Elder Law

Nursing Home Lawsuit Leads To Increase in Nursing Care

By Levin & Perconti

The final installment of the detailed examination of the Skilled Healthcare lawsuit was recently published by the Contra Costa Times. The series included an examination of the record-breaking nursing home lawsuit involving the company which ran 22 nursing homes and was accused of violating state law in providing inadequate nursing care to the thousands of residents at those facilities. The negligent care reportedly continued over a 7 year period.

The law required the facility to provide at least 3.2 nursing hours per patient per day?the failure to do so being the centerpieces of the lawsuit. Even then, many observers admit that the standard of 3.2 hours is laughably low. Many other states have requirements just below 5 hours per patient per day.

Industry experts explain how many of the largest nursing home chains do everything in their power to keep the minimum requirements low as a way to maximize profits. In many cases these chains are willing to pay the minimal nursing home fines instead of the much higher costs of proper staffing levels. As a result, the residents at these facilities continue to suffer.

As a result of the settlement in the Skilled Healthcare case, an injunction will soon go into effect requiring them to comply with the law?a change that will cost at least $12.8 million annually. The local district attorney involved in seeking the injunction explained, ?At the end of the day, all we are interested in is making sure these people are safe and we want them to have a remedy for the harm they suffered.?

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on December 31, 2010 (boomark / email).