When families entrust the care of their elderly or vulnerable loved ones to skilled nursing
facilities, they expect a baseline standard of safety. We expect clean rooms, competent medical
oversight, attentive staff, and a secure environment that can withstand external crises. However,
Hip fractures are among the most serious types of broken bone injuries, and they are especially common among older adults. In addition to being common among the elderly, hip fractures are a leading cause of poor outcomes for those elderly patients, as UCLA Health explains. While older adults can fall in various situations without another party being liable, when falls and hip fractures happen in nursing homes, the facility is almost always responsible for the fall due to negligence. Our Marin County nursing home neglect lawyers can tell you more about hip fractures in nursing home falls and why you may be able to hold the facility accountable for an elderly parent’s life-altering injury.
Why Are Hip Fractures So Dangerous for Nursing Home Residents?
Hip fractures can happen at any age due to trauma in a serious fall from heights or in a motor vehicle crash, for example, but they are especially dangerous when they result from an older adult’s same-level fall.
Orange County is home to hundreds of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, many operated by large multi state companies. While these facilities often appear polished and well managed, neglect frequently occurs behind the scenes. When families notice sudden decline or injury, knowing how to find a qualified nursing home neglect lawyer in Orange County becomes essential.
Nursing home neglect cases in Orange County often involve sophisticated defense teams, extensive documentation, and corporate ownership structures designed to limit liability. Facilities may point to age, pre existing conditions, or unavoidable decline to deflect responsibility.
Discussions about the use of cameras in nursing homes in Orange County and throughout Southern California have become common as lawmakers, safety advocates, and family members seek innovative solutions to prevent nursing home abuse and neglect and to gain evidence to hold perpetrators accountable. Yet, are cameras in residents’ rooms the best way to stop nursing home abuse, or are there significant ethical issues that we need to consider before we decide that the benefits of “granny cams,” as these cameras are commonly called, outweigh their limitations?
A recent article in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News addresses the ethics of “granny cams” in nursing homes and suggests that more research needs to be done concerning these tools before they become widespread.
Are Nursing Home Cameras Ethical, or do They Invade Residents’ Privacy?
When a senior in San Marcos suffers injuries as a result of nursing home neglect or elder abuse, family members should know that this might not be a one-time occurrence. A fact sheet from the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that nursing home abuse can be a single occurrence, or it can be repeated. In many situations, older adults are victims of recurrent abuse. What can you do if you are a senior and are being repeatedly victimized by an individual at your nursing home or assisted-living facility, or if you have an elderly loved one who is in this situation? In such cases, an elder or dependent adult abuse restraining order may be able to help.
What is Required for an Elder or Dependent Adult Abuse Restraining Order in California?
According to a fact sheet from the California Courts, an elder or dependent adult abuse restraining order may be able to provide some protection to seniors who are suffering from nursing home abuse or neglect. In order to be eligible for one of these types of restraining orders, the elderly adult who is seeking the order must be at least 65 years of age, and must be a victim of one of the following:
What is elder or dependent adult abuse according to California law? For residents of Orange County and other parts of Southern California, it is important to learn more about the protections available to seniors who may be subject to nursing home abuse. A recent article in CalCoast News reports that the California Department of Justice arrested the owner and a former employee of an assisted living facility in the state for elderly dependent adult abuse. This case involves a critical case of nursing home neglect that resulted in the death of a resident. It serves as a reminder that laws are in place not only to punish perpetrators of elder abuse and neglect, but that there are also legal protections in place to prevent further abuse.
Details of the Recent Elder Neglect Case
As the article explains, the incident that led to the elder and dependent adult abuse charges occurred several years ago. In December of 2014, a senior, Mauricio Edgar Cardenas, at The Manse on Marsh, an elderly facility in San Luis Obispo, attempted to cross a street by himself. He was struck and killed by an oncoming vehicle, the driver of which was cleared of wrongdoing. When the accident happened, it was dark outside, and authorities determined that the motor vehicle driver could not have seen the victim in time to stop or to avoid hitting him.
A lack of federal funding for elderly healthcare could cause a nursing home abuse epidemic in San Clemente and across the country, a recent article in The New York Times suggests. While a vote on the Senate health care bill has been delayed, even an amended version of the bill that includes drastic cuts to Medicaid could have serious and even deadly consequences for seniors living in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. As the article contends, if such a bill passes, introducing “Trumpcare” to California and to the rest of the country, it “is certain to produce drastic upheaval in the landscape of long-term care.” Medicaid is currently “by far the largest source of funding for nursing home stays,” providing the funding for almost two-thirds of all nursing home residents.
If funding ceases, the quality of care is likely to decline, as well. Such a cut to Medicaid would result, at best, in a rise in nursing home neglect cases, the article argues. Could changes to Medicaid funding really produce such damage to elderly nursing home residents’ care?
History of California Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect
If you file a nursing home abuse lawsuit in Rancho Bernardo, can you be eligible to receive punitive damages? Punitive damages represent a particular type of remedy that is not awarded in many cases, including in lawsuits concerning nursing home abuse allegations. However, according to a recent opinion from the California Court of Appeals, Jarman v. HCR ManorCare (2017), there are indeed cases of elder abuse in which punitive damages are appropriate.
This case is important for nursing home residents in Rancho Bernardo and throughout the state of California as it makes clear that the court system will hold nursing facilities accountable for egregious acts of elder abuse. What else do you need to know about punitive damages in order to understand the weight of this decision?
What are Punitive Damages and Why are They Important?
If you have an elderly loved one who lives in a nursing home in Oceanside or elsewhere in Southern California, do you need to be concerned about the risks of nursing home sexual abuse? According to a recent report from CNN News, “vulnerable seniors are being raped and sexually abused by the very people paid to care for them.” Allegations of rape and sexual abuse are arising in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities across the country. Despite the fact that it is difficult to know precisely how many cases occur each year, the CNN News report suggests that “this little-discussed issue is more widespread than anyone would imagine.”
What are some of the significant findings in the report? What should you know about the signs and symptoms of sexual abuse in nursing homes?
Nursing Homes May be Negligent in Reporting Sexual Abuse and Assault
If you have an elderly loved one who recently required care in a hospital and now will need long-term care in a nursing home in Escondido, how do you know which facility will provide the best quality of care and does not have a history of nursing home abuse or neglect? According to a recent article from NPR, a potential change to the rules concerning Medicare and hospitals’ rights and responsibilities toward patients could mean that more hospitals, which often see elderly patients in Southern California and throughout the country, could provide helpful information to families struggling to select a quality nursing home in their budget.
Hospitals Required to Provide ‘Unrestricted’ Information About Nursing Homes
Up to this point, why have hospitals in San Diego County avoided giving patients and their families information about certain nursing homes that they believe can provide quality care? The article explains that “hospitals have long been reluctant to share with patients their assessments of which nursing homes are best because of a Medicare requirement that patients’ choices can’t be restricted.”
California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog