The decision to place a loved one into a nursing home or long-term care facility can be an incredibly difficult one. The fear that loved ones will not get the care they need, or the fear that they will fall victim to nursing home abuse or neglect will be undoubtedly be present. Therefore, it is very important that you feel comfortable with the facility that you choose. Doing your research before you place your loved one into a facility is a vital part of the decision process. We write about all of the horror stories that occur in nursing homes, but there are good facilities out there, you just have to find them.
Steps to Choosing the Right Nursing Home for Your Loved One
Make a List: The first thing that you need to do when choosing a nursing home is to make a list of local facilities. It is important that you look in an area that is close to family and friends. Your loved one may feel isolated and the presence of family and friends in the area can serve to keep their spirits up. There are several agencies and websites that can give you a list of nursing homes in the area to start from. Eldercare Locator is a good site that will connect you to agencies in your area.
Research: Once you have a list of homes in your desired area, you should then start doing some research on each home to eliminate the ones that have bad track records. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rank all of the nursing homes in the nation on a scale of one to five stars. By visiting the Medicare website, you can see which facilities have good and bad rankings based on health inspections, staffing, incidents and other factors. The Ombudsman office, a government office that investigates nursing home complaints, is a good resource to find out more about the homes you are considering. Doing a general Google search on these facilities can also be helpful to see if any of them have been in the news for nursing home abuse or neglect.
Call the Facilities: Once you have eliminated some facilities based on your research, you should call the homes left on your list. You should be asking questions to find out if they have availability at this time, what they charge, what their specialties are, and if they accept Medicaid. You should also explain any special needs your loved one has, to make sure the facility has the capabilities to handle any special cases.
Visit the Facilities: You should schedule a visit with your top choices to take a tour of the facility. While you are there, make sure to be very observant; notice the cleanliness, the smell, the equipment, the food, and the staff. Look to see if the residents seem happy. Is the staff attentive to the patients or do they seem overworked? If possible, talk to the residents and their families to ask if they are happy with the facility. You should also talk to the administrator or other staff member of authority to ask questions about staff screening, background checks, training procedures and staff turnover rates.
It may seem like a lot to remember, but make yourself a checklist of things that you want to learn about each nursing home before you go on your visit. Nursing home abuse and neglect are preventable. Doing your research and avoiding facilities that show red flags will increase your loved one’s safety.
Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If your loved one is currently a resident of a nursing home or care facility and you are worried that the care they are receiving is negligent, abusive, or inadequate, contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation. You may also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
The facility now wants to transfer her to another nursing home. MetroHealth spokeswoman Susan Christopher said it was “in order to ensure her safety and welfare.” But Steve Piskor is afraid that the move is because he refused to remove the hidden camera from his mother’s room and that moving his mother would not be good for her. “My mother is the victim,” Steve Piskor said. “She’s not the problem. Metro wants to make it out like she’s the problem.” MetroHealth is saying that the camera is a violation of their policies and that caring for Piskor is becoming “too much of a financial burden.”
Justice Paul Pfeifer wrote in his opinion, “Dr. Skoskiewicz and many other volunteer clinical faculty in Ohio provide an important service. But that service, however commendable, does not transform the volunteers behind it into an arm of the state.” Lawyers believe that this ruling ensures that the medical school is not legally liable for the doctor’s medical negligence. There was no contract of employment between the doctor and the school and medical malpractice attorneys say that this program simply allowed students to rotate through one-month clerk-ships. It is very important that young men and women entering the medical field get an opportunity to train with and study under doctors who have been in the operating room for a number of years. However, the doctor was still in control of the procedure and he was still the one who in the end was responsible for the medical malpractice injury to Mr. Engel. Doctors who commit malpractice should not be able to hide behind a medical school merely because students are sitting in on an operation.
Stage IV bed sores are horrifying wounds that cause incredible damage to the health of a person. If you or your loved one has a Stage IV bed sore that is currently not being treated, it needs to be treated immediately for the health and safety of the patient. Unfortunately, Stage IV bed sores start off as Stage I bed sores, as discussed in previous blog posts, which are entirely preventable by attentive medical professionals.
Following a car accident, Wyoming Newman went to visit Dr. Chavis, a neurosurgeon. The woman had an initial MRI and attorneys say that she was then sent to Dr. Erwin Lo, who performed spinal surgery on Newman in early 2009. According to the plaintiff’s complaint, the doctor failed to interpret the MRI results properly and instead of following Chavis’ recommendations, he performed a corpectomy. That procedure involves the removal of a portion of the vertebral body. When Newman woke up, she had no feeling in her legs and her arms felt extremely weak. A woman who sought medical attention for a car accident years earlier was left a quadriplegic about two years later. Newman is a tragic victim whose life will be forever changed due to medical negligence. Professionals say that these sorts of devastating cases occur far too often in operating rooms around the country. Although liability will be decided in a courtroom by a jury of these parties’ peers, Newman will not be able to walk out of that courtroom.
There are different reasons that children with certain birth defects may begin to develop speech problems. Professionals say that some of these problems are a direct result of the anatomical differences that are seen in people with cleft lip or cleft palate. On the other hand, attorneys say that it is also possible for children with birth defects to develop speech problems in different ways.
An example of abuse that was not sanctioned by the state occurred in one of Hawaii’s premiere facilities, Kahala Nui. The home failed to protect their residents from a sexually abusive nurse’s aide and failed to properly investigate the allegations of abuse. they also failed to examine or interview any of the nine women who said the employee mistreated them between April 2008 and June 2009.
Stage III bed sores are incredibly serious and need immediate attention, as healing bed sores that progress past Stage II is extremely difficult. A stage III bed sore will display skin loss involving damage or death to the subcutaneous tissue that may extend to the connective tissue. The wound will look like a deep crater which is black around its edges. Subcutaneous fat may be visible, but bone, tendon, or muscle is not. There may be tunneling and undermining in the skin.