Posted on February 20, 2020 in Physical Abuse

Nursing home residents have a number of rights that are afforded to them by the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act, as well as other state and federal legislation. Nursing home staff members have both an ethical and a legal responsibility to treat nursing home residents with respect and to provide satisfactory medical care. Another provision contained in the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act is that nursing home residents should be free from “unreasonable restraint.” This includes both physical restraints and chemical restraints. If your loved one has been restrained through the use of unnecessary medication, he or she may be a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect.

When Can Restraints Be Used on a Nursing Home Resident?

Individuals living in a nursing home deserve to have as high a quality of life as possible. Their movements should never be restricted unless it is absolutely necessary. Both physical restraints like limb ties and chemical restraints like sedating medication should only be used if needed to protect the immediate safety of the resident. According to the law, nursing home residents should only be given medication such as antipsychotics and benzodiazepines if a medical condition necessitates it and the medication is prescribed by a physician. Unfortunately, many nursing homes administer sedating medications to residents who do not even have the condition the medication treats. They often do this in order to keep the residents docile and less likely to wander around.

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 Posted on February 05, 2020 in Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing home residents are often very frail and vulnerable. They may have severe physical handicaps or cognitive issues like dementia that leave them unable to care for themselves. These residents rely on nursing home staff for medical care as well as help them with daily living tasks like eating and showering.

You probably already know that nursing home workers have an ethical obligation to adequately fulfil their work duties and treat residents with compassion and respect. However, you may not realize that they also have a legal obligation to provide nursing home residents with quality care. There are several pieces of federal and state legislation that prohibit mistreatment of nursing home residents. One of the most important pieces of nursing home legislation in Illinois is the state’s Nursing Home Care Act.

Rights Afforded to Residents in the Illinois Nursing Home Care Act

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 Posted on January 28, 2020 in Bed Sores

Tragically, news stories involving nursing home abuse and neglect are not uncommon. It seems as if every week, there is another article describing the way nursing home staff mistreat the vulnerable residents in their care. According to one survey, a shocking 44 percent of nursing home residents reported that they had been abused at their facilities and 95 percent said that they had experienced neglect or seen other residents neglected. Even more disturbing, in another survey conducted of nursing home workers, more than 50 percent of nursing home staff admitted to neglecting or abusing residents within the prior year.

Staff members who neglect, mistreat, or abuse residents should be held accountable for their actions. If your loved one has suffered at the hands of nursing home staff, one way to hold the negligent party accountable is through a personal injury lawsuit.

Bedsores Must Be Treated Immediately

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 Posted on January 20, 2020 in Nursing Home Abuse

When most think of nursing home neglect and abuse, they think of a resident who is being mistreated physically or emotionally. However, these are not the only types of abuse to which nursing home residents are vulnerable. Financial abuse or exploitation of individuals staying in a nursing home is sadly common. Nursing home residents, especially those who have cognitive issues caused by age or illness, can be easily taken advantage of by ill-meaning nursing home staff. If your loved one has suffered from financial exploitation in a nursing home facility, contact a nursing home abuse lawyer to learn about your legal options.

How Common is Financial Exploitation Among Elderly and Disabled Individuals?

Unfortunately, elderly people and those with mental and physical disabilities are often targets for financial exploitation. Anyone involved in the victim’s life may be a perpetrator of financial abuse including family members, caretakers, and even doctors and nurses. Elder financial abuse is more common than many people realize. According to a report from the National Adult Protective Services Association, one in 20 elderly adults have experienced some type of financial exploitation in the previous year. Adults who need help with daily living tasks like eating and bathing and those who have cognitive impairments are the most likely to be financially manipulated.

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 Posted on January 13, 2020 in Wandering and Elopement

When a person has been able to move about freely his or her whole adult life, it can be extremely difficult to lose that independence after being admitted into a nursing home. Nursing home residents may wander around the nursing home and get into very dangerous situations. A resident who wanders to an unsupervised area of the nursing home could slip and fall, wander into kitchens containing hot stoves, be exposed to hazardous cleaning chemicals, and more. When a resident actually leaves the nursing home facility, this is called elopement. Some nursing home residents have been seriously injured or passed away after being exposed to the elements outside of a nursing home facility.

Residents with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Are Especially at Risk

A great deal of nursing home residents suffer from cognitive diseases that affect their ability to understand what is going on around them. A person with advanced dementia may not understand that he or she is living in a nursing home for his or her own safety. The resident may attempt to “escape” the nursing home facility and go home. A fragile resident who goes outside may become lost or severely injured before nursing home staff even know they are gone.

