A geriatric nurse is a nurse that has specialized training in working with the geriatric population.  This means that the nurse has been trained to deal with the special needs of elderly individuals.  Because aging can cause both physical and psychological issues, this type of nurse is trained to care for elderly patients that are unable to care for themselves.  In addition to the basic education needed to become a nurse, geriatric nurses have taken courses in working with elderly patients and may be more reliable witnesses in a nursing home abuse case because they are familiar with the needs of the elderly and may be able to identify areas where a nursing home facility was not in compliance with the best standards of care for their residents.  Because geriatric nurses are so educated and experienced, they make great witnesses and often work with an Orange County nursing home abuse lawyer to review potential nursing home abuse claims and proceed with gathering information if a case has merit.  Having a geriatric nurse on staff means that your attorney may be able to provide more comprehensive information to back up your claims and may also be able to convince expert witnesses to testify during any legal proceedings.  This is why a geriatric nurse is such a valuable asset to any nursing home abuse attorney and a godsend for any family member who wants justice for their loved one.  These nurses will be able to use their knowledge, skills, and experience to help you get justice and improve your loved one’s quality of life.

Managed care plan administrators choose what kind of medical procedures and medications are covered by their plans.  If a nursing home feels that it is not going to be reimbursed for particular procedures, administrators may instruct staff members to avoid doing those procedures as much as possible.  This can mean that the staff members feel that they should not perform specific procedures, leading to serious illness or even death in patients who needed those procedures to survive.  Cost-cutting should not be a reason to skip expensive procedures that are needed by residents, but nursing home administrators will try to justify this type of tactic by claiming that losing out on reimbursements puts the facility at risk for not being able to properly care for residents.  If your loved one has become ill due to cutbacks on medical equipment and procedures, contact a California nursing home abuse lawyer who can instruct you on what to do when this type of situation occurs.  While some managed care plans do provide good levels of reimbursement to nursing homes, others try to cut corners so they can make the most money.  If a loved one was involved in this type of cost-cutting, you need the assistance of a skilled San Bernardino nursing home abuse attorney.  A skilled attorney will be able to guide you through the legal system, explain how everything works, and explain any legal terminology or proceedings you may not understand.  Spending money on a lawyer will result in a great return on your investment just because of the valuable information you can get from someone who is experienced in handling nursing home abuse and neglect cases.  Do what’s best for you and your loved one and hire an experienced California nursing home abuse lawyer. 

The Nursing Home Neglect Law Offices of Young and Wallin provides free consultations to all those in need. If you suspect a loved one may be the victim of nursing home neglect or abuse contact Mr. Young immediately to explore your options and preserve your rights. Elder Abuse Attorney Michael Young handles cases throughout California including Fresno, Bakersfield, San Diego, as well as nursing home abuse cases in Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Bernardino. Mr. Young is also will and able to handle nursing home neglect cases in Northern California including San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento.

Managed care plans often have their hands in medical equipment sales and medical supply sales.  This means that nursing homes may be leaned on by managed care companies to procure medical supplies and equipment from preferred vendors.  If there are no preferred vendors, the nursing home administrators may be instructed to order the supplies and equipment that have the lowest prices.  This means that the quality of all of this equipment can be compromised.  Inexpensive doesn’t always mean low quality, but when it comes to medical supplies and equipment, quality should be the top concern of nursing home administrators.  Buying the least expensive equipment can lead to having damaged breathing machines, faulty heart monitors, and even faulty equipment for simple tasks like checking blood pressures and temperatures.  When this happens, the medical care of the residents is being based on faulty information.  This can lead to serious illnesses, injuries, or even death all because the managed care company wanted to save a few dollars.  It is up to the administrators of your loved one’s nursing home to do what is best for residents.  If this means coming up with a way to get better medical equipment, then they should be responsible for procuring the medical equipment that will do the best job, not the one that is the cheapest.  If your loved one has suffered due to cost-cutting measures, you need to contact an Orange County nursing home abuse attorney so that you have the best possible representation for your case.

Malnutrition can take on two forms.  One is denying nursing home residents access to adequate amounts of food and water.  This type of malnutrition can be quite serious because long periods of time without food and water can be harmful to the health of anyone, let alone senior citizens who have medical problems.  Deprivation of food and water can lead to imbalances in electrolytes, mineral deficiencies, muscle wasting, hair loss, and other related signs and symptoms.  Another type of malnutrition consists of providing foods that do not meet the nutritional requirements of nursing home residents.  While providing access to large amounts of some foods, nursing home abusers may only provide access to nutritious foods periodically.  Abusers often hold these foods to make patients weaker or to convince them to give in to a request for money or personal items.  Withholding these nutritious items can lead to mineral deficiencies, a lack of fiber, and other nutrition-related conditions.  If you feel that your loved one is malnourished due to the abuse or negligence of a nursing home, get in touch with a San Bernardino nursing home abuse attorney to find out what your options are.  There are several reasons why malnutrition can occur in a nursing home setting.  These reasons include:

