Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer | Free Consultations with Nursing Home Neglect Attorney

Today, for-profit nursing homes are one of the most profitable industries in America. Unfortunately, many prioritize profits over residents’ quality of care and will try to cut corners wherever they can. This leads to severe understaffing and overworked employees who can’t provide the care and attention your loved one deserves. When corporations place their own profits ahead of patient safety, neglect-related injuries are bound to occur.

Although victims deserve recompense for what they’ve endured, getting the compensation your family deserves might be difficult. The facility’s management company has a team of attorneys on standby and will usually take any measures necessary to avoid accepting responsibility for allegations of abuse and neglect. It’s important to understand that nursing home administrators’ objectives directly conflict with yours, no matter how caring and helpful they appear. It’s in their best interests to pay as little as possible for the damages your loved one has suffered while also avoiding negative publicity. Frequently, they’ll go so far as to blame patients’ injuries on the aging process before assuming responsibility for an injury or death. If you take on the nursing home by yourself, it might be years before seeing any results.

When your family suffers from this gross injustice, our North Carolina nursing home abuse lawyers are here to protect the rights of your loved one and obtain the full compensation and justice they deserve.

The federal and state government dictates that nursing home residents have certain rights facilities must adhere to by law. These regulations are designed to protect residents from being abused or neglected.

By law, nursing home facilities must adhere to North Carolina’s Bill of Rights for Nursing Home Residents:

1. The Right to Be Informed
   Upon admittance to the home, residents have the right to be informed about nursing home policies and about their personal rights. Residents’ rights and policies must also be posted in a visible area for all residents to see.
2. The Right to Receive Adequate Care
   Residents have the right to receive treatment, care, and services that are adequate, appropriate, and in compliance with state and federal laws and regulations.
3. The Right to Choose a Physician
   Residents have the right to choose their own physicians and pharmacies. They do not have to use the nursing home’s physicians or pharmacies.
4. The Right to Be Informed About Medical Conditions
   Residents have the right to be fully informed of their medical conditions, unless their physician believes it is not in the patient’s best interest.
5. The Right to Participate in the Plan of Care
   Residents must be given the opportunity to participate in the planning of their own medical treatment, including the right to refuse treatment.
6. The Right to Be Free from Abuse and Restraints
   Residents have the right to be free from mental and physical abuse, physical restraints, and sedation. Only a physician can authorize a restraint, and this can happen only when there is a threat of injury.
7. The Right to Privacy, Dignity, and Respect
   Residents have the right to be treated with consideration, respect, and full recognition of their dignity and individuality, including privacy in treatment and in care of their personal needs. They also have the right to privacy in their rooms, where possible.
8. The Right to Manage Personal Finances
   Residents have the right to either manage their own funds or authorize someone else to manage them. If residents authorize the nursing home to handle their funds, they have additional rights:
   • To know the whereabouts of their funds and account numbers
   • To receive written accounting statements every three months
   • To receive receipts for any funds spent
   • To have access to their funds within seven banking days
9. The Right to See Visitors
   Residents have the following rights regarding visitation:
   • Residents may receive any visitor of their choosing, may refuse visitors permission to enter their rooms, and may end a visit at any time.
   • Residents have the right to immediate access by family and reasonable access bt others.
   • The visiting hours must be posted in a public place and residents must be permitted eight visiting hours per day.
   • Members of community organizations and legal services may enter any nursing home during visiting hours.
   • Communication between residents and visitors is confidential.
   • Visitors may help residents claim their rights and benefits through individual assistance, counseling, organizational activity, legal action, or other forms of representation.
10. The Right to Confidentiality
    Residents have the right to confidentiality of personal medical records and the right to access those records within 24 hours after a request.
11. The Right to Be Made Aware of Services and Charges
    Residents have the right to be made aware of the nursing home’s services and of the charges related to those services. This includes charges for services not covered by the facility’s fee, Medicare, or Medicaid.
12. The Right to Voice Grievance Without Retaliation
    Residents have the right to voice grievances and recommend changes in policies and services to facility staff and/or outside representatives of their choice without fear of coercion, discrimination, or reprisal.
13. The Right to Organize and Participate in Groups
    Residents have the right to organize and participate in resident groups within the nursing home. Residents’ families also have the right to gather in the facility with families of other residents.
14. The Right to Participate in Social, Religious, and Community Activities
    Residents have the right to participate in social, religious, and community activities that do not interfere with the rights of other residents in the nursing home.
15. The Right to Examine Reviews
    Residents have the right to examine the results of the most recent review of the nursing home. The federal government requires nursing homes to be reviewed once every 15 months. If the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services gives administers a revocation of license or a provisional license due to a violation of licensure regulations, all residents must be notified within 10 days.
16. The Right to Remain in the Nursing Home
    Residents may only be discharged or transferred for medical reasons, for their welfare, or for the welfare of other residents. They must be provided with a written, 30-day notification of the transfer or discharge.
17. The Right to Personal Items
    Residents have the right to retain, secure storage for, and to use personal possessions and clothing, where reasonable.
18. The Right to Refrain from Work
    Residents are not required to perform services for the facility without personal consent and written approval of the attending physician.
19. The Right to Receive Response from Requests
    Residents have the right to receive a reasonable and timely response to all requests they submit to facility administrators.

