Nursing Home Injuries2022-08-01T15:46:07-04:00
Elderly Woman Crying Into a Tissue

Nursing Home Injuries

Your Nursing Home Negligence and Abuse Lawyers For Nassau, Suffolk, and New York City

When New Yorkers place their elderly loved ones in nursing homes or assisted living facilities, they do so with the expectation that the care received will be exemplary. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.

Nursing homes and assisted care facilities exist to care for the elderly. Designed to provide vital services to people who can no longer see to their own needs, they have instead become dumping grounds for seniors. Too often, seniors are the victims of neglect, abuse, filth and incompetence. In many cases, records are changed to conceal the indignities to which elderly people are subjected.

The list of abuses and substandard care that occur in nursing home and assisted living facilities can fill many volumes. Facility failures and the resulting tragic consequences to residents exist because too many facilities are more concerned with profits than with the people in their care. Below are just a few of the most pressing problems:

  • Bed Sores: Bed sores are skin ulcers that can sometimes go down to the bone. They are horribly painful and, once established, difficult to treat and cure. Insufficient staffing and inadequate training are the key causes of bed sores. When an elderly person develops bed sores, the chances are overwhelming that the causes are inadequate cleaning or attention.
  • Rape, Physical Abuse and Other Violence: The elderly are often placed at random with the mentally retarded, brain injured, or emotionally disturbed. Defenseless against these aggressive and often younger people, elderly residents have been raped, beaten, abused and even killed. Sadly, the majority of these incidents go unreported and unpunished.
  • Malnutrition: One of the most horrible things imaginable is death by starvation. Many elderly patients are unable to adequately feed themselves and need assistance in cutting and eating their food. In an effort to maximize profits, some facilities do not hire sufficient staff to properly feed residents. Sometimes, staff members, whether due to improper training or a lack of oversight and supervision, simply don’t take the time to see to it that a resident eats enough to avoid malnutrition.
  • Freezing in Winter, Stifling in Summer: The elderly are convenient victims. Taking advantage of the frequent inability of residents to voice complaints, facility operators maximize profits by keeping temperatures extremely low in the winter and extremely high in the summer. This can be torture for elderly people, who are especially vulnerable to temperature extremes.
  • High Turnover, Inadequate Training and Insufficient Staff: Many nursing home and assisted living facility employees are minimum wage workers with little training or experience. They have minimal incentive to provide quality care for the elderly. Often, there is simply not enough staff to perform even the most necessary functions, and the staff that is available is poorly trained. Overwhelmed by the workload, the turnover rate of these workers is inordinately high. Documented cases of patients left for days in their beds, sometimes in their own waste, are a frightening consequence of staffing failures, and yet another instance of facility operators putting profits before people.
  • Lack of Adequate Medical Care: Despite the declining health of nearly every nursing home and assisted living facility resident, there is only minimal access to professional medical care. Physicians and nurses have daunting patient loads which make it difficult, and in some cases, impossible to provide decent medical care. Sadly, residents are often medicated, not to treat them properly, but to keep them quiet.

In the face of such stunning indifference to this terrible crisis, the families of the elderly have only one place to turn to get results when their loved one has been mistreated, abused or wronged in an elderly facility: civil litigation. Indeed, deaths and injuries are rarely investigated by state officials until after a lawyer becomes involved in the case.

As a law firm that has carefully watched the failures of elder care institutions, RGLZ is determined to help New York families right the many wrongs inflicted upon their loved ones in nursing home and assisted living facilities. With Americans expected to live longer lives than ever before, all of us have a stake in ensuring that the facilities that care for the elderly and meet the highest standards of care, not just for our parents and grandparents, but also for ourselves.

All too frequently, nursing homes prioritize profits over people, or simply can’t provide for the number of patients they have. This leads to cut corners and an emphasis on cost-cutting measures that put patient safety at risk. Insufficient staff, improperly trained staff, and other challenges created by cost restraints contribute to an unacceptably large number of nursing home accidents, injuries and deaths.

Let Our Legal Excellence Make Justice Work for You

Nursing homes are not likely to simply admit their fault. They have insurance attorneys who will carefully advise them about the danger of candid admissions, and you will find that it may be very difficult to get to the truth.

At RGLZ, we have the experience to effectively investigate the cause of nursing home injuries. If we discover that negligent care or abusive behavior contributed to the death or serious injury of your loved one, you can count on the fact that we will aggressively pursue justice and compensation on your behalf. We’ll work diligently to hold the nursing home accountable for its actions.

Since 1968, our firm has advocated passionately on behalf of thousands of injury victims. We have a strong record of results in nursing home negligence and abuse claims. You can rely on us for the knowledgeable and vigorous representation you need.

Contact Us

To schedule a free consultation with one of our Suffolk County or New York City nursing home injury lawyers, call 866-639-5567 or fill out our online form. We pride ourselves on an unparalleled level of access for our clients. Let the RGLZ family help yours.

FAQs

How can I make sure a loved one is okay in a nursing home?

Check up on them often, and look out for signs of neglect or abuse, as well as potentially dangerous conditions. Look for signs of bedsores, malnutrition, dehydration, or suspicious injuries. Ask the staff questions! Basically, be inquisitive about anything that comes to mind. As long as you’re proactive about monitoring their condition, there’s a significantly lower chance of something being missed, or worse, “swept under the rug”.

What should I do if I find evidence of abuse or neglect of a loved one in a nursing home?

That’s when you would involve attorneys like us. Nursing homes sometimes have a nasty tendency of trying to cover up any accidents, abuse, or neglect. Fortunately, experienced nursing home attorneys have the know how and resources to conduct a proper investigation, as well as deal with the insurance companies and nursing home administration. There’s no better way to achieve a positive outcome than to have a qualified attorney at your back to navigate the situation and pursue the requisite legal avenues.

Do you need to file a nursing home complaint?

 

Click here to file a complaint.

“The New York State Department of Health, Nursing Homes, and ICF/IID Surveillance is responsible for investigating complaints and incidents for nursing homes in New York State, which are related to State and/or Federal regulatory violation. A complaint against a nursing home should be submitted in writing by the complainant.” – Excerpt from Complaints About Nursing Home Care page of New York State Department of Health website.

Warning Signs of Elder Abuse

More than two million cases of elder abuse are reported in the United States every year, and as many as one in ten elderly people are victims of elder abuse in some form.* You should be aware of these warning signs to keep your loved one safe.

Elder Abuse & Neglect Warning Sign #1: Bed Sores

One of the more obvious warning signs of elder abuse or neglect is the presence of bed sores. Bed sores, also known as pressure sores, are painful skin ulcers that can be fatal at their worst stage. When they form on nursing home patients, it usually indicates issues of understaffing or negligence.

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