Ohio Nursing Home Abuse Lawyers

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When family members place someone they love in a nursing home, they expect they will receive the utmost medical attention, services, and care. They assume that if a loved one requires additional care, such as physical therapy, a doctor's check-up, or dental services, a nursing home will provide this care.

The Ohio nursing home abuse lawyers at Nursing Home Law Center at (800) 926-7565 represent innocent victims of neglect or mistreatment. Was your family member harmed? If so, contact our nursing home abuse attorneys today to schedule a free case evaluation and discuss the merits of filing a compensation case.

The State’s Caregiving Facility Poor Track Record

Unfortunately, thousands of nursing home residents suffer from a lack of mobility and getting the exercise they need in physical therapy programs. Even worse, more residents are the victims of abuse and neglect in the nursing home context.

Medicare routinely inspects, surveys, and investigates filed complaints on every nursing facility in the state of Ohio. According to the federal agency, 212 (thirty-two percent) of the 966 Ohio nursing homes were found to have severe violations and deficiencies that led to harm.

These facilities are now deemed below the national average because they provide their residents with substandard care.

An Ohio Elderly Abuse Attorney Can Help

Was someone you love abused, neglected, mistreated, or did they die prematurely while residing in a nursing facility? Contact the Ohio personal injury attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center today to discuss a claim for compensation during a free case review.

Common types of elder abuse and neglect include:

  • Physical abuse
  • Sexual Assault
  • Malnutrition and dehydration
  • Emotional abuse
  • Facility-acquired pressure wounds
  • Medical malpractice
  • Nursing malpractice
  • Medication errors
  • Avoidable falls
  • Isolation
  • A lack of proper care due to understaffing

Nursing Home Abuse Injury FAQs

What Constitutes Neglect in a Nursing Facility?

According to the National Council on Aging, negligence is usually defined as the specific intent to cause harm or injury to an elder that breaches responsibility for providing quality care. The most common forms of nursing home neglect include:

  • Social or emotional neglect where the staff repeatedly ignores the older adult by leaving them alone or isolating them from others. Emotional abuse is often the result of overstressing nurses working in deeply understaffed facilities
  • Personal hygiene neglect where the nurses and nursing assistants failed to give the resident adequate assistance with cleaning, laundering, bathing, toileting, brushing their teeth, or other necessary hygienic practices
  • Essentials neglect where the staff failed to provide the patient with reasonable water, food, safety, protection, and a clean environment
  • Medical neglect where nurses and doctors failed to provide the resident with sufficient attention, medication, and preventative measures when treating infections, skin sores, cognitive diseases, diabetes, cuts and lacerations, and mobility concerns
What Should I Watch out for in a Nursing Facility?

If you consider putting an aging parent or disabled loved one into a nursing facility, the home you choose will directly impact their level of care. The family should consider discussing the level of service every potential facility provides with a doctor or social worker.

Other considerations include:

  • The location and size of the facility
  • The services the home provides
  • The number and experience of staff members
  • The ratio of care of nursing staff to every resident
  • The level of independence and freedom the facility provides cognitive residents
  • Any red flags that might involve a poor violation history, severe violations, and accessible or incompetent administrators and your gut feeling
What Is the Most Common Cause of Elderly Abuse?

According to the National Council on Aging, financial exploitation is the leading cause of elderly abuse in nursing facilities nationwide. Financial abuse is often the result of caregivers, visitors, or other residents gaining illegal access to the victim's credit cards, bank accounts, and belongings.

What Is the Punishment for Financial Elder Abuse?

The state's Penal Code holds abusive predators criminally accountable for embezzlement, theft, or financial fraud. Victims could seek restitution from their abuser by filing charges of forgery, theft, bribery to hold the abuser responsible.

Many elderly abuse predators face misdemeanor and felony charges. A misdemeanor conviction could result in a monetary fine and jail time. Felony convictions could result in extensive fines and one or more years in prison.

What Is Passive Neglect?

State and federal nursing facility regulators identify neglect as a caregiver's failure to meet the resident's social, physical, medical, and emotional needs. Passive neglect is often caused by an unintentional act where a lack of training or understaffing leads to inappropriate caregiving and causes the victim harm or wrongful death.

Alternatively, active neglect involves caregivers deliberately withholding the resident's necessities that might involve not administering drugs, abandonment, not providing medical care, or failing to give the resident sufficient food, liquids, or clothing.

Most Elder abuse cases involve physical, sexual, emotional, financial, or medical harm. Abusive predators might include the facility, administrator, Director of Nursing, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Certified Nursing Assistants, facility employees, the victim's family members, friends, visitors, or other residents.

