Types of Indiana Nursing Home Neglect

Discovering your loved one has been the victim of nursing home neglect in Indiana is a difficult pill to swallow. Because there may be hesitation from the patient to report such abuse, the red flags for neglect can sometimes be tough to spot. Here are some common accidents and injuries that are often associated with nursing home neglect cases.

Falls

The CDC found 25% of seniors suffer injuries from falling each year. For those patients, falling once doubles the chances of falling again. Chronic conditions like low circulation, vertigo, and diabetes can increase the chances of a fall. Since our bodies have lower bone density and muscle tone as we age, falling is a more serious risk the older we get. In fact, more than 95% of hip fractures are caused by falling.

Because of these higher risks, some residents have mandatory procedures as part of their plan of care at the nursing home. Medical staff is always on-call and should know which patients need help with mobility and self-care. Getting in and out of bed, a wheelchair, a bathtub, or even using the toilet are times when seniors are at high risk for falls.

CDC data shows that 2.8 million older people are treated in emergency departments each year for injuries caused by a fall, and many falls don’t get reported. Falls in a nursing home are a sign that you or your loved one may not be getting adequate care. A staff member that fails to provide a resident with the cane or walker they need and causes a fall can be considered negligent or neglectful.

Bedsores

Studies have shown that 1 in 10 nursing home residents suffers from bedsores at any point in time. Bed sores can be easily prevented, so their occurrence should sound the warning bells that a resident is being neglected. Bedsores occur when a person is in a single position for a long time. Patients who aren’t moved regularly to redistribute weight and allow the skin to breathe develop very painful open wounds. Bedsores get infected easily and can require expensive medical attention. Because bedsores are easily avoidable, their occurrence in a nursing home setting is often due to staff’s direct neglect.

Risk of Community-Acquired Infections in Assisted Living

The CDC estimates that up to 3 million serious infections occur each year in nursing homes, leading to as many as 380,000 deaths. In any community environment, proper safety and sanitation practices are mandatory to stop infections, diseases, and bacteria from spreading. This is especially important in a nursing home setting, where patients often take medications that suppress their immune systems.

Medical professionals are trained to take extra safety precautions when they are working in an assisted living facility to prevent contagions from spreading. If they don’t follow those procedures, the residents may get illnesses they otherwise would not have, simply because the bacteria or virus was carried from one patient to another.

Neglect and Abuse From Nurses

While it might be true that doctors are the ones who make the big decisions for the patients, small medical errors made by a nurse can have serious consequences. From not recognizing that a patient needs immediate care, improper care of a patient which leads to bedsores, to administering an incorrect drug or dosage during a procedure, these little medical mistakes can lead to horrible outcomes. Neglect at nursing homes or assisted living facility neglect is a serious form of medical negligence and should be handled with the help of a local medical malpractice law firm.

Situations may include:

  • Failure to adequately monitor a patient
  • Dispensing medication to the wrong patient
  • Failure to follow a doctor’s orders
  • Performing procedures improperly or without adequate training
  • Providing the doctor with incorrect information

What Is Forced Arbitration?

In September of 2016, the federal government changed some of the rules that apply to nursing homes that collect Medicare and Medicaid payments. One specific change currently under dispute in court is that nursing homes would no longer be allowed to require their residents to agree to forced arbitration.

A forced arbitration clause in the contract means that if the person signing the contract has a problem with the nursing home provider, the nursing home reserves the right to force any legal dispute to be arbitrated out of court. That means residents or their representatives who have concerns or problems with the practices at the nursing home will likely never have the opportunity to get their case in front of a judge and jury. Instead, the dispute is handled by a professional arbitrator—always one hired by the nursing home to preserve their best interest.

