Nursing Home Abuse Report » Types of Nursing Home Abuse » Taking Legal Action
Signs of Elder Abuse
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How Can You Tell If Your Loved One is a Victim of Abuse?
Medication, diseases and illness make it difficult to detect signs of elder abuse.
Read common signs of elderly abuse
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Taking Legal Action - Should You Sue The Nursing Facility?
If any elder has been abused at a nursing facility, it is institutional abuse. Institutional abuse generally involves abuse committed by a person who has a legal or contractual obligation to care for the elder in a nursing home, foster home, or other similar facility. Nursing homes are licensed and heavily regulated under both federal and state law and are supposed to protect elderly residents from harm.
Elder abuse, especially at a nursing facility is unjustifiable. If your elder relative is a victim of abuse at a nursing facility, you should sue the nursing facility. There are several types of claims you can bring against nursing homes for elder abuse including actions alleging physical, sexual, or verbal abuse, false imprisonment, consumer fraud resulting in financial abuse, and financial exploitation. The victim must be an elder under the State law. This age to be considered an elder varies between states and usually ranges from 60 to 65.
You also file a lawsuit for neglect if the nursing home fails to provide reasonable care or fails to adhere to a specific industry standard and that failure causes injury to your relative.
Suing a nursing home for elder abuse can be a very effective remedy. There are attorneys and law firms all over the country specializing in this area of the law.
If you decide to sue a nursing home for elder abuse, make sure you
- Assemble and organize your evidence
- Document the details and dates of your case against the nursing home.
- Communicate with friends and family who could serve as eye witness testimony.
- Obtain the cooperation of the victim or the victim's Power of Attorney, who alone has the power to demand health care and nursing home records.
- Go to the family doctor or local hospitals to obtain the victim's recent medical records and the medical records dating back to the time of the alleged incident.
- Obtain the reports and flow charts from the Nursing Home.
- Be sure to utilize any copies of substantiated complaint forms from the Division of Licensing and Certification.
- Date and organize all of your evidence so that it can be easily deciphered by you and your legal team.
Reporting Abuse
If you are unsure where to report a case of elder abuse, you can contact an attorney specializing in elder law who can help you with the reporting.
Medicare Eligibility for Nursing Home Care
Medicare will cover nursing home care only if the patient receiving the care needs skilled nursing.
Nursing Home Abuse
Abuse can be physical, emotional, financial and sexual. More ...