Experienced Attorneys Protecting the Rights of the Neglected and Abused
The Nursing Home Law Center is committed to providing the legal resources necessary to hold negligent facilities accountable.
New York Nursing Home Abuse Neglect Lawyer
Licensed in New York
When a family can no longer provide round-the-clock care for an aging parent, placing someone they love in a state nursing home is often the last resort.
The New York nursing home abuse attorneys at the Nursing Home Law Center at (800) 926-7565 provide legal representation for victims of mistreatment.
Contact us today to schedule a free case evaluation to discuss filing a compensation claim to recover your damages.
Attorney Jennifer Wilson is licensed to practice law in New York and serves people across the state. Ms. Wilson’s primary office is located at One Penn Plaza, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10119.
Placing a Loved One in the Hands of the New York Caregiving Facility
Entrusting your family member’s well-being to a group of professionals requires a great deal of confidence in the medical and nursing staff who will provide their care.
Most families hope that a senior care facility will provide them with a decent quality of life. They never expect to learn their loved one has suffered injury, abuse, or neglect after their admittance to a nursing home.
As the US population ages, poor treatment of residents in nursing care facilities continues to be a mostly hidden problem in our society. According to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), more than three million Americans reside in nursing homes.
Nearly one in three of these homes fails to meet federal standards for safety and quality of care in the State of New York and across the nation. While the true prevalence of nursing home abuse and neglect remains unknown, experts believe it to be quite pervasive.
The NCEA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized the challenges in gathering accurate data and reporting problems. Most injury cases nationwide likely go unreported.
A New York Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Can Help
Do you believe that someone you love was abused or neglected in a New York City nursing home?
Contact an experienced New York personal injury attorney and abuse lawyer at the Nursing Home Law Center to start an investigation today.
Common Neglect and Abuse Cases
A New York nursing home abuse lawyer from NHLC can represent injured victims and family members who lost a loved one through wrongful death.
Typically, there is a common thread connecting all types of injury, negligence, and abusive behavior by staff members, visitors, employees, and other residents in nursing homes that include:
- Physical abuse involving a wide assortment of harm and injury caused by punching, pinching, hitting, tripping, force-feeding, unauthorized restraint, and more,
- Mental abuse is often challenging to detect but may involve yelling, emotional manipulation, verbal abuse, insults, harassment, threats, and humiliation,
- Sexual abuse that might involve any form of sexual activity without consent or against the resident’s will, which is sometimes identified by genital bleeding or bruising, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, or other behaviors,
- Negligence caused by substandard care when the nursing staff fails their legal duty in medicating, hydrating, feeding, treating, or assisting the resident with their hygiene,
- Medical malpractice that might involve a misdiagnosis, facility-acquired bedsores (pressure wounds, pressure ulcers), or failing to treat the patient’s condition that leads to additional harm or death,
If you suspect your loved one is a victim of nursing home negligence or wrongful behavior, contact our New York, NY nursing injury law firm for immediate legal intervention.
The Prevalence of Senior Home Abuse and Neglect
The Prevalence of Senior Home Abuse and Neglect
NYC is the most populous city in the nation and the financial capital of the world. As the historic gateway through which most legal immigrants have migrated and continue to migrate into the country, New York City is also home to an incredibly diverse population.
Many aging immigrants have only half the income of American-born seniors and are twice as likely to be ineligible for Social Security benefits.
The children and other relatives support many immigrant nursing home patients who have the right to demand accountability when nursing home abuse and lack of care results in an injury or death. Nursing care is costly, and the nursing home staff is paid to treat every resident with respect and dignity.
While federal and New York state laws exist to protect nursing home residents, some facility operators disregard the law while pursuing profits and remaining understaffed or staffed with low-paid, medically untrained nurses and nursing assistants. The practice of putting profits first places all elders at risk.
Sadly, New York State nursing homes and assisted living facilities are not an exception to this national trend. An investigation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that 195 (almost one-third) of the state’s 619 nursing homes had serious violations and deficiencies that led to substandard care.