Family members of nursing home residents have certain rights they should be aware of, including the right to:

• Attend and participate in needs assessments and care planning meetings.
• Be informed of resident’s rights.
• Immediate access to visit the resident at any time, if the resident so desires.
• Be notified within 24 hours of an accident resulting in injury, a significant change in the resident’s condition, an alteration in treatment, or a decision to transfer the resident.
• Be promptly notified of room or roommate changes.
• Participate in a family council and make recommendations and present grievances without retaliation.

Upon the admission of each resident, the nursing home should be provided a list of next of kin and any legal representatives of the resident who are chosen to have access to the above rights.

More often than not, abuse and neglect in nursing homes is a result of purposeful decisions made by the companies that own the nursing homes.  These decisions, which are oftentimes made in order to increase the profitability of the companies that own and manage the nursing homes, result in the nursing homes being understaffed and poorly managed.  There is a lack of oversight by the companies that own and manage the individual nursing homes, which creates the perfect environment for neglect and abuse to occur.

Staffing is the largest single expense in a nursing home. As such, that is the line item expense that gets cut the most by corporate when trying to increase their profitability. This leads to understaffing. Understaffing-not enough nurses and aides to provide proper care for the residents. An adequate number of skilled staff is the single most important factor in ensuring good care at a nursing home. Even with the most caring of staff members, they cannot provide adequate care if they do not have the staffing resources needed to do so.

• Overworked staff – Staff are often called upon to work double shifts or excessive overtime.  This leads employee burnout.  When employees are overworked and burned out, neglect and abuse are to be expected.
• Burned out staff – Understaffing and overworking staff leads to employee burnout.  When staff are overworked and burned out, it is not surprising that they cannot provide good care to the residents.
• Underpaid staff – Nursing homes notoriously pay their staff poorly, compared to comparable wages paid to healthcare providers at hospitals and other types of facilities.  This results in unqualified staff and frequent turning at all levels of staffing, from the nursing aides to the Director of Nursing and Administrator.

Understaffing significantly affects the quality of care residents receive in nursing homes and can lead to issues such as:

Frequent Falls – Lack of staff results in the failure to properly monitor, supervise, and assist those in need, in order to protect them from falls.  This results in frequent falls, which can lead to injury or death.  Falls are the 6^th leading cause of death in the elderly in the U.S.

• Falls may result in broken bones, including broken hips, legs and arms, as well as head injuries, including subdural hematomas (bleeding on the brain).
• Fall prevention interventions may include frequent monitoring and supervision of the residents, staff assistance with walking and transferring, keeping bed lower to the floor so that a resident has a shorter distance to fall, if they do fall, fall mats beside the bed to cushion a fall, personal alarms, bed alarms, chair alarms to alert staff that a resident is attempting to get up unassisted, and others.

Elopement/Wandering Away From Facility – Lack of staff results in the failure to properly monitor and supervise residents who may attempt to leave the facility unassisted, which can lead to residents getting outside and away from the facility unnoticed.

