California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog
When families place a loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility, they do so with the expectation that the facility will provide basic safety, dignity, and competent medical care. Unfortunately, that expectation is not always met. In recognition of this reality, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, identified a category of catastrophic failures in healthcare that should never occur in a properly run facility.
These incidents are known as “never events.”
According to the National Quality Forum, never events are serious medical errors that are clearly identifiable, largely preventable, and result in significant harm or death. Most importantly, they signal a fundamental breakdown in patient safety systems and oversight. In other words, when a never event occurs, it is not bad luck or an unavoidable outcome. It is evidence of negligence.