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 Posted on January 06, 2020 in Nursing Home Abuse

If you have a family member or a loved one residing in a nursing home or skilled nursing facility, you may have concerns about how he or she is being treated by the facility’s staff. Is your loved one getting enough food and water? Are medications being given at the right times and in the right dosages? Are staff members kind and caring? To allay such concerns, many families have installed surveillance cameras—sometimes called “granny cams”—in the rooms of their loved ones in nursing homes. Unfortunately, not everyone likes what the cameras show, as was the case for a North Carolina woman late last summer.

Surprising Footage

According to local news outlets, the woman installed a hidden camera inside a picture frame and placed the frame on a countertop in her mother’s room at a Cherryville, NC, nursing facility this past August. The woman was concerned that her mother was not being fed properly or checked in on often enough. Her mother is reportedly blind and has Alzheimer’s disease.

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 Posted on December 30, 2019 in Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing home neglect and abuse are sadly common in many nursing homes across the United States. Nursing homes are often badly understaffed or employ staff members who have not been properly trained for their job duties. Even worse, some nursing home staff intentionally take their frustrations out on residents. Many of these residents have physical and mental health problems that leave them unable to stand up for themselves. Residents instead must depend on concerned loved ones to advocate on their behalf.

Threatening or Intentionally Scaring Residents

Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia, and other illness that affect an individual’s ability to understand what is going on around them are prevalent in nursing homes. Unfortunately, these illnesses can turn a mild mannered, sweet grandmother or grandfather into someone who is hostile or downright mean. Properly trained staff members should know that when a resident with mental decline is rude or uncooperative, it is the illness speaking and such behavior is not reflective of the resident’s true nature. However, some nursing home workers instead respond combatively to residents who are simply afraid or confused. Threatening, intimidating, or yelling at a nursing home resident is just one example of unacceptable nursing home abuse.  

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 Posted on December 20, 2019 in Medication Errors

A person would not be staying in a nursing home if he or she did not have physical or mental health issues that necessitate around-the-clock care. The majority of nursing home residents are on one or more medications in order to manage the symptoms caused by their health issues. When nursing home staff fail to give residents their medications on time or in the correct dosages, serious complications can result. In some cases, medication errors can even result in a resident’s death. If your loved one has suffered because a negligent nursing home facility failed to properly administer medication, you may have a valid personal injury claim.

Medication Mistakes Can Seriously Harm vulnerable Nursing Home Residents

While some minor medication errors may not cause the resident harm, other medication mistakes can cause severe damage. There are federal regulations that prohibit nursing home staff from making serious medication errors. Some of the most concerning nursing home medication-related mistakes include:

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 Posted on December 06, 2019 in Physical Abuse

The majority of people living in a nursing home must stay there because they have mental and/or physical ailments that make it impossible for them to live alone. Dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other illnesses that affect cognition are especially common in nursing home resident. These illnesses can sometimes cause a nursing home patient to become extremely confused or hostile.

In some cases, a resident may believe that nursing home staff or other residents are trying to hurt them so they act out aggressively. In order to keep residents from harming themselves, other residents, or nursing home staff, physical restraints are sometimes used. However, excessively using physical restraints to confine a nursing home resident can constitute nursing home abuse.

Common Types of Physical Restraints

Restraints are anything that restricts the movement of a nursing home resident. Examples of physical restraints include:

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 Posted on November 27, 2019 in Sexual Abuse

Around the beginning of 2019, various news outlets reported on the horrific story out of Phoenix, Arizona, where a disabled nursing home patient had surprisingly given birth. The woman was allegedly raped by a licensed practical nurse who worked at the facility. The former nurse pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult, and he is currently awaiting trial.

Unfortunately, sexual abuse is not terribly uncommon in nursing homes around the United States. However, the perpetrators are not always employees or staff members. In some cases, residents have been sexually assaulted and abused by other residents of the home. When sexual assault is committed by another resident, criminal charges are possible, and the victim could seek compensation from the home itself for negligent supervision.

Florida Nursing Home Patient Arrested and Charged

According to a report by Florida Today, a female resident of a Palm Bay nursing facility was sexually assaulted by another resident in September. The woman was allegedly sleeping when she woke to find a 65-year-old male resident touching her inappropriately. She reportedly pulled the cord near her bed to let the home’s staff know that she needed help. When staff members entered the room, the man was still in the room and groping the female patient, arrest records indicate.

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