Kirk Bernard

With an increasing rate of nursing home negligence and abuse taking place throughout the United States, some attribute these events to the fact that more and more baby boomers are headed to these facilities. When a family places a loved one in a nursing home, it is never an easy decision. In fact, families often agonize over it. So, when they entrust their loved one to the care of a skilled nursing facility, they have every reason to expect quality care. Unfortunately, this does not always happen.

According to recent studies performed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), one in five nursing homes is seriously deficient. That means that there are violations committed regularly in these facilities that would place residents’ lives in immediate jeopardy. This includes poor resident hygiene, failure to monitor patient health, failure to follow doctor’s instructions and even physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

If your loved one has suffered neglect or abuse in a nursing home, you may be able to file a personal injury claim against the nursing home. A skilled Seattle nursing home abuse attorney may be able to help you obtain compensation for medical expenses, cost of hospitalization, psychological or physical therapy, and other damages. If you have lost a loved one because of nursing home negligence, you could file a wrongful death claim against the facility or operator.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of nursing home negligence or abuse in Washington State, please contact the experienced Washington personal injury lawyers with The Bernard Law Group at 1-800-418-8282 or info@bernardlawgroup.com for a FREE comprehensive and confidential consultation. We can also send you our FREE brochure, which has useful educational information to help you understand your legal rights and options. Get in touch with Kirk Bernard and his skilled legal team today.

A lot of us may not think of nursing home negligence or abuse as a personal injury case. But if you have a loved one who is in a nursing home or a convalescent home, then you know that the elderly are a particularly vulnerable part of our society. In fact, nursing home abuse can take several forms. There are facilities where the elderly have been physically abused or sexually abused by employees. There have been nursing homes where elderly residents have been emotionally and verbally abused by staff members.

There have been a number of cases where nursing home residents have died or suffered serious personal injuries because they weren’t cared for properly. Examples of such nursing home negligence include failing to monitor the patient’s medical needs, giving them the wrong medication, not changing soiled clothes causing bed sores, and lack of supervision that leads to falls. A number of nursing home negligence and abuse cases have to do with these facilities’ lack of trained or adequate staff. A number of nursing homes, in fact, deliberately understaff their facilities to keep expenses lower and profits higher.

If your loved one has been abused or neglected at a nursing home, please contact the skilled Seattle injury personal lawyers at The Bernard Law Firm to find out how we can help. Please call us at 1-800-418-8282 or e-mail us at info@bernardlawgroup.com to schedule your FREE, comprehensive and confidential consultation. We can also send you our FREE informational brochure about Washington nursing home negligence and abuse cases, which has useful educational information to help you understand your legal rights and options. Get in touch with Kirk Bernard and his experienced legal team today.

Incidents of nursing home abuse and negligence are on the rise and that is cause for deep concern when you consider that millions of baby boomers are aging and headed in that direction. There are many reasons why nursing home abuse or neglect occurs. One of the main reasons is that nursing homes have started focusing on their profits rather than make patient care or resident care a top priority. As a result, these nursing homes understaff their facilities or hire employees for cheap who are not properly trained for the job. Serious deficiencies occur in nursing homes as a result.

If you are a victim of nursing home abuse or negligence, you have civil remedies available to you that skilled Seattle personal injury attorneys may assist you with. For example, if you tragically lose a loved one as a result of neglect, you may file a wrongful death claim against the nursing home. However, if you are looking to place a loved one in a nursing home, it is better to be proactive than reactive. Picking a nursing home for a loved one should be a carefully thought-out and well researched process. Sometimes, families may not have the time to do so because they may have to make that decision under a tight deadline.

A good start for families would be to look at the U.S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services’ Nursing Home Compare Web site, a database that ranks 15,700 nursing homes on a star system. One star means the facility is “below average” and five stars means it is above average and offers a high quality of care. However, even these ratings can sometimes be misleading, so they can be taken as a guide, but not as the ultimate tool to help you decide.

In most cases, if you have the time, you should visit the nursing home where you plan to place your loved one. Interview employees, gauge their attitude toward residents. Do residents look happy? Does the facility seem well-maintained? How does the place smell? How do employees interact with residents? Talk to visitors in the parking lot. Are they happy with the facility? Do they have any complaints? If you have time, make several visits to the home at different times of the day to talk to staff and inspect the home’s public areas for upkeep and cleanliness. Find out how long the caregivers have been around. If a majority of them are recent hires, that indicates staff turnover, which is not a good sign.

As an experienced personal injury attorney, Kirk Bernard knows that the best way to avoid an unpleasant experience or worse, a tragedy, is to plan early. You may not want to discuss or confront the fact that you have to place a parent in a nursing home. Choosing a nursing home can be tough, but taking the time to investigate and research the right home for your loved one will pay off in the long run and improve the chances that your eventual decision will be the correct one for you and your family.

Source:http://www.caller.com/news/2009/nov/29/choosing-nursing-home-plan-early/?partner=yahoo_feeds