Nursing Homes Safety Attorney Burbank
How safe are your loved ones in a Nursing home? When a resident is inside a nursing home, they are essentially living alone, so their safety is heavily dependent on the quality of the nursing home and staff. The nursing home facility must have a secure space and be equipped with caring and trained staff that are also adhering to safety protocols. If you are concerned about the safety of a resident or a loved one inside a nursing home, contact a personal injury attorney for more information.
Burbank Lawyer for Safety in Nursing Homes
If you or your family member are contemplating entering a nursing home, you should consider the safety found inside the home. The safety of residents can depend on the security measures taken in the facility in relation with the nursing home staff’s care.
Our Burbank nursing home abuse lawyers at Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, APC are dedicated to representing your best interests. We understand you want to keep your loved ones safe, and we want to help reach that outcome. Contact our attorneys at Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, APC to get started on a consultation.
We work with clients in the cities of Burbank, Visalia, Long Beach, Pasadena, Los Angeles, and more. Call (818) 459-4999 to reach us.
Safety of Nursing Homes Information Center
Staff Supervision
Falls
Nursing home residents are usually elder individuals who have moved into a nursing home facility to be cared for, because they can no longer care for themselves. The nursing home staff has a role of supervising residents at all times, and especially in case of emergencies. The role falls play in elderly people’s health concerns are important to consider when analyzing staff supervision at a nursing home.
Nursing home staff must be regularly checking up on its most vulnerable residents to prevent any accidents. Similarly, residents who may be suffering with mental disorders or conditions such as Alzheimer’s are in most need of constant physical guidance.
Facility Security Measures
Secure Doors/Exists
Not only do nursing home staff play a role in ensuring residents maintain safe through their guidance but the facility building should also have security measures established within the facility. Such measures include locked doors and exits with a system in place to prevent a resident from walking into unauthorized quarters or out into the street.
Cameras
Although not mandated, cameras and surveillance systems can provide safety measures to increase staff supervision on residents, in addition to providing added building security. A nursing home facility is no different than any other building and can have trespassers or loiterers wondering around. Residents in a nursing home are a vulnerable population to those looking to cause harm. Cameras should be installed around the nursing home premises to avoid such occurrences.
Visits/Incoming Calls Procedures
The nursing home should provide a standard procedure for incoming calls and visitors. Standard procedures can include high-level identification verification during visits and when receiving incoming calls so that unauthorized individuals are not allowed to terrorize or harm residents.
Emergency Planning/Evacuation Plan
Nursing home facilities are highly sensitive to evacuation-necessary emergencies, because the residents cannot move or function collectively as other occupants in other buildings. Nursing home facilities must have an efficient evacuation and high-risk situation plan in place at all times. In case of a city, state, or federal declared emergency, nursing homes also have to be ready to take the appropriate measures to maintain their residents’ safety at all costs.
Healthcare Concerns
Reducing Risk of Viruses/Infections
Nursing home staff must follow specialized standards to reduce the health risk of all residents. Outside of providing common assisted living services (i.e., bathing, eating, interacting), the nursing home is equipped with standardized healthcare assistance to its residents. Therefore, they must act with the highest level of regard for health standards.
Nursing home staff must make sure they are reducing the risk of contagious illnesses such as viruses or bacterial infections. All nursing home staff including cleaning staff and kitchen staff must be following standards when sanitizing the premises and preparing and providing food for residents.
Medication Errors
Besides falls and specific underlying conditions, residents run the risk of getting sick if they are not administered their medication or administered the wrong medication.
Nursing home staff should follow careful procedures when administering medications to residents. Making a medication error is an easy way to endanger any individual’s life, and residents are highly vulnerable.
Additional Resources
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) | Nursing Home Safety – The Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides an overview of some of the risks and cautions inside nursing home facilities from equipment to respiratory exposures. Click to look into some of the specific nursing home standards set forth by OSHA.
National Institute on Aging (NIA) | Nursing Home Facility Security — The National Institute on Aging (NIA) provides an overall information guide on nursing home facilities. The National Institute on Aging also provides security measures that are necessary for individuals of elder ages.
Burbank Attorney Discusses Safety in Nursing Homes
Nursing home neglect and abuse have become an important concern for the family of residents inside nursing home facilities. Nursing home neglect and abuse not only involve direct interaction between residents and staff, but it can also be present in the manner the nursing home facility functions in regard to safety and security protocols.
At Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, APC, we value your time and efforts. We will sit with you to explore the legal options most relevant to your case and move on from there. If you are concerned about abuse or neglect inside a nursing home, we can file a negligence lawsuit on your behalf.
Call us at (818) 459-4999 to schedule a consultation or fill out a free case review at the bottom of the page. We work with clients in Los Angeles, Tulare and throughout California.
