Recognizing signs of neglect or abuse in nursing homes
Signs of Neglect or Abuse in Nursing Homes
I am Tulsa personal injury lawyer Mike Ashworth. I don’t care what you call them. You call them senior communities, senior spas, medical spas, senior resorts. They’re all ultimately the same thing, nursing homes. They all have the same standard of care they must meet. They all have the same rules and regulations that they must abide by.
Because of the shortage of nurses in this country, residential care facilities as a whole have been suffering tremendously from getting skilled staff, and more importantly, staff that are truly dedicated to a profession that takes a lot of dedication to do and do well. I tell you, the people that work in residential care are among the hardest working and most low-paid individuals for what they do.
However, that does not change the duties imposed, not only by the law, but morally in terms of taking care of our loved ones. My mother just spent the past few months in a number of facilities when she was 93 when she passed. But before that, before her own illness, I spent over a decade defending residential care placements. I’ve also sued residential care placements. I’ve been successful on both sides of the fence. I’ve lost a couple on both sides of the fence.
Recognizing Signs of Neglect or Abuse
But one thing I do know is I do know 2567s and I do know the nursing home industry. If you have a loved one in a nursing home and you come in and you find that they are tied, bound, all four limbs to a wheelchair, that’s not right. If you go to a nursing home or you talk to somebody at a nursing home, oh, your mother fell last night, she was found on the floor, we’re not sure what happened, that’s not right. If you come into the bed and your parent or loved one is ambulatory with a walker, they like to be independent as much as they can, and the rails are fully up, that’s called a restraint. That’s not right. If they are somebody that is incontinent of bowel and bladder and is therefore hit in the call light all the time, and all of a sudden you find that the residential care facility is giving mom or dad medications they’ve never had before and they seem to get gorked out, that’s not right.
Those are instances where you should call us immediately. Get a copy of the nursing home chart or residential care chart that relates to that loved one, get it stem to stern, and then come talk to us. But I would also go ahead and call the State Department of Adult Protective Services and file a report and get an investigation started for that kind of activity.
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If you have this happen, please call me at 918-924-5528 or call me or write to me at TulsaPersonalInjuryLawyer.pro. This is a topic I know very well professionally, but I also know it very, very well personally, and I have seen many things that would shock you. I can tell you that the trend is going back because of the lack of quality nurses. They’re even having to import nurses from overseas right now, the head hiring companies, because it’s so hard to find quality nurses here. So, I’ve been doing this a while. If you have questions about any legal matter, just give me a call and I’ll get you to the right place.
