From nursing homes in San Diego County to those elsewhere in Southern California and across the country, staffing shortages can lead to serious resident injuries as a result of passive neglect. In short, when a nursing home does not have a sufficient number of employees to provide appropriate care for residents based on individual resident needs, residents can sustain injuries like bed sores because they are not moving or broken bones in falls when they try to get out of bed or make it to the restroom themselves despite requiring assistance with these activities. According to a recent article in The New York Times, the significant staffing shortages that were identified at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic are persisting in nursing homes throughout the United States, along with problems concerning infection control measures and protocol.

Staffing Problems Could Be “Monumental”

A new report on nursing home safety, discussed by the Times, was recently prepared by the inspector general’s office at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The report cited how the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is responsible for overseeing about 1.2 million nursing home residents nationwide, and for many of those residents at facilities in California and elsewhere, staffing issues are “monumental.” To be sure, the report identified “high levels of burnout, frequent employee turnover, and the burdens of constantly training new employees, some of whom fail to show up for their first day of work.”

If you have an elderly parent or other loved one in a nursing home or assisted-living facility in Los Angeles County, you should always pay close attention so that you can identify possible signs of elder abuse or neglect. In Los Angeles County and across the state of California, protections for elderly adults are far behind those available to seniors in other states, according to a recent report from KTLA news. Indeed, that report cites a recent study conducted by WalletHub that shows California ranking at the very bottom — number 51 — in terms of protections against elder abuse and neglect. 

Our Los Angeles County nursing home neglect lawyers can tell you more and can speak with you today about any concerns you have.

Study Addresses California’s Poor Record Concerning Elder Abuse Protections

Nursing homes in San Bernardino County and throughout Southern California must comply with state and federal laws concerning resident care. Those laws require nursing homes to provide a particular level of care based on the resident’s needs, to comply with residents’ rights, and to ensure a certain level of safety at the facility. In recent years, questions and concerns about transparency in nursing homes have become particularly important as residents have experienced injuries due to nursing home abuse and neglect, have been transferred unlawfully to hospice facilities, and have been evicted for inexplicable reasons. 

As of January 1, 2024, a new law is in effect that requires nursing homes to provide detailed information to residents upon eviction. Our San Bernardino County nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers can tell you more.

Risk of Forcible Discharge or Eviction at California Nursing Homes

Falls can result in severe injuries for people of any age in Orange County, but they are particularly dangerous for older adults who may live in nursing homes or assisted living facilities in Southern California. Indeed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 20 percent of all falls among the elderly result in a debilitating injury such as a traumatic brain injury (TBI) or a broken bone, and approximately three million older adults need to be treated in emergency departments every year for injuries they have sustained from falls. Of those seniors, about 800,000 need to be hospitalized because of the severity of the injury, which is usually a TBI or a hip fracture. In total, around 300,000 elderly people need to be hospitalized due to hip fractures every year.

When falls happen in nursing homes or assisted living facilities and residents sustain hip fractures, TBIs, or other serious injuries, the nursing home may be liable. Our Orange County nursing home negligence lawyers can explain.

Preventing Nursing Home Falls

Nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in Los Angeles County can provide necessary care and supervision to older adults, but these locations can also be places where elderly loved ones sustain serious and life-threatening injuries. According to data from Becker’s Hospital Review, the highest rate of elderly injuries occurs in skilled nursing facilities, followed by assisted-living facilities and other types of residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs). Nursing homes are distinct from assisted-living facilities or RCFEs because they provide medical care, and residents usually need more supervision and health care. 

What causes most of the injuries that older adults sustain in nursing homes? The following are some of the leading causes of nursing home injuries due to abuse and neglect in Los Angeles County.

Inadequate Supervision

Many different types of injuries can be warning signs of nursing home abuse or neglect in San Bernardino County and throughout Southern California. Burn injuries are one type of injury that can signal physical abuse or passive neglect, depending upon the burn injury and how the nursing home resident sustained it. While burn injuries may not be quite as common as certain other types of harm reported in nursing homes (such as bed sores, for example), burn injuries do occur, and the facility and other parties could be liable. Our San Bernardino nursing home neglect attorneys can tell you more about elderly burn injuries and how they can be symptoms of abuse or neglect in Southern California nursing facilities.

Learning More About Burn Injuries in the Elderly

Older adults in nursing homes can be more susceptible to burn injuries, and burn injuries can be more problematic in older patients, as well. Indeed, as Wolters Kluwer underscores, “older adults are more prone to burn injury and are also more likely to develop complications after the injury.” In addition, “treatment outcomes are overall worse for older compared with younger adults,” and “the incidence of burn injuries in older adults is increasing.” In addition to physical harm, burn injuries can also have psychological consequences, and it can be difficult for older adults to recover from serious burn injuries.

This WaScreenshot-2023-12-19-153231-300x153shington Post Article on the problem of nursing home and assisted living residents wandering away from their facility is a must read. For many nursing facilities, the notion of “memory care” is little more than marketing to unsuspecting families who think mom or dad with dementia or Alzheimer’s will be receiving specialized care. Here at Southern California Nursing Home Law Group we have had several “elopement cases,” all of them resulting in fatalities.

Nursing home abuse occurs frequently, but it can still be difficult to spot or identify if you do not know what to look for. Quite often, friends and family members of older adults in nursing homes are in the best position to spot injuries that may have resulted from abuse or neglect, so it is critical to know what you should be observing and reporting. Our Orange County nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys have tips. The following are the top ways to spot nursing home abuse in Orange County.

Learn About Different Forms of Abuse and Neglect

Nursing home abuse and neglect can take many different forms, so it is critical to understand the types of abuse that can occur. Those forms of abuse typically include physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, sexual abuse, willful deprivation, and passive neglect.

Staff at nursing homes and assisted living facilities often discuss being overworked, feeling burnt out, and being employed at facilities where they do not earn enough money to stay engaged in their jobs. When employees at nursing homes and assisted living facilities feel overworked, underappreciated, and burnt out, the overall quality of their work can suffer, which can ultimately have a negative effect on the residents of these facilities for whom those workers provide the necessary care. Could an increase in wages for workers at nursing homes and assisted living facilities reduce the incidents of nursing home neglect or nursing home negligence in Southern California? 

According to a recent article in McKnight’s Senior Living, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed new legislation into law that will increase the minimum wage for workers at nursing homes and assisted living facilities to $25 per hour. Our Riverside County nursing home negligence lawyers want to discuss the potential impact of the increase in pay on residents at these facilities throughout the state.

Details of the Newly Signed Legislation

Having an elderly loved one in a nursing home or assisted living facility in San Diego County can be stressful, especially when there is so much news coverage about abuse and neglect impacting residents at these types of facilities. There are also many different forms of elder abuse, which can make it difficult for family members and friends to have the information they need about a particular kind of abuse. Our San Diego nursing home neglect attorneys can give you more information. The following are some of the most important things to know about passive neglect.

Passive Neglect is Not Usually Intentional

The term “passive neglect” refers to a type of elder abuse where a resident of a nursing home or assisted living facility does not receive the type or amount of care they need, but it is not usually intentional. The National Council on Aging (NCOA) defines passive neglect as “a caregiver’s failure to provide an older adult with life’s necessities, including, but not limited to, food, clothing, shelter, or medical care.” Passive neglect frequently occurs when a nursing home is understaffed.

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