Articles Tagged with nursing home abuse

The medical bills and other economic losses associated with older adult falls total over $50 billion per year. Medicare and most private health insurance cover some of, but not all of, these costs. Therefore, many older fall victims could be financially responsible for medical bills they cannot pay. Even if a public or private insurance company covers all these costs, other people pay the price in the form of higher taxes and higher premiums. There is no reason you and I should pay for an injury that someone else negligently caused. 

Liability issues in fall injury claims are even more complex than these financial issues. Generally, landowners have a duty of care to provide safe environments that are free from fall injury hazards. This duty only applies if the nursing home owner, or another property owner, knew, or should have known, about the hazard.

All these complex issues mean that only the most experienced Marietta personal injury lawyer should handle an older adult fall injury claim. Attorneys not only deal with the issues in the case. They also immediately connect victims with the medical help they need. The injuries listed below are often difficult to diagnose and treat. They require a special doctor’s special attention. The first available ER doctor, or the cut-rate doctor an insurance company adjuster approves, simply will not do.

Frequently, a fall puts a person in a nursing home, and a subsequent fall keeps the person there longer than expected. Falls account for 40%of nursing home admissions, and 60% of residents fall at the facility. 

Understaffing and overcrowding contribute to many of these incidents. Groundskeeping and other such maintenance areas are often the first things to get cut when nursing homes have trouble hiring workers. Additionally, since the elderly population is expanding so rapidly, many facilities are almost constantly under construction. Construction zones are hazardous for older adults.

Falls normally cause very serious injuries. A Marietta personal injury attorney can obtain the compensation these victims need and deserve. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.

Unfortunately, elder abuse is extremely common, especially within the confines of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The following article will discuss some signs of nursing home abuse and will provide information regarding how to report suspected cases of nursing home abuse in the state of Georgia.

Most Common Signs of Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes

Just like with any other form of abuse, there are often several warning signs present which indicate that an elderly person is being abused in a nursing home facility, even if that person does not or cannot verbally confirm this fact. Some of the most common warning signs of elder abuse include the following:

Many nursing care facilities in Georgia pressure their residents to sign arbitration agreements. This means that in the event of a dispute, such as allegations of negligence or abuse against the nursing home, the resident waives his or her right to seek a jury trial and instead must allow an arbitrator to hear the case. Nursing homes and other health care providers prefer arbitration because it can limit a victim’s right to discovery–i.e., to seek evidence of abuse or neglect, and the final decision cannot be reviewed in court.

United Health Services of Georgia, Inc. v. Alexander

Judges will enforce nursing home arbitration agreements even when the terms are unfair to residents. But what happens when a family member signs an agreement on behalf of a deceased resident? The Georgia Court of Appeals recently addressed such a case.

Many elderly Georgia residents are victims of nursing home abuse and neglect. In order to avoid potential personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits from injured patients, many nursing homes insist their residents sign “alternative dispute resolution” (ADR) agreements that require any negligence or malpractice claims be submitted to binding arbitration. While arbitration can be beneficial in certain cases, it still requires a potentially vulnerable nursing home resident to forfeit access to the courts and other important legal rights.

Kindred Nursing Centers LP v. Chrzanowski

Georgia courts tend to enforce ADR agreements even where there is evidence that a nursing home resident was not necessarily in their right mind when they purportedly agreed to arbitration. A recent decision by the Georgia Court of Appeals illustrates the uphill climb victims of nursing home abuse—or in the case, their families—face in seeking their day in court.

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