When you entrust your loved one to a nursing home in Jacksonville, FL, you expect the staff to provide the best care possible. If they abuse or neglect your loved one, they betray your trust. The result often causes mental and physical harm that lasts for the rest of your loved one’s life.
Sadly, Jacksonville nursing home abuse statistics suggest that mistreatment happens far too often. If you identify signs of abuse, Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers can help you pursue all possible legal remedies. Contact our Jacksonville nursing home abuse lawyers for a free consultation to discuss your case. You can call us at (904) 396-1100.
How Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help With a Nursing Home Abuse Case in Jacksonville, FL
Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers was founded in 2012 to provide legal representation to injured people in Jacksonville, Florida. Our Jacksonville nursing home abuse attorneys have over 80 years of combined legal experience.
If you or a loved one suffers an injury in a nursing home, our attorneys can provide:
- A free case review to assess the situation and identify any legal claims
- A full investigation into the nursing home abuse or neglect
- Aggressive negotiations to try to settle insurance claims without going to trial
- Experienced advocates with a track record of courtroom success in litigating cases
Nursing home abuse can physically and mentally traumatize seniors and other vulnerable patients. Contact our Jacksonville personal injury lawyers to learn about your options for pursuing legal claims against a nursing home for abuse or neglect.
Are Nursing Homes in Florida Safe?
Nursing homes in Florida have a mixed record. According to one resource, 204 of the 698 licensed nursing homes in the state were cited for serious violations that risked immediate harm to residents’ health and safety. Florida suspended Medicare payments to 42 of these facilities due to their inability or unwillingness to address their problems.
Officials issued some of these citations for administrative matters, such as a failure to create a quality control committee to review complaints and develop solutions to ensure resident safety. However, many involved instances of nursing home neglect or abuse.
The question, then, is whether these instances of abuse arose infrequently and residents have nothing to worry about. Sadly, with over one-quarter of facilities facing accusations of abuse and neglect, this problem appears widespread. And many of these facilities received multiple citations, indicating these problems arise more often than you might expect.
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Statistics
Abuse statistics are difficult to collect and verify. Many perpetrators of nursing home mistreatment target seniors and other nursing home residents specifically because they hope that nursing home administrators, family members, and even law enforcement officers will not believe their allegations.
Complicating matters even further, nursing home residents might lack the ability to report mistreatment due to cognitive or speech problems like Alzheimer’s Disease. Mental and emotional trauma, as well as shame and embarrassment, might also block victims from disclosing the abuse and neglect they experience.
A final wrinkle is that Florida does not publish statistical data about nursing home complaints. Instead, anyone interested in finding out about the frequency of nursing home neglect and abuse must review complaints one by one using the state’s database. However, you can use statistics gathered by news outlets and industry groups to arrive at some conclusions.
The Scope of the Nursing Home Industry in Florida
According to the Florida Health Care Association, the state has 708 nursing homes. Over 227,500 residents live in these facilities, filling 86.4% of the available beds. Jacksonville has 58 licensed nursing homes. These facilities range in size from 30 or fewer beds to over 100 beds.
Risks To Jacksonville Nursing Home Residents
Mistreatment of nursing home residents usually takes two forms. Neglect happens when professionals ignore, refuse, or fail to meet the needs of residents.
Some ways staff members can neglect residents include:
- Depriving them of food or water
- Withholding medication
- Denying medical treatment
- Refusing to assist with cleaning and grooming
- Failing to meet the needs of bedridden patients, such as turning them to avoid bedsores
- Ignoring call lights and requests for assistance
- Blocking visits with relatives
Abuse involves more active mistreatment of residents. Some forms of abuse include:
- Physical roughness
- Yelling, insulting, and belittling
- Sexual harassment and assault
- Unnecessary use of physical restraints
Neglect and abuse allegations can surface in three main ways:
- Complaints from residents about abusive or neglectful conditions
- Observations by family members of signs of abuse or neglect
- Whistleblower reports from workers or doctors who witnessed abuse or its aftermath
Each of these types of reports generates different statistics. Surveys of residents reveal that 48% claim they were treated roughly, and 44% classify their treatment as abusive. At least 44% report that they had seen other residents treated roughly, and 38% state they had witnessed abuse.
Reports from nursing home employees paint a slightly different picture. About 36% report having witnessed physical abuse, while 81% report seeing psychological abuse.
Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Jacksonville Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys
Nursing home abusers take advantage of vulnerable seniors, harming them mentally and physically. Contact Baggett Law Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation to discuss your loved one’s care and how we can investigate and pursue claims of abuse or neglect.
