Moving your elderly loved one into a nursing home is usually a difficult decision. You and your family put a great deal of trust into the hands of the facility, hoping that they will provide appropriate care for your loved one. Unfortunately, due to understaffing, many of these facilities fall short of those expectations.
Understaffing is a contributing factor to nursing home neglect. It has serious ramifications and is linked to various forms of abuse, such as malnutrition, dehydration, slip and fall accidents, and bedsores.
If your elderly loved one lives at a nursing home facility, and you discovered that the facility does not have enough staff to meet the needs of its residents, or if your loved one sustained injuries as a result of understaffing in a nursing home, you might have a case against the nursing home.
At Pintas & Mullins Law Firm, we fight for the rights of the most vulnerable people in our communities. A Kansas City understaffing lawyer can help you hold the nursing home accountable for the consequences of understaffing. Contact us at (800) 842-6336 a free case review.
Why Nursing Homes Are Understaffed
Cost is a major reason why nursing home facilities have fewer workers than they need. When a nursing home has insufficient funding to pay for medical equipment and hire medical professionals, the management might hire fewer people. Some other reasons why a nursing home may fail to meet its staffing benchmark may include:
- Financial gain: A profit-oriented facility may focus on increasing its profit margins at the expense of quality care to its residents. Some facilities may admit more residents in times when they do not have adequate nurses, or they may hire under-qualified staff. By doing so, they spend less on wages, worker compensation claims, and insurance benefits.
- Inadequately trained professionals: Nursing homes are required to hire only trained and certified medical professionals. However, finding the right people can be hard, forcing the existing staff to work overtime to residents’ needs.
- Poor management: Nursing home management may underestimate the importance of having the right patient-to-staff ratio, which could create understaffing issues. This explains the need to have qualified personnel run a nursing home facility to ensure residents receive quality care.
Dangers of Understaffing in Nursing Home Facilities
Elderly people in nursing homes often require personalized care and attention. If the nursing home does not have enough staff to offer medical attention and supervision to your loved one, your loved one’s safety and health care could inevitably become compromised.
Your loved one might not get the time and attention they need, their medical condition may go unnoticed, and their general health may deteriorate. Some of the ramifications of understaffing may include:
Neglect of Residents’ Needs
Most residents in a nursing home depend on their caregivers for their basic needs. Your loved one’s physical, dietary, emotional, and grooming needs might go unmet in an understaffed nursing home. Even worse, their medication may not be administered at the right time or in the proper dosage, and they may suffer serious side effects as a result.
Abuse of Residents
When a facility is understaffed, the nursing home staff may be forced to deal with a high workload. This may lead to high levels of stress that could cause the staff to act in ways that fall below their community’s standard of care. Staff may lose their tempers, force-feed their residents, yell at them, or physically assault them.
Immobility-Related Harm
Some residents depend on the staff to move them around. When a facility is understaffed, residents may not receive the appropriate attention. This can lead to patients developing painful and difficult-to-treat bedsores or suffer injuries in slip and fall accidents.
For a free legal consultation, call (800) 842-6336
An Understaffing Lawyer Can Help You Recover Damages
When your loved one suffers abuse and neglect in a nursing home due to understaffing, you might be able to pursue an insurance claim or lawsuit for financial recovery. Depending on your loved one’s situation, there are certain types and amounts for damages that you could receive. Some of them may include:
- Medical care to treat injuries suffered
- Mental health care for emotional turmoil
- Pain and suffering from the abuse
If you lost a loved one due to understaffing, you could file a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home to recover compensation for funeral and burial expenses and emotional pain and suffering. Our Kansas City understaffing lawyer can help you calculate your losses and pursue the full compensation you deserve.
Call Pintas & Mullins Law Firm today to schedule your free consultation. We want to hear the details of your nursing home understaffing incident so that we can help as you weigh your legal options and the next steps in the process.
Our Legal Team Will Support Your Case
Understaffing can lead to serious injuries for your loved one. If your loved one suffers injuries caused by understaffing, we can help you build a strong case for financial recovery. We can help with:
- Demonstrating the duty of care the nursing home owes its residents
- Establishing how the nursing home breached the duty of care
- Proving the facility’s negligence caused the resident’s physical injuries and emotional distress
- Taking photos of injuries and getting an expert’s report on their severity
- Interviewing nursing home residents
- Establishing the monetary value of your claim
- Negotiating with the nursing home insurance company
- Representing you in court if negotiations do not lead to a fair settlement
While you focus on comforting your elderly loved one, our legal team can start the process of pursuing your case for compensation. In Kansas City, Missouri, you have five years to file your nursing home abuse lawsuit, per Missouri Revisor of Statutes §516.120. Failing to meet this deadline puts you at risk of losing your opportunity to seek compensation. Our team can file your lawsuit in civil court on time to avoid the dismissal of your case.
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Contact Pintas & Mullins Law Firm Today
If your loved one received inadequate care because of understaffing in a nursing home where they lived, you could seek to hold the facility liable for damages and pursue compensation for injuries and losses.
Pintas & Mullins Law Firm will fight for compensation on your behalf so you can focus on caring for your loved one. Call us today at (800) 842-6336 to schedule a free case evaluation and learn more about how a Kansas City understaffing lawyer can help you.
Call or text (800) 842-6336 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form