sue a nursing home for elder abuse, make sure you
- Assemble and organize your evidence
- Document the details and dates of your case against the nursing home.
- Communicate with friends and family who could serve as eye witness testimony.
- Obtain the cooperation of the victim or the victim’s Power of Attorney, who alone has the power to demand health care and nursing home records.
- Go to the family doctor or local hospitals to obtain the victim’s recent medical records and the medical records dating back to the time of the alleged incident.
- Obtain the reports and flow charts from the Nursing Home.
- Be sure to utilize any copies of substantiated complaint forms from the Division of Licensing and Certification.
- Date and organize all of your evidence so that it can be easily deciphered by you and your legal team.
Questions to Ask Your Nursing Home
Make an appointment to visit the nursing home before you decide if the nursing home is suitable for your elder relative. When you visit to nursing home, make sure you should ask the following questions before choosing a nursing home:
- Does the nursing home help the resident with the daily routine activities?
- Does the nursing home provide regular health and dental checkups?
- Is there a doctor available on call?
- Are different levels of nursing home care, from assisted living to health care to short term rehabilitation programs, available?
- How does the nursing home determine the appropriate level of care for each nursing home resident?
- Are nurses always close at hand?
- What kind of clothing should a resident wear?
- What are scheduled activities?
- What do the residents do between scheduled activities?
- How do nursing home residents get around in the wheel chairs by themselves?
- Does the nursing home move residents to new rooms at will?
- Ask for the nursing home bill of rights
- Does the staff know the residents by name?
- What services and amenities does the nursing home provide?
- What are the nursing hom