When you placed your loved one in a nursing home, you were sure it was the right place for them. You were confident that they would be given the care they needed and treated with dignity and respect. Maybe you even observed this quality treatment for a while. Perhaps that is why it can feel so defeating and betraying to witness or learn that your loved one is being abused or neglected in their nursing home.
What Is Nursing Home Neglect?
While nursing home neglect and abuse are often grouped together or even interchanged, they are inherently different. Negligence in a nursing home setting is the failure, intentional or not, to give residents the care and services necessary to ensure their freedom from harm or pain. It can also be a failure to react to a potentially dangerous situation resulting in resident injury or anxiety. Neglect is more passive than active, but that doesn’t make it any better than abuse. There are different types of nursing home neglect, such as physical, emotional, medical, and the neglect of personal hygiene and basic needs.
On the other hand, nursing home abuse is active and intentional. It is the deliberate infliction of harm, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, deprivation of care or services, or punishment that directly results in physical injury, pain, or emotional anguish.
Examples of nursing home negligence include:
- Not responding to resident complaints or requests
- Not providing food or medication at required times
- Leaving a resident alone, especially ones who need special supervision
- Failing to screen visitors
- Failing to provide care such as bathing, changing clothes, and other duties
- Failure to keep premises free of hazards and reasonably safe
- Negligent hiring of nursing home employees
Signs of Nursing Home Negligence
Every time you visit your family member in the nursing home, you should look out for signs of abuse and neglect. You can’t do so accurately unless you know what to look for or what questions to ask. Here are the most common signs of neglect in a nursing home:
- Bedsores
- Infections
- Mobility issues
- Being ignored or left alone frequently by staff
- Unkind treatment
- Signs of dehydration or poor nutrition
- Lack of grooming or hygiene
- No clean laundry available
What Causes Nursing Home Negligence?
Multiple factors can contribute to the negligence that some nursing home residents experience. Lack of oversight and supervision and low staff morale are frequent contributors. However, perhaps the weightiest factor of all is staffing issues. Nursing homes notoriously have a hard time getting and keeping quality staff. When they do get quality staff, they fail to train them. Nursing homes are also frequently understaffed. If a nursing home is short-staffed, to begin with, it can be nearly impossible to provide the level of care that all residents need when they need it. Even the most reputable nurse or nurse’s aid can only do so much in one shift. All of these factors cause a high rate of staff turnover, which further perpetuates the problem of neglect.
To ensure the safety and well-being of your loved one, you might need to hire a nursing home attorney and pursue a case on their behalf. When you meet with an attorney, they can explain more about your loved one’s legal rights and options and help you determine the best way to move forward.
USClaims Can Bridge the Financial Gap
If you or your loved one suffered an injury related to nursing home negligence, you could be under some financial pressure to pay your bills. Your attorney is confident you have a case and that you will receive a settlement, but no one is sure when. This situation and others like it put too many people in a financial crisis each year. USClaims exists to help ease the financial burdens during an active claim for compensation.
We purchase a predetermined portion of your anticipated settlement funds. In return, we provide you with the money you need now to take care of your bills and other expenses. When and only if you receive a settlement in your case, we receive the amount we purchased plus the interest. If you don’t receive a settlement or jury award for compensation, we collect nothing and do not have to repay your funding.
Ready to find out if you qualify for our pre-settlement funding? It’s easy to apply online or call us at 1-877-USCLAIMS. We can provide you with the funds you need in as little as 24 hours after you’ve been approved.
