Nursing Home Abuse and Injury Cases in Georgia

Elderly abuse from negligent nursing home in Georgia.

A national, privately-owned nursing home chain advertised its services with glossy brochures, showing its smiling staff serving 5-star dinners to happy residents in immaculate dining halls.  Pictures of nurses out of central casting were seen providing “concierge” medical care to healthy residents in beautiful bedrooms.  The goal, of course, was to induce residents and their families to believe that top-notch service was provided.  Both private insurance and taxpayer-funded Medicare was happily accepted. 

In reality, residents who were unable to feed or care for themselves routinely went without adequate nutrition and basic healthcare. In one instance, a diabetic patient died because he was not given a snack by a poorly trained and overworked nursing assistant.  A subsequent lawsuit by Williams Elleby Howard & Easter attorneys revealed the chain had a pattern of staffing shortages and inadequately trained staff that repeatedly resulted in substandard care.  After fighting hard to obtain internal records, the chain was required to turn over emails and memos that showed the profit motive behind these staffing shortages. 

“[R]esearch findings consistently show higher staffing levels are related to higher quality of care,” However, “under current government prospective payment systems, nursing homes make choices on how to allocate their resources. About 70% of nursing homes are for-profit facilities with an orientation to maximizing profits for owners and shareholders.”  

Failure to Meet Nurse Staffing Standards: A Litigation Case Study of a Large US Nursing Home Chain .

Providing substandard care including minimum staffing for residents, especially to increase profits, is illegal. 

Under federal regulations, nursing homes are required to:

  • Provide nursing care to all residents on a 24-hour basis in accordance with resident care plans.
  • Have a “licensed nurse to serve as a charge nurse on each tour of duty… and licensed nurses have the specific competencies and skill sets necessary to care for residents’ needs, as identified through resident assessments, and described in the plan of care.”
  • The facility must meet or exceed a minimum of 3.48 hours per resident day for total nurse staffing including a minimum of 0.55 hours per resident day for registered nurses 2.45 hours per resident day for nurse aides; and
  • aides must be “able to demonstrate competency in skills and techniques necessary to care for residents’ needs, as identified through resident assessments, and described in the plan of care.”

Code of Federal Regulations, 42 C.F.R. § 483.35.

A good way to research whether a nursing home has a history of poor staffing or other problems is to look on the Medicare’s “nursing home compare” website.  Medicare.Gov   This site provides information on nursing homes by location and includes comparisons on the quality of care and staffing. 

In many states, including Georgia, a nursing home that hurts someone by failing to follow regulations is liable for negligence and negligence per se.  For example, in 2006, the Georgia Court of Appeals specifically held that violations of nursing home staffing regulations allowed a resident’s family to sue for harm that resulted from the violations because “It is obvious that as a resident of the nursing home owned by [Defendant, Plaintiff’s] father belonged to the class of persons for whom these statutes and regulations were intended to protect, and that the injuries set forth in the complaint… were among those these same statutes and regulations were designed to prevent.”    McLain v. Mariner Health Care, Inc., 279 Ga. App. 410, 413, 631 S.E.2d 435, 438 (2006).

Some of the most important questions to ask when looking at a potential nursing home negligence or malpractice case are:

  • Did the harm result from a violation of a federal or state regulation;
  • Was there a pattern of such violations;
  • Was there a profit motivation behind the violations?

Nursing home cases can be complex and difficult to prove. Having an experienced lawyer who knows the federal and state regulations is important so that victims can understand their legal rights and options.

The experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Williams Elleby Howard & Easter, handle negligent nursing home cases throughout the State of Georgia. If you would like to discuss your case, call today to schedule a free consultation at 833-534-2542.

If you or a loved one has been harmed because a nursing home failed to properly staff and provide proper care, Attorney Marc Howard along with the Williams Elleby Howard & Easter team, can help you understand your personal injury claim and work to get you the compensation you deserve.

Nursing Home Resident Killed by Alligator

An elderly woman with short white curly hair, a green and black patterned sweater, and black pants, using a brown cane stands near a lake, watching the water.

A 90-year-old woman in neighboring South Carolina was killed recently when she wandered away from her nursing home and fell into a nearby retention pond, where she was attacked by an alligator. The death is the first alligator-related death in the state’s history, but marks another instance in the disturbing trend of nursing home injuries that has plagued the United States.

Senior Citizen Killed by Alligator After Wandering Away from Nursing Home

The incident happened on Wednesday, July 27, 2016.

At 7:40 in the morning, Bonnie Walker was reported missing from Brookdale Charleston, an assisted-living center in West Ashley, South Carolina, just outside of the city of Charleston. Police instigated a search that turned up her body less than four hours later in a nearby retention pond, just behind the property, where alligators were known to frequent. According to The Post and Courier, the county coroner’s office determined that Ms. Walker’s death was the result of “multiple sharp and blunt force injuries,” consistent with those made by alligators.

Investigators believe that Ms. Walker slipped and fell down a steep embankment into the pond, and that the noise of her fall attracted alligators in the pond.

If confirmed, Ms. Walker’s death would be the first fatality from an alligator to ever happen in South Carolina.

Nursing Home Has Past History of Complaints

The Brookdale Charleston, the nursing home that Ms. Walker was a resident at when she wandered off, has a history of complaints, but relatively few violations on its record.

An investigation last September led the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to findings of unsanitary conditions in the nursing home, including feces in the residents’ beds and on the floors.

Since then, another investigation looked into allegations of abuse by the home’s staff, including an incident where a resident in the dementia unit hit a staff member, who responded by hitting back.

Nursing Homes Can Be Liable for Not Looking After Residents

Unfortunately, this is just another instance of nursing homes not properly looking after their residents and providing the care that they need. Injuries in nursing homes have been on the rise in recent years, with around 1,800 residents dying from falls inside nursing homes, every year.

This incident in South Carolina, however, is even more egregious because Ms. Walker was able to get out of the home. This shows that not only does the staff at the Brookdale Charleston struggle to provide the care that their residents count on them to provide, but they even struggle to even account for their residents. In this case, it resulted in Ms. Walker’s escape and death, which could amount to a wrongful death case against the nursing home for their lack of oversight.

Get the Legal Help You Need

When nursing homes fail to provide the care that they are expected to provide, personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits can be the answer, whether they are based in premises liability or as a slip and fall lawsuit. Contact the Cobb County law firm of Joel Williams for professional legal representation.