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Will Nursing Home Lawsuits Improve Safety?

Will nursing home lawsuits be the key to safe nursing homes? Last month, a jury in Humboldt County California shocked the nursing home industry nationwide by handing over a verdict of $677 million against a nursing home charged in the death of a patient.  As expected, the verdict has galvanized the tort reform lobby into stoking fears about the death of the nursing home industry from such large verdicts.  However, California nursing home abuse lawyers welcome the verdict, and believe that it sends out the right warning to these facilities.

The verdict relates to a class-action lawsuit filed by representatives of more than 32,000 residents at the Eureka Healthcare and the Rehabilitation Facility, who suffered neglect because of a chronic nursing shortage.  It wasn’t uncommon to find residents at the facility soaked in their own urine, with no staff members available around to change them.  However, the verdict was a surprise even for California nursing home abuse lawyers.  The case has also raised questions about the safety of residents in nursing homes that are run solely for profit.

The nursing home industry experienced a boom in the early 2000′s.  Pretty soon, Wall Street investment firms were circling many of these facilities, looking to get a piece of the pie.  The commercialization of these nursing homes meant however that the health and safety of residents was at risk, because these companies planned their operations around the bottom line.  For instance, at some of these facilities, staff strength was cut down significantly, to keep profits high and stock prices higher.  Many companies who invested in nursing homes during this period followed these tactics of cutting down payrolls to keep stock prices high.

According to California nursing home advocates, staff shortage is a major problem facing nursing homes in California.  That doesn’t mean that other facilities around the country have a much better record, but in California, nursing homes should find it much easier to have the required number of staff numbers because the state has relaxed staffing requirements.  In California, nursing homes are required to have 3.2 nursing hours for every patient on record.  That is one hour less than the federal standards which recommend 4.1 nursing hours per resident.  Even with these relaxed standards, there are far too many nursing homes in California that function with pared down staff. Hopefully, nursing home lawsuits will bring more aware to some of the tragedies that occur.

Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. which owns the Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation Facility is likely to face bankruptcy as a result of the massive verdict.  That is of course, unless the verdict is reduced, or the company manages to reach a settlement with plaintiffs.

In this case, families of the residents of the facility were able to go to court to get justice for their loved ones.  That doesn’t always happen.   Families have a major role to play in identifying abuse or neglect of their loved ones.  It’s important to understand that your loved one might not always be able to articulate to you that he or she is being neglected or ill treated.  You have to look for signs of neglect, and take action.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of nursing home abuse. Please visit our website at http://www.robertreeveslaw.com/. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us at contact@robertreeveslaw.com.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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