10 Things You Can Do To Stop Nursing Home Neglect Or Abuse Before Filing A Lawsuit

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Are you or your loved one currently in a nursing home and experiencing abuse or neglect? Maybe this abuse or neglect has either already caused injuries, or it may cause injuries if it continues.  In certain situations where the injury has already occurred, a lawsuit may be the best option to hold the nursing home accountable. However, a lawsuit is not always the best course, and there are other actions that can be taken to stop the abuse or neglect.

To have a case against a nursing home for negligent care certain legal requirements must be met. The legal requirements that must be proven are: (1) the nursing home must have provided care that was below acceptable standards or the nursing home violated regulations; (2) the substandard care or regulatory violations proximately caused damage; and (3) damages were caused.  To have a successful negligence case against a nursing home in the civil justice system each one of these elements must exist and be proven.  If there is substandard care or regulatory violations, but no damage, it will not meet the legal requirements and the case will be kicked out by a judge.

Many times, we are consulted by residents and family members after significant injuries have already been suffered. For instance, a broken hip caused by a fall, an undiagnosed UTI that progressed to sepsis and death, the development of stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers, etc.  These are all significant injuries that can support a civil lawsuit when it can be proven that the nursing home violated standards of care or regulations that proximately caused the injury.  However, we are occasionally consulted by nursing home residents or their family members where the resident is currently in a nursing home that is providing substandard care, but there has been no significant injury. The resident or family expresses frustration that the nursing home is not taking proper care of the resident and is not providing the care that it is paid to provide. For instance, we commonly hear concerns that:

  • the nursing home is not turning and repositioning frequently enough and there is concern that bed sores will develop.
  • the nursing home is not properly bathing/dressing/grooming the resident.
  • the nursing home is not feeding the resident.
  • the nursing home is not getting the resident out of bed.

In some of these cases, no significant injury has occurred yet, and therefore, may not support a civil lawsuit. This is obviously frustrating for the resident or family to hear, especially when they see that the nursing home is providing poor care and they want it corrected before injury occurs.  You don’t have to wait until an injury occurs to take action!

Just because a lawsuit may not be supported by the current situation, there are certain things the resident and/or their family can do to try and get better care and prevent significant injury from occurring:

  1. If feasible, have family and/or close friends visit your loved one often (daily or 2-3 days a week) to keep an eye on the care that is or is not being provided, and address the deficiencies with nursing home staff on an ongoing basis until corrected.
  2. Attend the Care Plan Meetings and address any concerns at the meeting.
  3. Be heard! Address your concerns with the Charge Nurse, Director of Nursing, and even the Administrator of the nursing home – address your concerns with each level of the medical team.
  4. If you have concerns about the medical condition or medical care, ask to speak with the nursing home physician or the physician who is attending to your loved one. If you do not happen to be at the nursing home at the same time the physician rounds on your loved one, you should ask the nursing home for the physician’s contact information and contact him/her with your concerns.
  5. Make written complaints to the nursing home so that your concerns have been documented. File a formal grievance with the nursing home.  Pursuant to 42 CFR § 483.10(j), upon request by the resident, the nursing home must provide the grievance policy to the resident, which provide information on how to file a formal grievance with the nursing home, as well as with independent grievance entities (see #6 below).
  6. Contact your ombudsman and address your concerns with them. The ombudsman conducts investigations of nursing home complaints and advocates for the resident. The nursing home is required to provide contact information and instruction on how to file a complaint with the ombudsman or other independent grievance entities. This information should also be displayed prominently in the facility. The following website is helpful for contacting your local ombudsman. http://www.georgiaombudsman.org/. For additional information on the ombudsman program: https://aging.georgia.gov/long-term-care-ombudsman-program,  and http://theconsumervoice.org/get_help/state_resources/ga.
  7. Lodge a complaint with the Georgia Department of Community Health – Division of Healthcare Facility Regulation, and your complaint will be investigated – https://dch.georgia.gov/hfr-file-complaint.
  8. Document your concerns – make and maintain personal notes about your concerns and the problems with the care, your communications with nursing home staff about the issues, what if anything the nursing home does in response to your concerns, and take photographs of the problems if appropriate.
  9. In certain cases where criminal actions may be involved, contact the local police department.
  10. Try to locate another facility to move your loved one to. If you have lost trust in the nursing home and your concerns are not addressed, consider moving your loved one to another nursing home.

