Nursing Home Abuse
Representing victims and families of nursing home abuse or neglect in middle Georgia and across the state including Macon, Warner Robins, Perry, Eastman, Dublin, Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Albany, and Valdosta.
Abuse of the elderly occurs too often and is on the rise. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted studies from 2005 to 2007 on nursing homes and found that over 91% of nursing homes surveyed were cited for deficiencies. The elderly are our mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, even our sisters, and brothers. These senior citizens are our family. Yet, because they are more vulnerable, they have become targets of neglect or even abuse.
Issues within a Nursing Home
The most common categories of these deficiencies in care include quality of care, quality of life, and resident assessment. In being watchful for the occurrence of these problems, it is good to understand the differences between these: 1.) Quality of care is commonly used to refer to situations where the nursing home has been neglectful or abusive of residents. Your loved one, as a resident of a nursing home, is entitled to receive care that prevents and treats pressure sores, and refrains from administering unwarranted medications, e.g. sedatives.
2.) Quality of life occurs when the facility fails to provide a home like environment that is safe and clean.
3.) Resident behavior and facility practices customarily refers to where nursing homes fail to provide its residents with an environment that is free from physical, emotional, and chemical abuse or punishment.
These areas cause issues in malnutrition, bed sores, falls, dehydration, physical abuse, or even sexual assault. Furthermore, medical conditions can go unnoticed for days or even weeks. Although nursing home neglect or abuse takes many forms, the result is always the same; our relatives suffer emotionally, mentally, physically, or financially at the hands of predators that see them as easy targets, or staff that don't care or know how to care, for their patients. There has been an increased incident rate where nursing homes have been cited for actual harm or immediate jeopardy deficiencies since these studies were done. In fact, a congressional report in 2009 found that nearly one third of all nursing homes had been cited for actual nursing home abuse.
With Americans living longer lives, this specialized area of personal injury law is one that unfortunately faces many families. All too often, family members have had to make the difficult decision of placing a loved one in an assisted living facility or nursing home trusting their staff with their proper care and protection only to later suspect or discover this trust has been violated.
Federal Regulations
Under federal regulations, a nursing home must “have sufficient nursing staff to provide nursing and related services to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident, as determined by resident assessments and individual plans of care.” 42 C.F.R. § 483.30. Nursing homes in Georgia also have specific state staffing requirements. For instance patients must be under the supervision of a licensed nursing home administrator, (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 290-5-8-.03), as well as other staffing and care requirements. (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 290-5-8-.04). You should also know that insurance should not affect healthcare, yet it frequently does. Nursing homes must provide a high standard of care.
At Rumph Childers, we are a complex litigation boutique. We take abuse of the elderly very seriously. As a result, not only will a skilled attorney develop your case, but also we have a nurse on staff to assist with the unique medical issues facing victims or families of nursing home abuse or neglect. We treat every elderly victim of nursing home neglect like we would treat our own family members. We feel that it is our moral duty to correct problems encountered by seniors and to make sure that nursing homes are held accountable for their actions.
If you feel that a member of your family has been abused, we would like to help. We will provide you with a free consultation to explain your rights. If we are able to represent you or your family member, we will stop at nothing to bring these predators to justice.