• Wander prevention interventions include a wander guard; supervision and monitoring; alarms on doors.

Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) or Other Infections – Lack of staff results in the failure to properly and timely clean residents after incontinent episodes, the failure to ensure catheters are cleaned properly and timely, and a lack of appropriate nursing supervision to recognize signs that a resident may be suffering from an infection, leading to a delay in assessment and treatment and therefore worsening conditions.

Signs/symptoms of UTI or other infection:

• More lethargic; Sleeping more than normal
• Change in mental status
• Behavioral changes, such as:
  • Confusion or delirium
  • Agitation
  • Hallucinations
  • Other unusual behavioral changes
• Falling
• Blood in urine
• Strong or foul-smelling urine
• Fever

Pressure sores – Lack of staff results in a failure to turn and reposition residents on a regular basis (i.e. every 2 hours) as needed to alleviate pressure from pressure points, as well as a failure to properly treat pressure sores once they begin, resulting in worsening of pressure sores.

Dehydration/Malnutrition – Many residents need to be fed and given water by the caregivers.  If a facility is understaffed, the caregivers do not have the time to feed residents, resulting in malnutrition and dehydration.

Signs/symptoms of Malnutrition:

• Unplanned weight loss
• More tired or weak than usual
• Loss of appetite
• Swelling or fluid accumulation

Signs/symptoms of Dehydration:

• Poor skin turgor/loose skin that doesn’t return to normal after pinching
• Dry mouth
• Headache
• Nausea
• Urinating less than usual
• Lethargy

Choking – Lack of staff results in failure to supervise residents at risk of choking while eating; to ensure that residents’ food is properly prepared, i.e. ensure that resident who needs a mechanically soft diet receive that, instead of regular food.

Medication Errors – Understaffed and overworked employees do not have or take the time to ensure residents receive the correct dosages of the correct medications at the correct times.

Chemical restraints – Overworked staff may drug residents to sedate them, in order to make them easier to care for.  The use of chemical restraints for the staff’s convenience is prohibited.

Physical Assault

• Resident-on-resident abuse – Failure to supervise residents with known history of aggression/psychosis, allowing them unsupervised access to other residents.
• Staff-on-resident abuse

Sexual assault/rape/molestation

• Resident-on-resident abuse – Lack of staff results in the failure to properly supervise residents who have aggressive or dangerous behaviors, allowing them unsupervised access to other residents which can result in physical abuse and assault.
• Staff-on-resident abuse – Underpaying staff results in poorly qualified and poorly trained staff who do not have the proper temperament for caring for the elderly.  Understaffing and overworking staff results in employee burnout, which leads to verbal and physical abuse of residents.
• Sadly sexual assault and abuse occurs in nursing homes.  The abuser may be another resident, or a staff person.  The failure to provide sufficient numbers of properly trained staff results in the failure to properly supervise and monitor residents, as well as staff, to ensure that sexual abuse does not occur.

A long-term care ombudsman is an advocate for residents in elder care facilities, board and care homes and assisted living facilities. An ombudsman is trained to help resolve problems and assist patients or families when filing complaints. All matters are kept confidential unless specified otherwise. In North Carolina, there are currently 17 offices with long-term ombudsman support throughout the state.

A long-term care ombudsman has multiple benefits, including:

• Resolve complaints made for or by residents of long-term care facilities.
• Educate consumers and long-term care providers about residents rights and good care practices.
• Promote community involvement.
• Provide public information on nursing homes and other long-term care facilities services, residents rights and legislative and policy issues.

If you are concerned about the treatment your loved one is receiving in a nursing home or long-term care facility, contact a North Carolina nursing home abuse lawyer today at (919) 781-1107 or complete a free initial consultation form.

The legal team at Henson Fuerst has a long history of advocating for the rights of people suffering from mistreatment in nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Let us help you and your family member.

When you have Henson Fuerst on your side, you’ll be treated with respect and compassion. A member of our experienced legal team will listen to your concerns and document the details of your case. Our North Carolina nursing home abuse lawyers will research the issues of abuse or neglect and fight to get your loved one the treatment and respect he or she deserves.