How can your family prove nursing home management negligence? Here are the steps that can be taken.
Sometimes families who have witnessed a loved one being hurt through nursing facility abuse or neglect feel like they are in a David vs. Goliath situation when it comes to proving nursing home management negligence. After all, a growing number of nursing facilities in Missouri, Illinois and across the country are now run by large corporate entities, many of which have “deep pockets” to defend against personal injury and medical malpractice lawsuits.
Our firm takes on these large nursing home corporations and their teams of lawyers.
We level the playing field. We have successfully litigated personal injury lawsuits against many big corporations and have recovered millions of dollars from them on behalf of our clients.
Our beliefs are simple and our style is tenacious.
If you or your loved one has been injured due to nursing home neglect or abuse, you or your loved one deserve full and fair compensation from those responsible. In pursuing the claims of our clients, we do not take short cuts, nor do we work for quick settlements at low calue. We retain experts when needed (including physicians and medical experts), we depose defendants, we fully investigate claims, and we take whatever actions are desirable to build and advance the claims of our clients.
This is the only way to position a case for full and fair settlement. If a fair settlement is not forthcoming, we will take our client’s case to trial.
As personal injury trial lawyers, we have litigated and one numerous cases. Defendants and their attorneys are aware of our trial record, and we believe this serves as a strong inducement for fair settlement negotiations.
Defense methods sometimes used by large nursing home corporations
In a case for nursing home neglect or abuse, it’s important to realize that some corporate defendants will employ various methods to discourage plaintiffs or thwart their attorneys’ attempts to obtain valuable evidence during discovery (the phase of litigation when both sides request documents and evidence from the opposing parties). Their defense strategy will often revolve around trying to avoid or block discovery, and to postpone the case. They know that in general, the more problems that can be caused and the more delay they can create, the more likely it will be that the injured will be willing to settle for an unreasonably low amount.
We object when defendants seek to avoid and delay legal proceedings, and we seek court instructions to compel defendants to comply with the litigation process. When appropriate, we will ask the court for sanctions when defendants seek to disregard their obligations or engage in improper stalling tactics.
Documents often sought in nursing home neglect and abuse cases
Families who are considering going after a facility to prove nursing home management negligence shouldn’t let these types of tactics care them off from seeking justice. We will be their voice and will challenge defendants at every step of the discovery process if they do not comply with court and litigation requirements.
We will often seek documents such as:
• Employee lists and files;
• Courts typically view a request for these documents as a valid way to prove whether a nursing home engaged in sufficient levels of hiring, training, staffing and oversight of personnel to keep residents safe.
• Employee files may include documents like:
• Work history, evaluations and disciplinary actions;
• Background checks and criminal records;
• Pay status and actual hours worked;
• Vacation requests;
• Licensing information, continuing education transcripts and job-related certifications; and
• Resignation letters or complaints related to understaffing.
• Other patient and staffing records
• Courts will often uphold these requests so long as they are narrowly limited in order to protect the privacy rights of other patients and are intended to show a pattern of neglect or dangerous conditions or to discredit certain defense claims.
• Payroll and financial information; Courts recognize that plaintiffs need access to documents showing patient census (the number of residents at a given time) and acuity records (the level of care required by each patient), along with records showing the actual hours worked by employees (such as time card or “punch detail” reports) in order to establish whether a nursing home was understaffed.
These types of documents could include:
• Daily assignment sheets of nursing staff members;
• Schedules showing which nurses and nursing assistants were supposed to be working while a resident was present;
• Payroll records which show who actually worked during those times;
• Time cards that can further prove actual hours worked by specific employees; and
• Census reports which set out a facility’s population on a given day.
• Incident and accident reports; These can be critical to nursing home management negligence because patient charts rarely actually detail the background or cause of an accident. They can also establish whether a pattern of negligence existed, such as repeated accidents or regular understaffing putting residents at risk. While nursing homes will often try and withhold these, federal regular 42 C.F.R. §483.10(b)(2) requires facilities to provide all records (including accident and incident reports) relating to a resident to that resident or legal representatives within 24 hours after receiving an oral or written request.
• Employee manuals
• Manuals that set out training, policy and procedural guidelines often can be used to establish what a nursing home’s “standard of care” was for nursing staff.
We have experience in methods used to prove nursing home management negligence and believe that injured victims have the right to pursue financial restitution in a civil court of law. There is no fee for our services unless you recover and we offer a free, no-obligation consultation so that you can meet with us.
Disclaimer: The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.
Source: “Health Care and the Law: How to prove management flaws in nursing homes” by Mark R. Kosieradzki, Martha M. Eastman, and Joel E. Smith. October 2004, Volume 40, No. 10.
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