Why State Regulators need your help
 

A nursing home lawsuit brought by the family of neglect and abuse victims is crucial if nursing homes are to be held accountable for their misconduct.  Why?  Just look at the numbers.

More than 1.5 million elderly and disabled Americans reside in more than 16,000 nursing homes across this country.  Despite the fact that by law, these nursing homes must take steps to attain or maintain the "highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident," too many of these residents are the victims of neglect or abuse by these facilities and/or their employees. 

In fact, in 1998 in Texas alone, more than 200 nursing home facilities were sanctioned for jeopardizing the health and safety of their residents, according to the Texas Department of Human Services.  Despite increased regulatory oversight of the nation's nursing homes, it is safe to assume that many violations posing threats to the health and safety of the residents go unreported. 

According to Jim Lehrman, Associate Commissioner for Long Term Care  for the TDH, "we cannot be in every facility 24 hours a day so we are only one part of the safety net." 

Even in instances where the regulators actually have the opportunity to levy a fine against the nursing home chain, too often the maximum fines which may be levied are insufficient to pose any reasonable deterrence for future misconduct.  This unfortunately has lead to a climate in which nursing home facilities are willing to gamble that they will suffer no serious consequences for providing insufficient and inadequately trained staff to properly care for patients in an effort to squeeze more profit from their bottom lines. 

Therefore, family members with loved ones who are residents of nursing homes must never take the resident's care for granted and assume adequate protections are in place.  The nursing home resident's only protection may be the family member's diligence in reporting any perceived problems. 

Because the states simply have inadequate resources to investigate and prosecute those responsible for neglect and abuse in nursing homes, some of that burden must be shared by families and civil litigation attorneys.   By seeking justice against those who commit these offenses against our nations elderly, the victims and their families can truly make a difference.

If you would like for our firm to assist you in holding a nursing home accountable for their actions, please call us at (888)922-2889 or submit a free case review form on this website.

Powless Law Offices handles nursing home abuse and neglect cases on a contingency fee arrangement.  This means that we will not charge an hourly rate for our services.  We are only paid a percentage of the recovery if we are successful.  If we do not obtain a recovery for you, you do not pay us.