Many nursing home facilities may have a Bill of Rights that are modeled after the Patient Bill of Rights found in hospital.  This type of document outlines certain basic rights that residents must have when they are placed in nursing homes.  These rights can range from the right to proper management of pain to the right to help make decisions about their medical care if their mental status lets them make good decisions.  This bill of rights may also have provisions for the right to a safe and comfortable environment, so nursing home abuse definitely violates that agreement.  Since the Bill of Rights for residents is designed to put people at ease and may even help people make decisions about nursing home placement, you should be able to hold the nursing home responsible for not carrying out their end of the deal.  If the nursing home refuses to accept responsibility and you need to take legal action, contact an Orange County nursing home abuse lawyer who can review your case and guide you from beginning to end.  Nursing home residents and their families have the right to report abuse if it becomes necessary.  This may happen if reports of abuse made to nursing home staff members or administrators fall on deaf ears.  There are many options for reporting abuse that has occurred in a nursing home.  If the home is a part of a large system of nursing homes, you can try contacting the corporate office and reporting your abuse problems to those in charge of the company.  If your loved one participates in a managed care plan that pays for their nursing home costs, you can also try contacting the managed care plan’s administrators and reporting abuse.  This can be effective because the managed care plan will not continue to pay resident expenses and administrators may conduct their own investigation to determine if funding to that specific nursing home should be continued.  If you need to report nursing home abuse directly to law enforcement officers, you may do this as well.  Depending on the size of your area, you may be able to work with someone who has experience with the abuse of the elderly, which will make it easier to gather information and conduct an investigation.  It is important to remember that you don’t need to back down when making reports of abuse.  Don’t let anyone intimidate you into thinking the reported abuse was confusion on the part of your loved one or a misinterpretation on your part.  You need to be an advocate for your family member who has been abused, so stand up for their rights so justice can be served.  If you feel you’re not assertive enough to do this, contact an Orange County nursing home abuse attorney.  A qualified attorney can assist you with filing reports of abuse and dealing with any nursing home representatives.

Working in a nursing home is very hard work and often does not pay very well.  This leads to difficulty in recruiting and training the best possible staff members for many facilities.  Many of the truly talented and caring candidates with nursing home experience want to be compensated fairly for their efforts.  Sometimes the only candidates that will accept below-market pay are those who have no experience and little or no training.  This can create situations where nursing home residents can be abused or neglected.  Neglect can occur due to a lack of staff members to monitor and care for patients.  When a heavy workload is divided among only a few staff members, many tasks can go unfinished.  This can include managing the pain of the nursing home residents.  Pain assessment may be reduced or done away with altogether and requests for pain medication may go unanswered because there are not enough staff members to distribute the drugs and take notes on the patients’ reactions.  Abuse can occur due to a lack of staff members because this lack of resources means there are more opportunities for abuse to occur.  In a nursing home with a full staff, there are more checks and balances in place.  There are also many staff members available to watch patients.  In a facility with a staffing shortage, there aren’t as many checks and balances in place.  The staff members who are employed there may not notice possible abuse because they are busy with a heavy workload.  If you feel a lack of staff members is allowing abuse to occur, contact a San Bernardino nursing home abuse attorney for more information on preventing and stopping abuse.

Inadequate staffing in nursing homes is a rather common occurrence because the turnover rate for nursing home employees is so high.  Because working with nursing home residents involves a lot of heavy lifting and other hard work, many people can’t handle the stress and the physical strain.  They leave their nursing home jobs for positions in hospitals or other medical facilities where they can work with younger patients who need less total care.  This creates a problem for nursing home administrators because they still need to fill each position within their facilities.  This often leads to hiring unqualified or inexperienced people to do jobs which should really be done by people with the professional skills necessary to do the jobs right.  Having an inadequate number of staff members means there aren’t enough people to check and balance each other, leaving room for abuse and neglect to occur without notice.  Not all nursing home employees who are abusive or neglectful start out that way.  They are not bad people; they simply get overwhelmed by the heavy workloads they’re handling and take actions they wouldn’t take if they weren’t so stressed out.  Neglect happens when residents aren’t cared for properly.  When staffing levels are inadequate, employees may cut corners to meet deadlines and try to do everything that is on their schedules.  When this happens, the care of residents isn’t as good as it should be.  Residents may not get the opportunity to exercise because staff members are performing other duties.  Instead of spending time with residents and doing activities with them, staff members may leave residents in bed all day or sit them in wheelchairs in the hallway.  Neglecting the medical needs of residents may also happen when a home is really inadequately staffed.  This can lead to dehydration, malnutrition, and serious injuries if the residents are not properly supervised.  If your loved one has been neglected due to inadequate staffing, contact a Los Angeles nursing home abuse attorney for help in taking action against the nursing home.

