As baby boomers age, they have faced the difficult task of placing their parents in an assisted living or nursing home. We trust these companies to care for our loved ones when we cannot. As a result, having a loved one injured or killed as a result of their nursing home failure is an extreme breach of trust. If that occurs, you need immediate, expert legal advice to negotiate the complex decisions that lay before you. If you find yourself in that situation, call Barrett Law immediately at (601) 790-1505.
Claims Against Nursing Homes
Negligence
Most claims against nursing homes revolve around negligence. In laymen’s terms, negligence is the failure to act reasonably when you know or should know what “reasonable” behavior requires. For a profession such as nursing or an industry such as the nursing home industry, it means failing to follow accepted industry standards resulting in a failure to provide reasonable care to residents. An example of simple negligence would be erroneously distributing medications due to a failure to have a medication distribution protocol in place. If that mis-distribution results in harm, there may be a viable negligence claim.
Negligent Hiring
Another form of negligence is negligent hiring. “Negligent hire” means that a nursing home had a duty to meet some industry standard in the hiring process and failed to do so. Most commonly, it results from a nursing home failing to adequately perform background checks, performing background checks but failing to screen out unqualified or unsuitable applicants, or keeping an employee on staff that has shown themselves to be unsuitable or unsafe. Frequently, even employees that pass background checks and are subsequently hired demonstrate illegal drug dependence or violent behavior. If their drug use was known or reasonably foreseeable, the nursing home may be liable if they fail to take appropriate remedial action. In any of these incidences, the nursing home’s decision to retain the employee may be the grounds for a negligent hire claim if injuries or a death arises from that employee’s conduct.
Negligent Supervision
Negligent hire means employing inappropriate staff. But even appropriate staff must have adequate supervision to ensure that their care remains adequate. With the opioid crisis in our nation, many people have become addicted to pain pills and come to work under their influence. If a nursing home operator fails to discipline an employee who comes to work under the influence of these drugs or alcohol, they are liable for “negligent supervision” for any subsequent mistakes that employee makes. Like in negligent hire scenarios, this liability exists even if the employer reasonably should have known that the employee was coming to work under the influence, they do not have to have been put on notice.
Don’t Assume That All Bad Medical Outcomes are Negligence
A patient’s failure to respond to medical care is not necessarily negligence or malpractice. When someone is injured or killed, there is often a strong impulse to assign blame. But not every injury or death results in a successful personal injury case, as sometimes there are bad outcomes even when medical professionals meet their professional obligations. Speaking to an attorney about the facts of your case is vital to attaining an understanding of whether the tragic event a loved one suffered is provable malpractice or simply an unfortunate result of legitimate medical care.
A nursing home injury or death claim calls for an experienced personal injury attorney.
Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if a loved one has been injured or killed as a result of their nursing home care.
Barrett Law has the experience to take on insurance companies and defense counsel that are focused on denying your compensation for the harm your loved one experienced. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.
