How Do I Prove Nursing Home Negligence?

December 5, 2024 | By Lewis Law
How Do I Prove Nursing Home Negligence?

Families should know that the place they entrust their loved ones to will properly care for and respect them. However, the unfortunate truth is that nursing home negligence and abuse are prevalent in long-term care facilities across the U.S.

It can be challenging to prove negligence in a nursing home without solid evidence and an experienced nursing home negligence lawyer who can assess the strength of the claim and handle the legal process.

If your loved one is a victim of nursing home injuries, consult a nursing home negligence attorney immediately to determine your legal rights. You'll want to secure protection for your loved one, ensure other residents are safe, and strategize a plan to seek financial compensation.

Schedule A Free Consultation

What Constitutes Nursing Home Negligence?

Nursing home negligence occurs when a facility fails to provide adequate care for a patient or resident. This negligence might lead to preventable illness, physical harm, injuries, or death. Nursing home negligence results from intentional or unintentional acts of neglect and has various reasons for its occurrence, but it is never justifiable.

What Causes Nursing Home Negligence?

Several causes of nursing home negligence exist, including negligent hiring practices, failure to train or inadequate training, poor infrastructure, and understaffing—the latter being a significant factor.

Another factor involves limited staff credentials and care hours. For example, registered nurses are more likely to recognize patient needs and create nursing care plans, but they only make up 11.9 percent of nursing home staff—22.4 percent are LPNs, and 63.9 percent are aides. The majority of nursing home staff has limited training and tasks, leading to higher rates of negligence and abuse.

Types of Nursing Home Negligence

Human Rights Watch issued concern for neglect in nursing homes when significant increases occurred during the pandemic, drawing attention to its prevalence. Unfortunately, those numbers haven't dwindled. There are four primary types of nursing home negligence: basic needs, personal hygiene, medical, and social and emotional.

Basic Needs Nursing Home Negligence

Neglecting a resident’s basic needs involves multiple offenses. Most notably, inadequate food and water can lead to malnutrition and dehydration. Another basic need often neglected is failing to ensure residents receive assistance to get to the bathroom. Failing to change diapers, incontinence pads, and soiled linens constitutes nursing home negligence.

Personal Hygiene Nursing Home Negligence

Personal hygiene negligence can make residents feel dirty and uncomfortable. Additionally, it can lead to illness and infection. Personal hygiene negligence in a nursing home may include:

  • Failing to bathe residents properly
  • Not moisturizing a resident’s skin
  • Neglecting to provide adequate oral care (teeth brushing, flossing, rinsing)
  • Not brushing a resident’s hair
  • Failing to trim a resident's fingernails and toenails
  • Neglecting to change the resident's clothing
  • Neglecting to change the resident's bedding

Failing to maintain clean bathrooms, including regularly sanitizing the sinks, showers, toilets, and floors, also constitutes personal hygiene negligence in nursing homes. Improper or failure to clean and sanitize these areas can lead to preventable infection and disease.

Medical Nursing Home Negligence

Nursing home medical negligence occurs when staff fails to provide a reasonable standard of healthcare for their residents. Medical negligence can lead to a worsening of conditions, unnecessary pain, infections, emergencies, and death. Common examples of medical nursing home negligence are as follows:

  • Failure to properly monitor residents
  • Failing to provide medications
  • Administering the wrong medications or dosage amounts
  • Not performing prescribed wound care
  • Neglecting to do the resident's range of motion exercises
  • Failing to treat known medical conditions
  • Neglecting to report injuries
  • Failing to prevent infections
  • Not assisting with mobility needs
  • Failing to call for emergency care or 911 when needed

Failing to move residents properly is a significant form of medical neglect in nursing homes. Patients require two-person transfers when moving them. However, due to bad practices and understaffing, it's common for caregivers to perform one-person transfers on residents. These transfers are dangerous and can lead to slips and falls and other accidents, causing severe injuries and wrongful death.

Related article: Why Bed Sores Might Be a Sign of Nursing Home Abuse

Social and Emotional Nursing Home Negligence

Social and emotional negligence in nursing homes may involve isolating residents. For example, caretakers may not allow residents to interact with family, friends, or other nursing home residents. Unfortunately, this is common with memory-related disorders, primarily because they rely so heavily on staff to get them around and maintain their needs.

How Do I Prove Nursing Home Negligence?

Proving nursing home negligence can be a challenging process. Begin by documenting the negligence, keeping all possible evidence, and hiring a nursing home negligence lawyer to represent your legal interests. They handle cases similar to yours and can confidently face the legal system and handle communications and negotiations with insurance companies on your behalf.

Documenting Negligence

Documenting evidence of neglect is vital in proving neglect, injuries, and damages. You must keep detailed records of all suspected incidents of negligence, including times, dates, staff involved, and other pertinent information. Take detailed notes of unsafe or unsanitary conditions. If physical signs of harm or neglect exist, take photos or videos documenting the negligence.

Gathering the Evidence

Your lawyer will gather and organize all evidence proving nursing home negligence. Common pieces of evidence in these cases include:

  • Witness statements from other nursing home residents or staff confirming negligence
  • Statements from your neglected loved one and their caregivers
  • Photographs of injuries 
  • Pictures of unsafe or unsanitary living conditions
  • Nursing home policies and procedures
  • Medical records
  • Resident cell phone video footage

Additionally, your local ombudsman programs keep detailed records of complaints filed against nursing homes and the outcomes of those complaints. If there are frequent neglect and abuse allegations, it can help prove nursing home negligence in your case.

Hire a Nursing Home Negligence Attorney

Proving nursing home negligence involves proving the four elements of negligence in personal injury law: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages. An experienced nursing home negligence attorney will thoroughly investigate your case and work with experts to prove these elements. Expert testimony is often invaluable for proving nursing home negligence.

They will use this evidence to build a strong case for liability and negotiate for maximum compensation on behalf of your loved one. Seeking justice holds nursing homes liable, which can help your family member and, hopefully, others in the future.

Related article: Signs You Need a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer

Schedule a Free Consultation With a Nursing Home Negligence Lawyer

Nursing home negligence lawyers work for contingency, meaning there are no upfront or out-of-pocket expenses to people needing legal help. You don't have to do this alone.

Schedule a free consultation with an attorney to determine a plan to seek justice and compensation for your loved one's nursing home negligence leading to injuries or wrongful death.

Schedule A Free Consultation