Deficiencies in Medical Standards

A research study from the University of California-San Francisco indicates that over twenty-eight percent of OH nursing homes were deficient in maintaining professional standards and providing sufficient quality of care. Researchers found that over forty-five percent of assisted living facilities also had an unsafe environment for residents in a single year.

The insufficient care meant that residents were using equipment in disrepair or that staff members were not professionally trained for transitioning or positioning residents. Residents might have been at a greater risk for suffering from falls in hallways.

Did someone you love suffer harm in any of these ways? If so, speak with an OH nursing home negligence lawyer. An attorney working your family's behalf will investigate the case giving up the attention it deserves.

State Nursing Home Injury Laws

Ohio Nursing Home Abuse LawyersNursing home abuse is a severe issue in the state addressed by the legislature in various statutes. The Adult Protective Services Act and Abuse, Neglect or Misappropriation of Residents' Property at Long-Term Care Facility Act govern residents' treatment in the state.

Under the Abuse Act, one is guilty of abusing a resident if they knowingly or recklessly cause physical harm. The harm could involve using physical or chemical restraint, isolating the resident, or forcing the patient to consume medication as a punishment.

The patient's family can also consult several government agencies to obtain additional information or file a nursing home abuse report. These departments include the OH Department of Health, Department of Aging, Department of Health-Division of Quality Assurance, and the Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

Families searching for the best facility for a loved one might wish to review its historical data by speaking with the local ombudsman. The ombudsman maintains records for all statewide facilities and can provide families with information to help them make the right choice.

Families should pay attention to the facility's historical evidence of abuse or neglect before relocating their loved one into a care home.

Victims and family survivors could file compensation claims against the health care provider, nursing home, nursing staff, and nursing assistants. The damages are paid by the facility and provider's insurance companies up to the policy limits.

Learn More About Your Loved One's Federal Rights

Under the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, nursing home residents have certain rights that might not be trampled upon by administrators or workers. Even abstract rights like the right to dignity might not be impeded under this Act.

Other more practical rights stated in the Act include the right to be free from physical or chemical restraints, the right to be free from neglect and abuse, the right to be informed about medical decisions that impact a care plan, the right to receive comprehensive information about a care plan and the right to have a say in one's medical treatment.

The nursing facility's medical staff must honor any object that the resident makes to forego taking medicine or undergoing surgery. Otherwise, the staff workers might be liable for violating a resident's rights under the Act.

Consult with Our OH Senior Home Lawyers Today

An Ohio nursing home negligence lawyer is ready to provide you with the assistance that you need. Call one of our lawyers to learn more about the rights of someone you love and whether any compensation might be available for a violation of these rights.

Our attorneys are ready to help families in areas such as:

We understand that if someone you love was harmed, you need to stand up against the nursing home workers' unethical and profoundly disturbing behavior. Our attorneys can help.

Nursing Home Lawyers Serving Victims of Skin Sores, Pressure Sores & Decubitus Ulcers

Any nursing Home patient's degrading skin sore might be an indicator of neglect by the medical staff. Medical researchers know that all bedsores (pressure wounds; pressure ulcers; decubitus ulcers) could be prevented when the staff follows established healing protocols.

Any facility-acquired pressure ulcer usually indicates that the nursing center's staff is poorly trained, uncaring, or inattentive to the patient's needs.

Pressure wounds are not a warning sign of old age. They occur when pressure from the body makes continual contact with the pad, mattress, bedding material, or wheelchair.

The pressure restricts blood flow, which minimizes the amount of oxygen reaching skin and tissue. Common areas for pressure ulcers include the neck, back of the head, shoulders and shoulder blades, sacrum, buttocks, ankles, toes, and heels.

Pressure wounds could develop in as little as two hours when the patient is immobile. Mobility-challenged individuals, including the bedridden and people in wheelchairs, have the highest potential for developing a pressure wound.

Many residents cannot readjust their body without assistance to alleviate the pressure. However, developing a skin sore is eliminated with routine "turnings" or readjustments by the staff every two hours or less.

Unfortunately, many nursing home administrators focus more on generating profits and less on professionally training nursing home staff to provide premium care for every patient. In some situations, administrators will discharge or relocate the patient to another facility to avoid litigation when the resident develops severe bedsores.

Our OH nursing home lawyers are ready to help your family when a loved one developed a facility-acquired skin sore.