Nurses in general can make good witnesses in a case involving an injury or medical condition, but geriatric nurses are particularly valuable for nursing home abuse cases because many of them actually work for law firms or specialize in nursing law.  An Orange County nursing home abuse lawyer may have a geriatric nurse on staff full time to help investigate claims of abuse.  Since these nurses will be able to spot irregularities in nursing home care and help to determine if an injury was an accident or the result of abuse or neglect, they become valuable assets to your legal team when you have a nursing home abuse case that is progressing.  Geriatric nurses can provide initial case reviews, work with patients to get information about abuse, and help a California nursing home abuse attorney decide if nursing home abuse has occurred or if the illness or injury experienced by your loved one is the result of poor health or other factor’s beyond the control of the nursing home.  While the geriatric nurse working on your case is doing research and performing preliminary tasks necessary for building a solid case, your attorney can be representing you in preliminary proceedings. If your California nursing home abuse lawyer has a geriatric nurse on his or her staff, you can be sure that your loved one’s case will receive the most attention possible from a highly qualified professional. 

The Nursing Home Neglect Law Offices of Young and Wallin provides free consultations to all those in need. If you suspect a loved one may be the victim of nursing home neglect or abuse contact Mr. Young immediately to explore your options and preserve your rights. Elder Abuse Attorney Michael Young handles cases throughout California including Fresno, Bakersfield, San Diego, as well as nursing home abuse cases in Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Bernardino. Mr. Young is also will and able to handle nursing home neglect cases in Northern California including San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento.

A geriatric nurse receives specialized education in taking care of the needs of the elderly.  Elderly individuals have more specialized needs than most people and are often in a poorer state of health.  Some of the physical conditions that occur or worsen with age include osteoporosis, emphysema, cardiac conditions, hypertension, and other medical ailments that make it difficult or impossible for nursing home patients to take care of themselves properly.  There are also many psychological dimensions involved in aging.  When an elderly person loses independence and becomes unable to care for their own needs, depression or feelings of loss can set in and reduce the quality of life possible for this person.  Geriatric nurses are trained in helping elderly people deal with these feelings of loss and depression and may be able to help them come to terms with their changing bodies and minds.  Geriatric nurses make such credible witnesses because they have much more experience working with elderly patients than nurses who may have worked in maternity or pediatric units.  If your loved one has been involved in nursing home abuse, your Riverside nursing home abuse attorney may consult with a geriatric nurse to find out if anything could have been done to prevent the abuse and neglect experienced by your loved one.

Many nursing home residents have difficulty breathing due to conditions such as emphysema, lung cancer, and other respiratory ailments.  However, proper monitoring can go a long way in limiting the effects of these conditions.  A Los Angeles nursing home abuse lawyer will tell you that nursing homes are responsible for monitoring the vital signs of patients.  If the patients have known respiratory conditions, their breathing should be monitored in addition to temperature, blood pressure, and pulse.  Patients who receive breathing treatments should be monitored even more carefully.  If you feel that your loved one’s respiratory concerns were not monitored properly, you should contact a San Bernardino nursing home abuse lawyer to find out what you can do to prevent it from happening again.  While cardiac arrest cannot be prevented due to many medical conditions, it can be prevented in some nursing home patients.  Those who are on medications should be carefully monitored for allergic reactions.  Patients with known heart conditions should have their vital signs monitored and have any relevant diagnostic testing done at appropriate times.  If an allergy or a health condition is missed or misdiagnosed, the patient’s condition can worsen and progress into cardiac arrest.  If the patient is not being carefully monitored, the cardiac arrest can go undetected and lead to brain death or a fatality.  If you feel your loved one’s cardiac arrest could have been prevented with proper monitoring, contact a San Bernardino nursing home abuse lawyer to find out if you have any recourse.

Slips and falls can occur frequently when nursing home patients are involved.  Some of these falls cannot be prevented because many senior citizens can be unsteady on their feet or may have conditions that cause them to get dizzy or become faint.  However, some slips and falls occur direct as a result of the failure to properly monitor nursing home residents.  If you ask a San Diego nursing home abuse lawyer, he or she will tell you that these slips and falls are the responsibility of the nursing home.  Nursing home residents need to be carefully monitored to be sure that they are seated properly and that they are not able to get out of bed without supervision.  Many slips and falls occur when the brakes are not properly used on wheelchairs or when the rails of patient beds are not secured properly.  Nursing home staff members need to realize that their responsibilities include monitoring residents at all times, even if the residents are sleeping or appear to be resting comfortably.  Proper monitoring can prevent many slips and falls and lead to better quality of life for nursing home residents.  If you feel that your loved one was not monitored properly, and suffered a slip or fall as a result, contact a San Diego nursing home abuse attorney for more information on the options you have available. 

Elderly nursing home residents may have pain from time to time or even on a constant basis due to the degeneration of old age as well as specific medical conditions.  These medical conditions can include:

•  Coma

These can all be very serious, especially for elderly patients, so nursing home abusers may choose to withhold these medications specifically to get these results.  A qualified Los Angeles nursing home abuse attorney can explain the consequences of withholding diabetes medication and help you determine whether or not you have a case.

For questions about Nursing Home Abuse in Southern California you can contact Southern California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Michael Young to discuss you or your loved ones situation. The Elder Abuse Law Offices of Young and Wallin serve all counties in Southern California, including nursing home neglect cases in Los Angeles, nursing home neglect cases in Riverside, nursing home negligence matters in Orange County, as well as San Bernardino and San Diego. Contact us if you would like more information on how you can put an end to nursing home abuse in southern California.