Assaults in Nursing Homes
We received another call the other day from a resident who had been assaulted in a nursing home. An aide had hit him in the face causing injury to his face and loss of vision in one of his eyes. This tragic situation happens more often than most people think. So what is to be done? How can you protect your loved ones from being assaulted in a nursing home? How can you protect them when you are trying to choose a nursing home? How can you protect them if they're already in a nursing home?
With respect to choosing the nursing home, there are resources available to you that can help you make a good decision. If you go to the website https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare you can compare nursing homes. You can look up nursing homes by geographic region. You can look up nursing homes by name. Once you go to a specific nursing home, you can see if that nursing home has had any penalties against it, any federal fines or any times when Medicare withheld funding from the nursing home because of issues with the care at the nursing home. You can check the five-star rating of the nursing home. Nursing homes are rated on a five-star system. They get an overall rating of five stars. They also receive a rating for Health Inspections, Staffing and Quality Measures.
Some nursing homes have an icon next to the name of the nursing home which alerts you if there are problems. Sometimes there is a yellow triangle with an exclamation point. Sometimes there is a red hand. These are indications that this nursing home has had significant problems in the past and in all likelihood is a nursing home to be avoided. If someone you love is already in a nursing home that has one of these icons next to it on the Medicare.gov website, you should probably think very strongly about moving your loved one to another nursing home.
What to do if someone you love is already in a nursing home. First and foremost, pay very close attention to any unexplained injuries that your loved one has suffered, particularly if you have a loved one who is not able to communicate with you. Very often, nursing home residents have dementia or other challenges and they are not able to articulate exactly what's going on in the nursing home. In those situations, it is imperative that you pay very close attention to any unexplained injuries. Does your loved one have any bruising? Do they have any scratches?
It is also imperative that you visit at all different times of the day. Most nursing homes work in shifts. Some staff work 12-hour shifts so they will work from 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 in the evening. And then another shift will work from 7:00 in the evening until 7:00 the next morning. Some nursing homes work on an 8-hour shift. So the staff works from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., and then 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. the next morning. It's important to visit during all shifts whether the staff is on 12-hour shifts or 8-hour shifts so you can observe the different staff on different shifts. It might be that the nursing home has people on day shift who do a very good job but the people on night shift don't do such a good job.
It is also important that you be aware when walking into the nursing home. Observe the staff and how they interact with the residents. Make sure there are plenty of staff visible. As you are walking into the nursing home and walking to your loved one's room, there should be staff visible. They should be in the hallways, they should be at the nurse's station, they should be in rooms with the residents. When your loved one has an issue, are you able to find staff to help you? If you push your loved one's call light does someone come promptly? If you can't find someone to help you when you need help, imagine how impossible it is for your loved one, particularly if they have dementia or some other challenge, to get help when they need it. Pay close attention as you are walking up to your loved one's room. Unfortunately, some staff members act very differently in front of family than they do when no one's watching.
Recently the Ohio State Legislature passed Esther's law. Esther's law is named after Esther Piskor. Esther Piskor was a client of The Dickson Firm. We were very proud to represent her. Her family went to multiple law firms to try to get help and were turned down over and over again. Esther Piskor was assaulted by the staff at her nursing home. Her son concealed a camera in her room because somebody was leaving her window open when they cleaned the room and Esther liked her room to be very warm. Her son had no idea that the staff was physically assaulting her. Each week he removed an SD card with 168 hours of footage on it. Obviously, he did not have time to watch every minute of footage on the card. However, he would fast forward through the footage just to see if he could see somebody leaving the window open. Tragically, as he was fast forwarding through footage, he came across recordings of the staff physically abusing his mom. We reviewed hours and hours and hours of footage and identified multiple incidents where multiple staff members at the nursing home physically assaulted Esther Piskor. As a result of Esther's law, it is now legal to put a camera in your loved one's room to keep an eye on them. It's tragic that this is necessary but unfortunately in some cases it is.
If you suspect that your loved one is being abused either by the staff or by another resident, talk with the Director of Nursing. Talk with the Administrator. Make sure you investigate all of your concerns thoroughly. If you're not given an adequate explanation and/or your concerns are not sufficiently addressed, think seriously about moving your loved one to another nursing home. Nursing homes have a legal duty to perform a background check on each one of their employees. If a person has been convicted of any number of a long list of crimes in Ohio, they cannot legally work at a nursing home. Unfortunately, we have seen many nursing homes that employ people with criminal convictions. We have seen many nursing homes that employ people with a history of abusing residents.
If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at The Dickson Firm at 1-800-OHIO LAW as we would be happy to talk with you and help you in any way that we can.