According to a comprehensive Nursing Home Resident Abuse and Complaint Investigation Report, published by the state Department of Health, the department investigated 12,343 allegations against New York, NY nursing homes in 2016, an eight percent increase from the year before.
Of those cases, 11,217 (ninety-one percent) alleged violations of federal or state regulation by the provider, and 1,126 (nine percent) alleged nursing home neglect and abuse by an individual.
Medical Malpractice in Nursing Homes
Has your loved one’s health declined, and you suspect medical mistakes by doctors, nurses, and nurse’s aides are to blame?
Without legal assistance from a New York, NY nursing home abuse lawyer, it may be extremely challenging to get answers from the administration.
Medical malpractice is a legal term that defines health care professional negligence that eventually injures the patient or leads to wrongful death. Malpractice occurs when the medical team deviates from established standards of care as defined by the medical community.
Medical malpractice is never acceptable in cases where the harm could have been prevented.
However, proving malpractice in a New York court of law might be difficult without first building a solid case that shows proof that:
- The nursing home owed the resident a duty of care in a safe environment,
- The nursing home, Administrator, doctors, nurses, or nurse’s aides breached their duty to provide the established standard of care,
- As a result of the health care providers’ reach, your loved one was harmed, suffered an injury, or died, and,
- The breach of providing the standard of care led to the victim’s damages,
Many families place their loved ones in a nursing facility to ensure that their medical requirements and daily care needs are met. Nearly all nursing homes throughout the State of New York provide the best competent care. However, some facilities do not live up to current standards.
Common types of medical malpractice that harm or kill nursing home residents include:
- Medication administration or dosage errors,
- Mistakes made by the nursing staff, Physician, or contracted health care provider,
- Equipment and device malfunctions,
- Patient harm caused by dehydration or malnutrition,
- Ignoring or allowing the use of unsanitary supplies,
- Failing to correct unsanitary conditions,
- Not addressing the patient’s medical problems or needs
Medical malpractice might also involve nursing home abuse and neglect when the staff, employees, visitors, or other residents willfully inflict injury. Some patients experienced intimidation by the staff or dealt with unreasonable confinement (social isolation).
Some patients suffer severe punishment that results in pain, mental distress, emotional anguish, or physical harm. Alternatively, negligence is often the result of failing to provide the resident services and goods required to avoid mental illness, physical harm, or emotional distress.
Filing a New York Nursing Home Abuse Claim Has Strict Time Limits
According to New York law, the amount of time an injured victim could file a nursing home abuse or neglect claim is structured on the state’s statute of limitations. Because of that, it is crucial to act immediately.
If you or your experienced nursing home abuse attorney determines that medical malpractice caused your loved one’s harm, file a claim now. If you wait too long, and the statute of limitations expires on your case, you are forever barred from seeking compensation and justice.
Did you lose a loved one through a preventable death caused by malpractice? If so, surviving family members in New York have the legal right to file a nursing home abuse or neglect lawsuit against the facility.
Contact a nursing home abuse lawyer at (800) 926-7565 now to schedule a free consultation to determine if you are eligible for compensation.
Let our law office lawyers’ years of experience litigating help resolve nursing home abuse and neglect cases at the state and federal level work to your family’s benefit.
Many Nursing Home Residents Develop Life-Threatening Bed Sores
Family members are often horrified to learn that their loved one acquired a preventable pressure wound that could have been prevented in the nursing home, assisted living facility, or long-term care center.
New York nursing home neglect cases have risen significantly over the last few decades, as many more elderly citizens enter their retirement years. Determining who is responsible for nursing home neglect can be complicated.
According to state law, the Administrator, doctors, nurses, nursing aides, and other health care providers must follow established standards of care when providing medical attention and hygiene assistance.
Unfortunately, many patients become the victims of medication errors, special dietary needs mix-ups, respiratory malpractice, or other nursing team mistakes.
Sometimes negligence is the result of intention, where a member of the nursing team purposely fails to ensure the patient’s needs are being met. Nurses and nursing aides might allow the injured victim to lie in their soiled undergarments because they did not promptly answer call lights.
