Personal Injury Attorney News

Statistics generated by government oversight reveal that nursing home abuse is a serious and persistent problem in the Sunshine State. Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) oversees compliance with federal and state laws about nursing care facilities in Florida that accept Medicare and Medicaid (which comprise all but about two percent of homes). The agency rates each facility after an unannounced yearly inspection that lasts up to five days. Each nursing home is given an overall rating from one to five stars; inspectors look at quality of care, quality of life, and administration.

The most recent inspections of the 13 nursing homes in Clearwater reveal nine facilities that are rated three stars or less. Out of the 70 nursing homes in Pinellas County, 29 have major deficiencies with one or two stars. Clearwater is home to seven of those facilities. These startling statistics reveal that even with regular inspections, laws that protect elders, and laws that govern nursing homes, elders who reside in Florida’s nursing homes face an ever-present risk of abuse.

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Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Caused Infections

The elderly residents of nursing homes are often faced with living under the constant shadow of certain dangerous health issues that can strike at any moment. The older the human body gets, the easier it gets for parts of it to break, deteriorate, or suffer an injury in one form or another. As professional caregivers to this at-risk group, nursing homes another similar nursing home facilities have a duty to ensure that everything within their power is done to minimize the chances of these injuries happening to the elderly under their care.

Despite this, there are still cases that arise of nursing home residents who suffer severe injury because of neglect and abuse on the nursing home’s part. Of these injuries, among the more common to plague the elderly residents of nursing homes is infection. In general, infection as a result of a caregivers neglect is common from nursing homes to hospitals but with nursing homes, the group affected is especially vulnerable due to declining ability to fight said infections that comes with advanced age.

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What is a Bedsore or Pressure Ulcer?

A pressure ulcer is a sort of skin injury that is caused by prolonged pressure being placed on a specific site of the skin. This kind of injury is most commonly found on areas of the skin that cover bony areas of the body like the shoulder blades, ankles, heels, hips, and the tailbone. Bedsore injuries are not only skin deep. A bedsore injury can extend to the deeper tissue and lead to some further issues.

Those at risk for bedsores are people with conditions that limit their mobility and see them stuck in the same position in bed or a chair for long periods of time. Naturally, there are quite a few elderly people with medical conditions that place them within this high-risk group. Many sores heal on their own with enough time and steps taken to remove the pressure that caused them but sometimes bedsore can require medical intervention if it has had enough time unaddressed.

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Nursing home abuse can come in a variety of forms and manifest itself differently in each situation. Types of nursing home abuse can include, physical, emotional or financial abuse. It is vital that family members stay vigilant when it comes to nursing home abuse, as the elderly residents are vulnerable to such treatment and may be unwilling or unable to advocate for themselves.

If you suspect that your loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse, there are steps you should follow which are detailed below.

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When you think of nursing home residents, you likely think of elderly individuals who can no longer live on their own and give up their residence to live in a specialized nursing facility. However, nursing homes can be used for a variety of patients – not just geriatric residents. For example, when some people are discharged from a hospital, they still may require medical care, supervision, and assistance but may not need the costly care provided in a hospital. For this reason, many patients are discharged and are referred to a nursing home or assisted living facility.

https://www.dolmanlaw.com/legal-services/assisted-living-abuse-attorney/

When you select a nursing home for an elderly loved one, you often do so based on promises of safety, standards of care, and other assurances of the high quality of staff and attention provided at the facility. It may be shocking to later learn that your loved one was the victim of serious neglect or even abuse while living at the nursing home.

Assisted Living Facilities are under fire for the treatment of patients with neurological disorders. According to the Consumerist, One of the few regulations put on assisted living facilities by some states is that they cannot care for people who are so ill that they require medical help. However, alarmingly enough, a recent study by Johns Hopkins University found that more than 2/3 of residents in assisted living facilities are suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia. One of the specialists involved in the study, Dr. Constantine Lyketsos stated, “The implications therefore are that anyone who operates assisted living needs to know that dementia is the major player, the major condition that leads to people being there.” This means that a massive amount of elderly Americans with less obvious injuries that are living with critical conditions end up in assisted living—when in reality, they need to be cared for the most.

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What sorts of abuse have occurred at Brookdale?

Neglect at assisted living facilities can take many forms. Most assisted living facilities run into problems when they understaff or neglect the wellbeing of those they care for. Brookdale Assisted Living is a perfect example. Brookdale is a senior living facility which has numerous offices throughout the nation, 65 in Florida alone. What most do not know is that Brookdale has been the subject of numerous lawsuits due to the level of care they provide to patients. In 2013, Brookdale was sued for wrongful death and elder abusewhen one of their residents, Eleanor Buckingham, became ill, but was left unattended at a facility in California. Staff at the assisted living facility noticed an ulcer on Ms. Buckingham’s back, but failed to get medical attention until it was too late. Her condition was so neglected that the ulcer became infected and she eventually passed away as a result of her injuries. Brookdale accepting responsibility for the incident, and settled with Ms. Buckingham’s family for $1 Million.

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Elder abuse is by far one of the most heart wrenching topics we hear on the news in Florida. The unfortunate part about it is the fact that the horrific practice is common and gets reported only in a small percentage of suspected cases. While many nursing home and assisted living facilities are well run by professional and caring individuals, there exists large amount with numerous violations, including physical and sexual abuse, neglect, medication errors, unsanitary conditions and more.

In many cases the abuse goes unnoticed by the family of the patient because they do not know the signs to look for. Of course no one at the nursing home, where the abuse occurs, is going to train the family members in recognizing those signs. With proper basic training into elder abuse, families and friends of victims can take corrective measures for the sake of their loved ones well-being.

Deceptive Nursing Home Bait and Switch Lawsuits

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there are roughly 1.4 million people living in nursing homes as of 2014. Not only has this statistic grown in the years since but the rate of increase itself is growing as well. With every year that passes, more people live in nursing homes and the number of new residents grows as well. Nursing homes rush to provide their services to all the elders in need of long term care. They are for-profit businesses after all.

A majority of nursing homes take the services they offer very seriously and strive to provide the best level of care to their elderly residents. They understand that the elderly in need of long term care are particularly vulnerable and ensure that they are given fair and reasonable fees for clearly outlined services.

On the other hand, there are a few nursing homes that see the vulnerability of the elderly as an opportunity for deception and exploitation. These nursing homes may mislead prospective nursing home residents to their care with the promise of certain fees and services offered but upon moving into a facility will have those fees and services fail to be honored. This can often cause harm to an elderly person that was counting on a certain level of care but instead finds out that they were misled by a nursing home eager to pocket their money.

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It’s difficult enough being a caretaker, and it’s even more difficult to entrust the care of your loved one to another when you realize you can’t do it yourself. You can go through every review, interview the nursing home director, and take every precaution to ensure your loved one is going to receive excellent care, but this does not extinguish the guilt you may feel if you find out that she was abused in a nursing home. Nursing home residents who can’t afford quality care face physical, emotional, and psychological abuses—as well as sexual assault. So what can you do to protect your loved one from suffering sexual abuse while in nursing care, what are its signs, and how can you seek compensation on her behalf?

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https://www.dolmanlaw.com/legal-services/nursing-home-abuse-attorneys/

Deceptive Nursing Home Bait and Switch Lawsuits

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there are roughly 1.4 million people living in nursing homes as of 2014. Not only has this statistic grown in the years since but the rate of increase itself is growing as well. With every year that passes, more people live in nursing homes and the number of new residents grows as well. Nursing homes rush to provide their services to all the elders in need of long term care. They are for-profit businesses after all.

A majority of nursing homes take the services they offer very seriously and strive to provide the best level of care to their elderly residents. They understand that the elderly in need of long term care are particularly vulnerable and ensure that they are given fair and reasonable fees for clearly outlined services.

On the other hand, there are a few nursing homes that see the vulnerability of the elderly as an opportunity for deception and exploitation. These nursing homes may mislead prospective nursing home residents to their care with the promise of certain fees and services offered but upon moving into a facility will have those fees and services fail to be honored. This can often cause harm to an elderly person that was counting on a certain level of care but instead finds out that they were misled by a nursing home eager to pocket their money.

(click on this article to learn more)

https://www.dolmanlaw.com/legal-services/nursing-home-abuse-attorneys/

When someone thinks of care for the elderly, the facility that first comes to mind is the traditional nursing home. Despite their missive to assist their elderly resident’s as they traverse one of the more vulnerable segments of their lives, nursing homes can at times be the site of extremely damaging abuse.

Any Elder Care Facility can be a Setting for Abuse

This nursing home abuse can come in many forms and can be done by a variety of different individuals within a nursing home but the end result is always substantial harm to a nursing home resident. Nursing homes are not the only kind of elder care facility that people turn to. Many other kinds of facilities are utilized to care for the elderly and can also be settings in which residents and patients suffer abuse. The types of elder care facilities that are available can be divided into four categories.

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https://www.dolmanlaw.com/legal-services/nursing-home-abuse-attorneys/

Does $250,000 sound like enough compensation for the loss of your spouse, mother, or child? Does it sound like enough compensation if your grandmother was abused in a nursing home? We didn’t think so. 

Everyone gets old. It’s a fact of life. At some point, we all need someone we can count on who will take care of us when we are unable to care for ourselves. This is where assisted living facilities come into play. Assisted living is meant to help those who are aging. Unfortunately, a majority of Americans in assisted living facilities are not getting the care they need or deserve. Neglect has run rampant throughout the nation and the elderly are suffering as a result. Instead of focusing on providing assistance to the elderly, assisted living facilities have turned into a multi-million dollar business, with profit as the main concern. Brookdale Assisted Living is one such facility.

The life and well-being of a patient should not be used as a selling point in the medical world.

Every day, a handful of new elderly patients are admitted to an assisted living facility—commonly by a family member or friend—in an effort to increase their enjoyment of life at their frail, old age. Many of these senior patients suffer from debilitating illnesses, injuries, and ailments; they need someone they can count on; they’ve still got that spark of life inside of them, they just need help letting it show.

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In Florida, the number of confirmed cases of elder abuse and neglect has climbed 74 percent since 2011, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families. As such, in 2015, the statewide total was 2,525 [1]. Unfortunately, even in 2016, many of the big nursing home chains function by placing corporate profits at a higher priority and above the residents’ safety, health, protection and well-being. In our current society, one would hope and assume that nursing homes have the ability to properly care for and protect our elders and prevent instances of neglect that result from understaffing. Yet, it is this exact issue—understaffing–that is causing tremendous harm to our most vulnerable population.