This rule was created by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The AARP reports that around 65% of nursing home residents are supported primarily by Medicare and/or Medicaid, so for a nursing home, staying afloat financially would be difficult without CMS paying the bills. CMS proposed this change because they believe forced arbitration leads to unsafe conditions for their patients, and they don’t want to pay for patients to live in those conditions. They propose that while nursing homes could still offer the option of an arbitration clause to residents, they should no longer be able to require that a senior accept one to become a resident.

But in November, a federal court ruled that CMS had exceeded its authority with this ban. The court stated that CMS had not proven forced arbitration clauses present a serious enough risk in and of themselves to patient safety to make the ban legal.

How Much Time Do I Have to File a Claim in Indiana?

Nursing home neglect is a very real issue for the elderly and their families. The Indiana Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Alldredge v. The Good Samaritan Home is a prime example of poor judgment on behalf of the nursing home, and a big win for the family and their lawyers who fought back against this nursing home that tried to hide its wrongdoing.

In the case, the Court of Appeals of Indiana found that the doctrine of fraudulent concealment tolls the two-year time limit for filing a lawsuit for the wrongful death of a loved one. The case revolved around the death of Venita Hargis, who was a resident at a nursing home owned and operated by the Defendant, Good Samaritan Home, Inc. (“Good Samaritan”). Venita died after another resident attacked and pushed her to the floor, but a nurse at Good Samaritan told Venita’s daughter that she died after falling down some stairs. Venita’s daughter did not learn the truth until three years later, when a former employee at Good Samaritan finally told her what actually happened to her mother. By the time Venita’s daughter knew the truth, the two-year time limit to file a lawsuit for Venita’s wrongful death had expired. That did not stop the lawyers who fought for justice for Venita, and a lawsuit alleging wrongful death and fraudulent concealment was filed against Good Samaritan 23 months after Venita’s daughter finally learned the truth.

Good Samaritan filed a motion for summary judgment against Venita’s estate on the grounds that the lawsuit was filed more than two years after Venita’s death and therefore was outside the filing period. The trial court agreed and entered judgment against Venita’s estate that the claim was barred. In making its decision, the trial court found that there is a two-year time limit to open an estate for the purpose of pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit. After that time limit expired, the nursing home’s fraudulent concealment only permitted Venita’s estate to be opened within a reasonable time after learning the information that led to the discovery of the truth. Noting that Venita’s estate was not opened for a year and a lawsuit was not filed until 23 months after discovering the truth about her death, the trial court found that the lawsuit was not timely filed.

In an important decision for plaintiffs in Indiana, The Court of Appeals of Indiana overturned part of the lower court’s decision and found that the two-year time limit to open an estate and file a lawsuit was tolled by Good Samaritan’s fraudulent concealment of the facts. The rule in Indiana is that plaintiffs now have a full two years from the time the concealment is (or should have been) discovered to open an estate and file their wrongful death claims. This decision gives plaintiffs who have been deceived by defendants a longer time to file a wrongful death lawsuit and prevents the defendants who conceal their wrongdoing from using these time limits to their tactical advantage.

Damages We Can Recover

There are various factors that lead to nursing home abuse and neglect, the most common being inadequate training. Nursing homes are notorious for their high turnover rates and are always understaffed, meaning sometimes new hires are immediately thrown into their new environment lacking the training they need to properly care for residents. Whatever the case may be, our attorneys can thoroughly investigate your accident and document the negligence that occurred so we can collect compensation.

Damages we’ve recovered for nursing home residents include:

  • Medical expenses, including costs of surgery, medications, and hospitalizations
  • Future costs of care, including physical therapy, counseling, and costs of transportation to and from doctor’s offices
  • Pain and suffering

Advocating for yourself or a loved one suffering from nursing home neglect in Indiana is a tall order. That’s why you need the right attorney on your side. Have you been injured as a result of medical malpractice? Our lawyers at Christie Farrell Lee & Bell have experience and can help you explore your options in a free case evaluation.

Call our Indianapolis nursing home abuse attorneys if you suspect you or someone you love has been wrongfully harmed 317-488-5500.