Nursing homes offer a safe environment for seniors who can no longer safely live at home on their own: who require more support, perhaps, than they can receive in their own homes, or who want to live in a safer environment than they have on their own.

Most seniors trust that when they choose a nursing home, they have chosen a safe place to live and receive the care they need.

Not all Clearwater nursing homes provide the standard of care seniors expect or require, however.

When vulnerable seniors suffer serious injuries because of the nursing home’s negligence, from dehydration or malnourishment to slip and fall injuries, bedsores, or injuries from lack of medical treatment, those seniors may deserve compensation for those injuries.

Contact a Clearwater nursing home abuse lawyer to learn more about the compensation you or a loved one may deserve after suffering mistreatment. Call now to speak with a dedicated personal injury attorney.

Perenich Law Can Help with Your Next Steps Following Nursing Home Negligence in Clearwater

After suffering negligence in a nursing home, you may have little idea what to do next. Whether you suffered negligence yourself and want to pursue compensation or a loved one suffered a serious injury in a nursing home due to negligence, and you want to take the next steps toward justice, our capable Clearwater nursing home abuse attorneys can help.

We help our clients fully investigate nursing home negligence to understand its causes.

Nursing home negligence can stem from many challenges, from understaffing problems to poor nursing home policies that prevent consequences for caregivers who fail to provide the standard of care their charges deserve. Our nursing home neglect attorneys in Clearwater will help investigate all the circumstances that led to that negligence, including providing more information about who may bear liability for that negligence.

We go over our clients’ full right to compensation.

When you file a nursing home negligence claim, you will typically pursue compensation through the nursing home’s insurance policy. The insurance company often will not automatically provide the compensation you deserve for your injuries and suffering. Instead, the insurance company may provide you with a settlement offer based on a percentage of the financials you claim.

At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we help make sure that our clients understand the compensation they really deserve, which can increase the odds that they will recover the right verdicts and settlements for them.

We help negotiate on our clients’ behalf.

Dealing with the insurance company on your own can prove incredibly frustrating, especially if the insurance company tries to pressure you into accepting a low settlement offer or even tries to deny your right to file a claim.

You may deserve considerable compensation, but the insurance company will try to pay out as little as possible to protect its financial resources. We can help take over those negotiations on our clients’ behalf, which can both decrease their frustration and increase the odds that the insurance company will play fair and provide the compensation they really deserve.

Common Signs of Nursing Home Negligence in Clearwater

Loved ones monitoring the status of a senior in a nursing home may not spot negligence immediately. Sometimes, they may start to notice signs in the nursing home before they notice those signs in their loved ones directly.

They may, for example, notice chronic staffing challenges, including an inadequate number of nurses on staff or a high amount of staffing turnover, which could indicate that the staff neglects some of its residents to get as much done as possible during the day. Other times, loved ones may notice signs of neglect in the senior in the nursing home.

Common signs of neglect crop up more often than many people think.

Malnutrition and Dehydration

Nursing homes typically provide food for their residents. They may deliver the food directly to their rooms or provide them with the opportunity to come to a communal dining room to enjoy their meals. Residents who cannot get to the dining room on their own need to have delivery options.

Sometimes, residents may even need aid with food and drink consumption. Unfortunately, some caregivers will not make sure that seniors receive adequate food and water in a nursing home, which may lead to dehydration or malnutrition.

Bedsores

Patients who cannot move safely in bed may need help from nursing home staff in moving on a more regular basis. If patients do not move regularly, it may put too much pressure on the skin over sensitive areas, especially bony areas of the body.

These areas may quickly develop into bedsores, also known as pressure ulcers. Pressure sores can heal with proper treatment, including shifting the patient off of that area and keeping it clean and dry. However, some patients will not receive adequate care to take care of their bedsores, which may cause more serious complications.

Inadequate Hygiene

Nursing homes must assist with their residents’ regular tasks of daily living. That may include help bathing and dressing. Sometimes, however, busy staff members may fail to provide adequate care to their charges.

Patients may end up wearing the same clothes for several days or not bathing for some time. Combative patients may have particular difficulty taking care of those basic tasks, especially if they have Alzheimer’s or dementia. Loved ones may notice that a senior starts to smell or has the same stains on a set of clothing each time they visit.

Untreated Medical Conditions

As part of their services, nursing homes offer the assistance that many seniors need in managing their daily medical care. They may need to issue medications or aid in basic medical tasks. If seniors in a nursing home develop new symptoms, the nursing home may need to see to it that they receive medical attention promptly.

In nursing homes where neglect grows more problematic, seniors may have untreated medical conditions. They may not receive treatment for new conditions or have a long wait before they can see a doctor. Existing medical conditions, which the senior may have managed adequately in the past, may start to show more symptoms and problems. The more those problems grow, the more long-lasting their impact on the senior.

