Miami Nursing Home Negligence Attorneys

Helping Victims of Nursing Home Neglect Throughout the State of Florida

When you entrust the care of a loved one to a nursing home, you expect them to receive good, compassionate and attentive care. However, at many nursing homes, residents receive woefully substandard care and treatment that is sometimes permanently harmful. There are a multitude of reasons for this, including understaffing and inadequate training of employees. In fact, approximately 90 percent of U.S. nursing homes are understaffed and an estimated 2.1 million seniors are victims of nursing home abuse or negligence each year.

If you think your family member has suffered from nursing home neglect, it is important to take timely action to protect them. The experienced Florida nursing home negligence attorneys of Boyers Law Group can help you understand your rights so you can take effective legal action to hold the responsible parties accountable for their negligence.

Recognizing Nursing Home Negligence

Whether due to negligent hiring of ill-suited employees, understaffing, lack of training, or other stressors, there are far too many instances of nursing homes neglecting or abusing their vulnerable patients. This neglect can range from forgetting to provide necessary care and treatment to careless, abusive lifting, hitting, and moving of patients.

In actuality, all types of neglect can lead to injury and suffering. However, many victims of nursing home negligence cannot communicate well enough to tell family members about their suffering, so the abusive neglect can go unnoticed for a while – sometimes too long to be able to help the patient recover.

Recognizing the signs that a nursing home resident is suffering from abuse or neglect is, therefore, crucial. These signs include dehydration, malnutrition, bed sores and other skin conditions, broken bones, unexplained or frequently occurring bruises and cuts, continual sedation, and torn clothing. Changes in behavior, such as having a fearful demeanor, acting depressed or angry, or frequent rocking, mumbling, or sucking behaviors can also be signs of neglect or abuse.

Florida Nursing Home Negligence Claims

Florida law and the Florida Department of Health have clear minimum standards that regulate nursing home care which include, among others, the following:

• Nursing homes should have experienced staff and qualified healthcare practitioners who have passed a criminal background check.
• Nursing homes should maintain a safe, clean environment.
• Residents should have access to clean drinking water, hot water, adequate lighting, comfortable temperatures, and safety equipment.
• Residents should also have the right to autonomy and independent decision-making.

If these standards are not maintained and a nursing home caregiver or staff member neglects or abuses your family member, you may be able to file a civil suit against them or the nursing home, depending on the specific details of the case. The grounds for such a lawsuit might be:

• Negligent Hiring: Nursing homes have an obligation to hire qualified personnel with the requisite academic degrees for the positions for which they are hired and no record of abuse or violence. If a nursing home hires its employees without conducting background checks, they are putting their patients at risk and can be held liable for negligence.
• Understaffing: The average nursing home staff to patient ratio is 1 staff member to every 1.64 patients; however, many facilities need more than the average number of staff members because their patients require extensive care. If a nursing home is understaffed, patients may be neglected because there is no one available to care for them or because staff members are overworked and stressed. If a patient suffers an injury due to understaffing, the nursing home can be held liable for the injury.
• Inadequate Training: In some cases, nursing home employees are not properly trained to handle disabled or disobedient residents, so they may provide substandard care. If inadequate staff training results in a patient being seriously injured, the nursing home can be held liable.
• Third-Party Responsibility: Nursing homes can also be held liable for injuries caused by third parties within the facility because they have a duty to provide a safe environment for their patients. For instance, if a patient is injured by another patient or a guest at the facility, the nursing home is legally responsible if they failed to provide adequate security to prevent such an incident.
• Medication Errors: Medications are a necessary part of care for most nursing home residents. If they are not given the proper medication or proper dosage, they could suffer serious consequences. When this happens, the healthcare provider, pharmacy, or pharmacist can be held liable for negligence.

Getting expert legal advice from an experienced nursing home negligence attorney is important when a loved one has been injured due to negligent nursing home care. The skilled attorneys of Boyers Law Group will help you understand your legal rights and do everything possible to hold the responsible parties accountable.

Boyers Law Group Attorneys Have Many Years of Experience in Representing Clients for Serious Injuries from Nursing Home Negligence

If a family member has been injured due to negligence at a nursing home, please get the legal help you need to hold the responsible parties accountable by calling Boyers Law Group at 800.545.9100 or submitting the “Tell Us What Happened” form on our website.

We have over 20 years of experience in achieving substantial compensation for our seriously injured clients and will do everything possible to help you achieve the results you need and deserve. Our compassionate, experienced team of skilled legal experts will help you understand your rights, investigate and prosecute your claim, and work aggressively to pursue justice for your family.

 

Helpful Resources

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (30 Nov. 2018). CMS strengthens nursing home oversight and safety to ensure adequate staffing.
https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-strengthens-nursing-home-oversight-and-safety-ensure-adequate-staffing

Florida Health Care Association. (2017). Facts about long term care in Florida.
http://www.fhca.org/media_center/long_term_health_care_facts

Rau, J. (2018 July 7). “It’s almost like a ghost town.”  Most nursing homes overstated staffing for years. New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/health/nursing-homes-staffing-medicare.html