Nursing Home Negligence Lawyer

in West Palm Beach, Florida

The Duties of a Nursing Home

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Nursing Home Injuries - An Overview

Negligence in the Nursing Home Setting

What Your Rights Are as a Resident of a Nursing Home

Special Considerations in Proving Damages in Cases Involving the Elderly

Statutory Protection of Older Persons

Frequently Asked Questions about Nursing Home Injuries

Nursing Home Injuries Resource Links

Nursing Home Injuries Contact Form

The operator of a nursing home has a duty to protect its residents from any predictable consequences of each resident’s mental or physical impairments. This means they must take reasonable precautions to protect residents who cannot protect themselves. The home must also use reasonable care to avoid harming residents. “Reasonable” is defined according to the resident’s mental and physical condition.

Although there is no requirement that the nursing home provide a 1:1 nurse:resident ratio or 24-hour resident monitoring, it still must devise an appropriate standard of care for each resident, based on their physical and mental conditions. If a given resident is known to potentially encounter a particular danger because of his or her health condition, the nursing home must take reasonable precautions to prevent such foreseeable harm to that resident.

Each resident has a contract with the nursing home. The text of a resident’s contract will be relevant in any legal proceeding which may be pursued.

Federal Regulations
The federal government classifies nursing homes into four categories according to how much nursing care they provide.

1. Adult boarding facilities

2. Residential care facilities

3. Intermediate care facilities

4. Skilled nursing facilities

The intermediate care and skilled nursing facilities are regulated by the federal government, especially in regard to Medicare and Medicaid. Following federal guidelines, each facility must create and implement written policies and procedures that prohibit neglect, abuse or mistreatment of its residents. Any violation of these policies must be immediately reported to the facility’s administrator, and the facility must be able to show that all such alleged violations are fully investigated. Further, the facility must:
Prevent any further abuse during the investigation;
Report investigation results to the administrator (or another official) within five working days of the alleged violation; and
Take appropriate action to correct the situation if the alleged violation is verified.

Special Knowledge
If a nursing home has particular knowledge about a given resident and does not respond appropriately to it, they can be found liable for the consequences. An example would be if the home knows that a resident has previously behaved violently. If that resident later attacks another resident, the home can be held liable for their failure to protect the other residents, or failure to adequately supervise the violent resident.

Examples of liability for failing to respond appropriately to special knowledge
The nursing home knew that a resident had dizzy spells, and was found liable for injury resulting from a fall;
The home knew a resident smoked and had the use of only one hand. It was found liable when the resident’s clothing caught fire, and the resident died.
The home knew a resident had recently had cataract surgery and was held liable when that resident fell down a stairway;
The home knew that a resident suffered from senile psychosis and cerebral arteriosclerosis, and was held liable when that resident fell (or leaped) from a window and injured himself

The Results of Ongoing Neglect
Specific incidents are not always the cause of resident injuries. Ongoing nursing home negligence is more often the cause. Examples of such neglect are:
Malnutrition
Dehydration
Bedsores (pressure sores)

This type of neglect is actionable and the nursing home may be found to have violated its duty of care. For example, it may not have maintained accepted medical practices for skin care, such as regularly turning a bedridden resident to prevent bedsores.

Maintaining the Premises
Nursing homes must keep the premises reasonably safe. Residents have a right to expect that hallways and stairs, for example, will be well-maintained. When a visitor arrives, they are regarded as invitees, which means the home owes them a duty of care for their safety. The home should remove any known dangers on the premises, or warn visitors about them. However, the home is not obliged to “insure” the visitor’s safety and if a danger is obvious, need not necessarily warn about it.

Equipment Selection and Maintenance
Nursing home residents have a right to expect safe equipment, such as wheelchairs, examination tables, lamps, and beds. Homes have been found liable for defects in equipment.

Some defense considerations
Defense attorneys in nursing home cases can theoretically use defenses that are available in other negligence cases. An example would be comparative negligence on the part of the resident. But this might be disallowed by the court because nursing home residents have put themselves in that environment specifically for protection against their medical conditions.

A defense attorney might also try to muddy the causation issue, claiming that the resident’s pre-existing health condition contributed to the injury that the prosecuting attorney is laying at the feet of the nursing home.

Your free consultation
At the Law Offices of Craig Goldenfarb, we offer you a free initial consultation. We will listen and start to assess your situation, or that of your loved one. If we determine that you have a valid claim, our nursing home negligence lawyers will start to gather more information and build you a strong case. Please call or email us today. Our office serves the entire Southern Florida area.

Free Consultation • No Recovery/No Attorney's Fee • Handicapped Accessible

West Palm Beach, Florida, nursing home negligence lawyer Craig Goldenfarb represents clients throughout South Florida, including the cities of Palm Springs, Stuart, and Fort Pierce, and residents of Palm Beach County, Martin County, and St. Lucie County. Our office in West Palm Beach, Florida, is located a quarter mile west of I-95 on Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., behind Chick-Fil-A in the IKON Building.