Frequent Injuries

Some seniors have a greater risk of injury than others. They may suffer from disorientation or struggle to get in and out of bed alone. Some, especially those who suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia, may not realize that they have put themselves in a dangerous situation until an injury occurs.

Nursing homes must put measures in place to help them watch over those seniors and decrease the risk of serious injury. However, in some cases, staff members may not keep a close enough eye on the seniors in their care, leading to more common injuries.

Since frequent injuries could also indicate nursing home abuse, loved ones who notice a senior with frequent injuries should take care to observe those conditions and call us to investigate if they see them.

Withdrawal or Emotional Distress

Nursing homes need to care for seniors’ emotional needs as well as their physical ones. Sometimes, over-stretched nursing home staff may fail to provide care and compassion to their senior residents. Those seniors, especially those who may not have a robust support system filled with friends and family members, may have a hard time adjusting to a more severe environment.

They may feel isolated, which can lead to them withdrawing from other connections to protect themselves or to make life easier. Sometimes, seniors who suffer severe neglect may turn cold or difficult to their other loved ones, especially if the nursing home staff engages in emotional abuse or makes it difficult for them to make connections in other areas.

Determining Who Bears Liability for Clearwater Nursing Home Neglect

Nursing home neglect cases can become complicated. Most obviously, the nursing home that allows neglect to occur will bear liability for any injuries that senior residents suffer as a result of that neglect. However, in some cases, other entities may also bear liability for that neglect.

Does the nursing home get staff from an outside staffing agency, especially as staffing issues become more serious? The staffing agency may bear liability for sending poorly trained staff members or for failing to properly screen staff members who have a history of abusing or neglecting residents under their care.

Does a doctor work directly for the nursing home, or see patients regularly? If the doctor does not provide the care those patients need or does not report signs of neglect as they appear, the doctor may bear liability for instances of nursing home neglect.

Identifying all parties that bear liability for nursing home neglect can prove critical. Not only can identifying them help your loved one pursue the full compensation deserved for neglect-based injuries, it can help hold those individuals accountable and prevent neglect of other seniors in the future.

What Compensation Can You Recover for Clearwater Nursing Home Neglect?

Following neglect in a Clearwater nursing home, the neglected senior may deserve compensation for those losses. The compensation you can recover, as a neglected nursing home resident, may depend on several factors: most notably, the extent of your injuries.

A nursing home negligence lawyer in Clearwater cannot guarantee the compensation you can recover for your injuries but can help you seek the compensation you deserve. Your nursing home neglect claim will potentially include:

Compensation for Medical Costs

Nursing home neglect can result in substantial medical costs for injured parties. You may need to spend considerable time in recovery, especially if you have suffered serious injuries. In some cases, you may have medical bills that pile up substantially over time: the cost of repeat emergency visits if a nursing home does not prevent you from falling, for example, or the cost of ongoing increased medical treatments because the nursing home staff does not help you manage an existing condition.

Those medical costs will typically form the foundation of a nursing home neglect claim.

Compensation for Moving Expenses and Increased Nursing Home Costs

Sometimes, you may have to leave your current nursing home after suffering substantial neglect. Many nursing home residents find that their health deteriorates to the point that they need a higher level of care. Sometimes, they may need increased short-term care as they recover from serious acute injuries or get existing conditions back under control. Other times, however, nursing home residents who have suffered extreme neglect might need to permanently move to a facility that offers a higher overall level of care.

If you have to move to a new nursing home as a result of the neglect you suffered, you may have the right to claim compensation for moving expenses as well as compensation for the ongoing increase in cost that usually comes along with a nursing home that offers a higher level of health support and services.

Compensation for Pain and Suffering

Suffering neglect in a nursing home can cause immense physical and emotional distress. Many people struggle with the weight of the neglect they have suffered. They assumed that the nursing home would offer a safe place, and when the caregivers neglected them instead, it may have created a source of immense trauma.

As part of a nursing home neglect claim, seniors can include compensation for the suffering they faced, including ongoing emotional distress, PTSD, or increased depression or anxiety.

A Clearwater Nursing Home Abuse Attorney Can Help Seek Justice

Suffering negligence in a nursing home can leave your entire family scrambling. Instead of trying to handle those claims on your own, bring in an attorney to help you with your nursing home claim and increase the odds that your loved one will receive the compensation deserved for injuries sustained due to nursing home negligence.

Perenich Law Injury Attorneys can help. Contact us today for a free consultation with a Clearwater nursing home abuse lawyer.

Perenich Law injury Attorneys

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