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Neglect in Nursing Homes

LEE KELSO

With an ever aging population more and more people are going to require long term care in a nursing home facility. Despite the compassionate and dedicated care provided by the vast majority of nurses and CNAs who take care of the nursing homes, there are some alarming statistics about the numbers of injuries and deaths that occur in nursing homes. Recent studies show that a significant number of nursing homes do not have enough staff to provide adequate care for residents. Particularly in the for profit nursing homes. Joining us today about nursing home care in Indiana is attorney David Farnbauch, a trial lawyer with the Sweeney Law Firm in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thanks for spending some time with us today David. It's an important topic that affects a lot of people.  

DAVID FARNBAUCH

It's a pleasure to be here today. 

LEE KELSO

David it is my understanding looking at your biography, that your law firm has a particular interest in representing nursing home residents and their families. Can you tell us how it is you began representing nursing home residents in legal cases?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

My career as a nursing home lawyer began about fifteen years ago when I handled my first against a nursing home that involved a very severe pressure sore or pressure ulcer in an elderly nursing home resident. At that time I had no idea what a pressure ulcer was. I was really horrified at the debilitating nature of that injury in this elderly nursing home resident. I began doing some research on the incidents of pressure sores, injuries, and abuse to people in nursing homes. I was really astounded by how many people every year suffer injuries and neglect as a result of being in a nursing home.

LEE KELSO

You told a little bit about nursing home residents developing serious pressures in nursing homes. Can you tell us about some of the other types of injuries that can occur when there is under-staffing?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well I think some of the more common injuries that we see in nursing homes are injuries from falls. Often elderly residents are not given proper fault, precautions and they suffer injuries from falls, fractured hips, broken necks, serious fractures from falls in nursing homes. They also suffer serious episodes of dehydration where they don't receive proper fluids and they become dehydrated and their internal organs start to shut down from dehydration and they have to be sent to the hospital and often these episode of dehydration lead to subsystem deaths. We see many, many different types of injuries in nursing homes.

LEE KELSO

You know I have heard that nursing home industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the U.S. Tell you viewers about the government regulations in place to protect nursing home residents

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Nursing homes are heavily regulated. Most people who end up in a nursing home, there care is at least partially funded by medicare payments. Medicare has an activist, a very extensive series of regulations known as over regulations that govern every aspect of nursing home care. 

LEE KELSO

With all of the federal and state regulations in place to protect nursing home residents I'm curious as to why we're seeing this big increase in the number of residents suffering injuries in nursing homes.  

DAVID FARNBAUCH

I think the biggest reason that we are seeing an increase in the number of injuries in nursing homes relates to the inadequate staffing that we see in many for-profit nursing homes. I've said many times over the course of my career handling nursing home cases that almost every case stems from inadequate staff. A nursing home has to have enough nurses and nurses aides to provide care to these elderly residents. When they need to be turned and repositioned, their in bed, or need some assistance in going to the bathroom to prevent falls, if you don't have adequate staff there to help people get to the bathroom or be turned and reposition there's going to be injuries, so I think that all these cases really stemmed from inadequate staffing.

LEE KELSO

What advice can you pass along to the family that is faced with having to out a loved on into a nursing home to reduce the risk that they would suffer farm in that nursing home's care?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

I think the most important thing that any family should do to try to reduce the risk that something will happen to their loved one is to do a thorough investigation on the nursing home. There's a variety of websites that are available to review to look at the track record of the nursing home to see if they have been sited by the state department of health and see if they have had claims and lawsuits against a facility and see what they're ratings are. The other thing that families can do is simply do a thorough investigation of the facility. Go there, take a through look around. See what it is like. See how the residents are treated. Do a comprehensive search in your area. Take a look at multiple homes in your area to see is the residents that are there and if the families are satisfied with the care. I think that the biggest thing that you can do to protect your loved ones is to really check out the background of the nursing home. 

LEE KELSO

In the event that one of our viewers has a family member who does suffer serious injury as a result of neglect of neglect in a nursing home and wants to investigate whether there is a potential legal claim against the nursing home, what's the first step?

DAVE FARNBAUCH

I think the first step if you were contemplating a claim against a nursing home is to contact a lawyer or a law firm that specializes in handling nursing home cases. These cases are a lot more complex than the typical personal injury case. I think any lawyer that handles these cases has to have extensive knowledge of the over regulations that govern nursing homes. They have to be familiar with the nursing standard of care. They have to be familiar with experts that testify in these types of cases. I would encourage anybody that is pursuing one of these cases to get in touch with a law firm that has some special expertise in handling these cases.

LEE KELSO

I'm sure that viewers must be wondering how much it costs to hire a firm like the Sweeney Law Firm to investigate or hire a nursing home expert to investigate and review the nursing home records. how much does an investigation like that cost? 

DAVID FARNBAUCH

It actually does not cost the client anything to have our office investigate a nursing home case. When we meet with a family, if we determine that there appears to be a meritorious nursing home case we will pay for expert witnesses to review the records and determine whether there has been a breach of the nursing standards of care and our law firm advances those expenses. If there is a successful recovery than those expenses have to be reimbursed to the firm, but it does not cost the client anything to retain our law firm to have us investigate the case. 

LEE KELSO

David we appreciate you sharing your insight on nursing homes. You've given viewers some valuable information and probably it's going to affect all of us at some point in our lives, so thanks a lot.

DAVID FARNBAUCH

It was great to be here today.