Nursing Home Resident’s Legal Rights
One of the most difficult decisions you will ever make as an adult child of an aging parent is whether or not your mother or father needs to be admitted to a nursing home facility. You may have already exhausted every other option, the nursing home being the ‘last resort’. Before entering your parent into a home, you may have researched it first by talking to references and reading reviews. Afterward, you may have felt reasonably confident that your choice of that facility was the right one. At Brown Kiely LLP, we understand how difficult this scenario can be for family members. Call us at 410-625-9330 to speak with a compassionate nursing home lawyer, Maryland families turn to for help. Then the unthinkable happened. You now suspect the facility is negligent in the care of your parent. In addition to feeling unbelievably guilty for admitting your parent to this facility in the first place, you may be frightened for their safety and very angry at the facility’s administration for allowing the abuse to occur. What kind of action can you take? What are the legal rights of your loved one? What can you do? A nursing home lawyer in Maryland from our firm can answer your questions and address your concerns. In Need of a Nursing Home Lawyer?
- If your loved one receives Medicare benefits, they have the right, by law, not to be abused verbally, sexually, physically or mentally.
- They cannot be restrained physically or chemically restrained for discipline or convenient purposes. Prescription drugs are only to be used to treat a medical condition.
- A doctor can prescribe the use of restraints but the order must include the duration and the reason for the use of the restraints. This should only be done to ensure the safety of your loved one or those around them. Talk to a nursing home lawyer in Maryland if you feel your loved one’s rights were violated in this way.
- This would likely be a result of unsafe or dangerous conditions at the property.
- A civil claim can be filed against the facility under the law of “premises liability”. This covers injuries incurred while at a facility owned and maintained by others.
- Every state has a system that specifies how to report accusations of abuse and neglect of the elderly. They use this reporting system to investigate the allegations.
- The investigation includes interviewing your parent, family members, staff and management of the nursing home. A nursing home lawyer in Maryland from Brown Kiely LLP can review the investigation’s findings to make sure that it was handled correctly.
- If the accusation is found to have merit, adult protective services will be called in to help your parent and the nursing home staff resolve the complaint and work on ways to prevent a recurrence.
- Elderly residents are hesitant to report any abuse because they are afraid or embarassed
- The facilities may have staff that are not trained properly or are not fully qualified
- Staff members with anger issues
- Understaffed facilities
- Residents are often isolated or feel as if they are isolated
- This is called exploitation, or using the funds for profit or advantage. Each state defines exploitation a little differently, some specifying that exploitation occurs when the funds are gotten without the consent of the resident or they are obtained under false pretenses