The most important thing is to get the best care possible for yourself or your loved one. It is always a good idea to be involved as much as possible in your loved one’s care, and do what you can do to get the care they need and deserve. If you see problems with the care that the nursing home is providing to you or your loved one, speak up and have your concerns heard and addressed. Unfortunately, injuries will still occur due to abuse and neglect in the nursing home even when family members and the resident do everything in their power to try and get better care. Moreover, even though there are steps the resident or family can take to address substandard nursing home care, the nursing home has an obligation to provide appropriate care to its residents even when family is not involved or is not taking these steps.  If you would like to speak with experienced nursing home attorneys who pursue cases against nursing homes in the Atlanta metro area and throughout Georgia, call Gretchen Wagner or Kate Hughes at the law firm of Wagner Hughes, LLC. This consultation is free and you will speak directly with a senior attorney.

Things to Consider When Selecting a Nursing Home

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There are many different factors to consider when choosing a long-term care facility for you or your loved one:

  • Level of care needed
  • Length of care required
  • Location
  • Cost
  • Quality of care

Many times people are faced with selecting a nursing home or other long term care facility for themselves or their loved one after a life changing even occurs or their condition is already beyond the level where they can be cared for in a private home setting.  It would be a good idea to begin thinking of long term care before it becomes necessary to transfer to long term care, which gives you a better ability to find a long-term care facility that is best for you or your family.

  • The first decision that needs to be made is the level of care required. Which services will you or your loved one need help with? Grooming, cooking and cleaning or assistance with medications? Possibly skilled nursing and medical treatment or memory care. Some residents need round the clock care and supervision. Some residents may qualify for hospice care. We will cover all the levels of care in more detail in a separate article, but keep in mind that there are several different levels of care available in a long-term care setting:
  • Senior Retirement Community (independent living)
  • Assisted Living Facility
  • Short-Term or Long-Term Rehabilitation
  • Long Term Acute Care
  • Skilled Nursing Facility

Entering into one of these facilities can be short term, such as following a hospital stay or injury or long term, which is usually a permanent placement, depending on the situation.

One obvious factor that you need to take in consideration when selecting a long-term care facility is location.  Think about nearby friends and family and how often they would visit.  If the facility is too far away, it makes it difficult for friends and family to visit very often.  Is the facility near an airport if the family lives out of state? Who will be the local contact person in the event of an emergency.  Also, how close are the resident’s doctors and medical providers? Is there a hospital near the facility? If the person entering into the facility is still mobile and able to go out into the community, what is the proximity of grocery stores, shops, restaurants and other activities that the facility may take the residents to.

Another important factor in selecting a nursing home or long-term care facility is how it will be financed. How will the expenses of the long-term facility be covered? Again, this will be a topic we will cover in detail in another article, but generally these are the payment options to keep in mind when selecting a nursing home:

  • Private pay
  • Medicare (only covers a certain amount of days under limited circumstances)
  • Medicaid (under certain financial requirements)
  • Long term care insurance

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a long-term care facility or nursing home is the quality of care at that facility.  There are several different ways you can assess the quality of care for a long-term care facility:

  1. CMS Nursing Home Compare: Go to the website https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html and look up nursing homes in the area or the specific nursing home you are considering. There is a wealth of information available on this site, including the CMS five-star rating system, staffing levels, deficiencies and surveys (on-site annual and complaint inspections) and ownership and corporate information.
  2. Check with your local long-term care ombudsman
  3. Visit the nursing home:
  • Ask questions about the programs and services available
  • Note whether the facility appears clean and “happy”
  • Do the residents appear clean and happy
  • Do you observe any activities for the residents
  • Inspect the residents’ rooms and common areas
  • Observe how the staff treat the residents-not just the visitors
  • Have a meal at the cafeteria if available
  • Listen to what is happening around the facility-for cries for help, bed or chair alarms going off or call bells that may be going unanswered
  • Do the staff appear unconcerned with what is going on around them? Frazzled?
  • Meet with the Administrator-is the nursing home administration willing to meet with you to listen to your concerns?

In the end, do your research, but listen to your gut feeling. If you don’t have a good feeling about the facility, it may be best to try a different facility. You want to be comfortable leaving your loved one in a competent and caring facility. If you would like to learn how to find out more about a potential nursing home, feel free to call the nursing home abuse attorneys at Wagner Hughes, LLC at (404) 900-6979.