Call (800) 926-7565 Toll-Free for a No Obligation Consultation

Utilizing Skin Sore Stages to Assess A Wound Severity

The medical community categorizes pressure wounds in four specific stages, which include:Ohio Nursing Home

  • Stage I – Tiny red dots or small blisters will appear at the skin's affected area at the beginning stage of a pressure wound. Alleviating the pressure, and keeping it off, is usually required for healing if the skin damage is not permanent.
  • Stage II – When a Stage I sore progresses to an advanced stage, a small crater could appear at the affected area where fatty deposits become exposed. Special wound dressings are necessary during this stage, and all pressure to the affected area must be eliminated until the wound heals completely.
  • Stage III – In this advanced stage, the pressure ulcer has begun to ulcerate significantly, creating a deep crater. In addition to using special wound dressings, debridement, or cutting away the dead tissue is often necessary.

    The healing process at the stage is extensive and can take many months to complete, if possible.
  • Stage IV – In this critically life-threatening stage, the decubitus ulcer usually exposes the patient's bone, muscle, and tendons at the affected site. At this stage, all the damage is most likely permanent.

Debridement is crucial to remove all dead tissue and skin. Developing an infection is likely if the wound is not attended to continuously.

An infection of the bone (osteomyelitis) or blood (sepsis) can place the patient in grave danger. Many nursing home patients succumb to a facility-acquired pressure wound due to an infection.

Legal Representation for Families Coping with an Ohio Pressure Sore Case

Victims suffering a pressure wound can hire a pressure ulcer lawyer to stop the negligent action at the nursing home immediately. A skilled nursing home negligence attorney with years of experience handling medical malpractice claims will take steps to report the abuse to every appropriate nursing facility regulatory agency.

In addition, the law firm can send medically trained personnel to the nursing home to provide immediate medical care.

If you are looking for an attorney to assist with the investigation or prosecution of a nursing home abuse case involving skin sores or other injuries, visit the pages below:

  • Columbus Pressure Ulcer & Nursing Home Attorneys
  • Cleveland Nursing Home Abuse & Bed Sore Lawyers
  • Cincinnati Bed Sore & Nursing Home Neglect Attorneys
  • Toledo Nursing Home & Pressure Wound Lawyers
  • Akron Nursing Home Neglect & Pressure Ulcer Attorneys

Fill out the contact information here to schedule an appointment with an OH pressure ulcer lawyer listed below. These law firms work on contingency, so no upfront fees are paid for their legal services.

Also, they offer a free no-obligation initial consultation to discuss ways to stop the negligence and seek financial compensation for all your damages.

Contact our law firm today or through the contact form to schedule a free consultation. All discussions with our law firm remain confidential through an attorney-client relationship.

Please do not send sensitive information to our law office through voicemail, email, or text message. Our attorneys follow social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid-19 (coronavirus).

Did you notice any signs of nursing home abuse involving your loved one? Take the first step now to open a personal injury case.

Call (800) 926-7565 Toll-Free for a No Obligation Consultation

Nursing Home Negligence

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS
  • 1 year. (OH Rev. Code Ann. §2305.10 – Bodily injury or injury to personal property)
  • Medical malpractice – 1 year with Discovery Rule, but if a claimant gives written notice to the defendant within a one-year limitation period, action can be brought anytime within 180 days after notice. Foreign object cases have an SOL of one year from discovery. Minors have four years from the date of the malpractice. (OH Rev. Code Ann. §2305.113(A))
DAMAGES CAP
  • Noneconomic damages are limited to the greater $250,000, or three times, economic damages, subject to a maximum of $350,000 per plaintiff and a maximum of $500,000 per occurrence. If the plaintiff suffered permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of a limb, loss of a bodily organ system, or permanent physical injury that prevents self-care, then the maximum increases to $500,000 per plaintiff and $1 million per occurrence. (OH Rev. Code Ann. §2323.43)

Wrongful Death

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS
  • 2 years. (OH Rev. Code Ann. §2125.02(D))
DAMAGES CAP
  • None. (OH Rev. Code Ann. §2323.43)

State Resources

Information on OH Nursing Home Abuse & Negligence Lawsuits

Our attorneys have compiled data from settlements and jury verdicts across Ohio to give you an idea as to how cases are valued. Learn more about the cases below:

Related Articles

Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect Resources

Client Reviews

★★★★★
Jonathan did a great job helping my family navigate through a lengthy lawsuit involving my grandmother's death in a nursing home. Through every step of the case, Jonathan kept my family informed of the progression of the case. Although our case eventually settled at a mediation, I really was impressed at how well prepared Jonathan was to take the case to trial. Lisa
★★★★★
After I read Jonathan’s Nursing Home Blog, I decided to hire him to look into my wife’s treatment at a local nursing home. Jonathan did a great job explaining the process and the laws that apply to nursing homes. I immediately felt at ease and was glad to have him on my side. Though the lawsuit process was at times frustrating, Jonathan reassured me, particularly at my deposition. I really felt like Jonathan cared about my wife’s best interests, and I think that came across to the lawyers for the nursing home. Eric