How Staff Are Hiding Signs of Nursing Home Negligence
If you or a loved one are a victim of nursing home negligence, The Law Offices of Cardaro & Peek is committed to helping you uncover the truth and recover the compensation you deserve.
Signs of nursing home negligence can take many forms, from malnutrition to unexplained injuries. Wrongdoings by nursing home staff can be grounds to bring medical malpractice or personal injury lawsuits against the facilities. Unfortunately, nursing home negligence is a prevalent issue in the United States. A report by the U.S. Inspector General determined that an estimated one in five high-risk hospital ER Medicare claims for treatment provided in calendar year 2016 were the result of potential abuse or neglect. Even worse, sometimes the nursing home staff will attempt to hide signs of negligence and abusive behavior towards the elderly residents, making it difficult to establish exactly what happened and what damages were suffered. If you or a loved one are a victim of nursing home negligence, The Law Offices of Cardaro & Peek is committed to helping you uncover the truth and recover the compensation you deserve.
Not Reporting Abuse
The law requires nursing home staff to report instances of abuse towards patients to the proper authority. Sadly, nursing homes may not be diligent in reporting all incidents out of fear of the repercussions of not complying with the law. The U.S. Inspector General’s report also foun d that nursing homes frequently failed to report incidents of abuse to either CMS or local law enforcement. If no one speaks up when they witness another staff member mistreat a patient, the cases never get brought to light.
Failing to Follow Up
If and when allegations of abuse are reported to nursing home administrators or supervisors, the people in power may ignore the report and not follow up with the incident. This further conceals signs of neglect and abuse, and will only be more difficult for one to establish evidence of negligence.
Not Reporting Conditions
Not recording patient information or inaccurately recording conditions can conceal signs of neglect. Caregivers may fail to check for injuries or changes to the resident’s health, which creates problems down the line if someone is treating the patient based on inaccurate information.
Falsifying Records
Documentation is kept for most aspects of a patient’s care. Falsifying the information on these documents indicates nursing staff negligence by failure to follow protocols.
Lying about Neglect
Nursing home staff may lie about neglect to protect their jobs. Some caregivers lie to hide a careless mistake that caused harm to the patient while under their watch, such as a fall. Unfortunately, there are even instances where caregivers caused intentional abuse and lied about the injury.
Contact The Law Offices of Cardaro & Peek, LLC Today
Do you believe that you or your loved one has suffered as a result of medical malpractice or medical neglect? You need to talk to an experienced team of local lawyers today.
The lawyers at Cardaro & Peek, LLC have the experience and resources necessary to investigate and litigate all types of medical claims throughout Maryland and Washington D.C. Cardaro & Peek, LLC has medical personnel on staff and has access to nationally recognized, board-certified physicians and other experts, to assist in the investigation, analysis, and prosecution of all types of medical malpractice claims. If you or a loved one have experienced malpractice, give us a call at 410-752-6166. Please visit our website www.cardarolaw.com and follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn for more information.
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