Personal Injury Law

Boston Nursing Home Negligence: Sally?s Law Would Require Massachusetts Nursing Homes to Provide Copy of Patients? Rights

By Altman & Altman

A Boston woman wants Massachusetts lawmakers to pass a new law that would require local nursing homes to provide nursing home residents and their families with a copy of their rights. Rachel Geller began pushing for the law after her aunt was dismissed from a Jamaica Plain nursing home without warning.

According to Geller, she checked Sally Miller, her aunt, into the Sherrill House Nursing and Rehab Center after paying the Massachusetts assisted living center a $12,000 check. Miller,77, suffered from Alzheimer?s. She died this year.

Miller hadn?t even been at the facility for a full day when she suffered a seizure. The Jamaica Plain assisted living facility sent her to the hospital. After Miller was discharged from the hospital, the Sherrill House Nursing and Rehab Center refused to take her back. Geller had to send her aunt, who cannot speak, to the hospital psychiatric ward for a few weeks.

Geller is accusing the Jamaica Plain nursing home of making up a bogus law that give a Massachusetts nursing home 24-hours to kick out a new patient. It turns, out, however, that there are 10 requirements that must be met before this can happen. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has determined that the Sherrill House Nursing and Rehab Center did not provide Miler?s family with a safe discharge plan.

Sally?s Law
Sally?s Law, also called Bill 3416, or an Act to Protect Nursing Home Residents, requires that all Massachusetts nursing homes give the family/health care proxy a copy of the laws whenever a new resident is admitted to the facility. Documentation that this action was taken must be provided.

All Boston nursing home resident and other Massachusetts nursing home patients are entitled to certain legal rights. There are also laws in the state that exist that protect these patients? rights.

Failure to provide Massachusetts nursing home residents with the due care that they are owed can be grounds for a Boston nursing home neglect lawsuit. A long-term care facility can also be sued for Massachusetts nursing home abuse if a patient becomes a victim of sexual abuse, physical abuse, or verbal abuse while staying at the nursing home.

Woman Fights For Nursing Home Law, WCVB Boston, June 19, 2009

Sally's Law

Related Web Resources:
Massachusetts Nursing Home Ombudsman Program, Caregiverlist.com

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Full post as published by Boston Injury Lawyer Blog on July 09, 2009 (boomark / email).