When you need help identifying nursing home violations, the list can be extensive. Knowing what red flags to look for will prevent serious injury from occurring. Here are nine of the most common nursing home issues that can lead to liability claims.
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9. A Dirty Premise
A nursing home that can’t stay clean is bound to have issues in other areas. Trash or sharp objects left lying around are dangerous to everyone involved. For seniors, the exposure to an unkept place is a clear sign of nursing home abuse.
8. Bad Employees
You always read about how employees abuse seniors in nursing homes of all types. Background checks are important, but it is even more important to have employees that care. When workers don’t care, they tend to treat seniors badly.
7. Supervisors That Don’t Supervise
When the hiring process fails, it is up to the supervisor to root out and find bad employees. Sometimes good employees turn bad after the stress of working in a nursing home. Without the leadership of a good supervisor, abuse can run rampant without oversight.
6. Neglecting Safety Policies
This goes back to keeping a clean workplace but is more about how well the company enforces its own policies. By law, a nursing home has a set of rules to follow for ‘livable conditions. Anything that falls below this should be met with serious concern by clients.
5. Residents Wandering Off
When residents wander off, it is the fault of the nursing home. During this period, anything can happen inside or outside of the home. This is stressful for family members since they have no idea how the situation will end.
4. Specific Health Conditions
A bad environment or improper medical prescriptions can lead to health issues with a resident. Improper use of medication is a major violation against a nursing home. Malnutrition, ulcers and other signs of neglect can also be used in a lawsuit.
3. Not Following The Specified Meal Plan
Sometimes a specific meal plan is requested by the doctor or family. Nursing homes that ignore these instructions are liable if something bad happens. It shows a bad attitude towards important health directions. A good example of this is ignoring specific food allergies in a recommended diet.
2. Refusing Follow-up Phone Calls
Family members that are given the runaround on the phone have a good reason to be concerned. Ignoring phone requests is a clear sign of a coverup that requires investigating. Time is of the essence when dealing with this type of behavior from a nursing home.
1. Losing Paperwork
This is a big issue for any nursing home and is a possible security concern. There is a lot of personal information on medical paperwork that can be used for nefarious purposes. If a nursing home can’t handle confidential medical paperwork, then it is safe to assume they can’t care for a living human being.
Wrap Up
Negligence should never be ignored, whether it is in small or large doses. Find out early whether a nursing home is doing its job. And if things get out of hand, pull the trigger by hiring lawyers that understand nursing home liability.