Other times, the staff may neglect the victim at feeding time or allow them to live a life of social isolation away from group activities and other residents. Without supervision by the Director of Nursing, many residents suffer hours, days, or weeks befor e a family member or friend finds and lives in squalor.
The resident’s hair might be dirty, their linens or clothing unwashed, or they may have gone weeks without having a bath. In some cases, the nursing staff neglects the mobility-challenged patient spending hours in a wheelchair or bed without moving, creating the perfect environment to develop a facility-acquired pressure sore.
Are you a family member, friend, visitor, or employee that has identified nursing home abuse and needs a New York, NY neglect attorney?
If so, contact a nursing home neglect and abuse lawyer now to take immediate legal action. Intervention can ensure that the innocent victim receives the best care in the safest environment.
Recognizing Nursing Home Neglect
Facility understaffing, overworked employees, and bad hiring practices that fail to identify previous abusers are common occurrences in an abusive or negligent environment. Nearly every nursing home abuse or neglect case takes away the patient’s dignity and respect that every human deserves.
Many New York nursing home neglect cases involve abusive behavior or lack of care inflicted upon the facility’s patients.
Family members often recognize a noticeable behavioral change in their loved one or see that the nursing staff has ignored their medical needs, daily necessities, or personal hygiene assistance.
Being proactive in your loved one’s life can help prevent negligence and mistreatment. While it might be challenging, consider visiting the nursing facility at odd times of the day and night if you suspect that your loved one is being mistreated, abused, or neglected.
Additionally, talk with a nursing home abuse attorney for legal advice. A lawyer working on your family’s behalf can provide counseling and insight into handling the legal process to stop the mistreatment now.
Your loved one may be living in unsanitary living conditions where they do not receive adequate showers, live in filthy clothing, or sleep on dirty bed sheets. Some facilities are overrun with cockroaches, flies, and other insects that continue to be a problem in the days, weeks, or months after receiving an investigative citation to clean the place up.
You may have noticed the signs of malnourishment or dehydration when the nursing staff fails to feed your loved one sufficient calories, vitamins, and supplements to support their health. In some cases, residents require assistance during feeding when the staff drops off the food tray without providing help.
Taking Legal Action
The victim and family members could file a civil lawsuit against the nursing home if their loved one suffered harm through neglect, abuse, or mistreatment.
If their injuries result from an unsupervised fall, money was stolen from their bank account, or a medication error caused an injury, the victim has a right to seek financial compensation to recover damages.
New York State law allows surviving family members who lost eleven through a preventable death to seek and obtain compensation from the nursing home, Administrator, medical professionals, and others responsible for the loss.
Typical New York nursing home abuse cases are based on various contributing factors, including:
- Improper supervision
- Failing to follow the plan of care
- Doorway hazards that lead to slips, trips, and falls
- Overmedicating
- Unauthorized physical or chemical restraint
- Hazardous conditions creating unsafe environments
- Unsanitary living conditions
- Life-threatening facility-acquired pressure wounds
- HIPPA violations
- Physical assault
- Sexual abuse
- Abusive behavior involving threatening, intimidation, and humiliation
- Financial exploitation, including theft of funds and belongings
- Lack of assistance with daily activities
- Failing to follow established protocols for the resident’s health and well-being
Hire a New York Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer
You do not want someone they love to become part of any of these statistics. The New York nursing home abuse attorneys of Nursing Home Law Center, LLC are committed to ensuring that all seniors are treated with dignity and respect regardless of their history or way of life.
Was someone you love abused, neglected, mistreated, or did they die unexpectedly at a New York City nursing home? Contact the Nursing Home Law Center to discuss your claim for compensation during a free case evaluation.
A New York nursing home abuse lawyer from NHLC has extensive experience litigating cases involving mistreatment, medical malpractice, sexual abuse, medication errors, elder abuse in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and long-term care centers. Let our nursing home abuse lawyers’ years of experience work for your family too.
Call us now at (800) 926-7565 now to schedule a free case evaluation with a New York nursing home neglect attorney.
All information you share with your nursing home abuse attorney remains confidential through an attorney-client relationship. We have represented clients throughout New York State, including in New York City, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan.