San Francisco Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect Lawyers

How is San Francisco nursing home abuse or neglect categorized?

Garcia & Artigliere has been fighting for the elderly since 1993. We understand why caretakers need to be held accountable for the abuse and neglect that harms their residents physically, sexually, and emotionally.

The Cleveland Clinic and The Administration for Community Living (ACL) categorize nursing home abuse and neglect as follows:

• Physical abuse. Nursing homes need to take steps to ensure their residents don’t suffer any pain due to being hit, punched, pushed, slapped, struck, or burned. Nursing homes also need to protect their residents from the use of chemical or physical restraints that aren’t authorized by physicians and from being denied the medications the residents need.
• Emotional abuse. Nursing homes must ensure that their staff members don’t verbally or psychologically abuse their residents as a form of control, discipline, or punishment. Emotional abuse includes insults, rough verbal language, and any words that cause a resident to be fearful or anxious. Emotional abuse also includes isolating a resident from family, friends, and other residents.
• Sexual abuse. San Francisco nursing homes need to take steps to ensure a senior isn’t forced to watch or participate in sexual activities or conduct – without the consent of the senior. These steps include education, monitoring, and report systems. Sexual abusers include staff members, other residents, or someone with access to the nursing home.
• Financial abuse. Sadly, many staff members see seniors are easy financial targets. Nursing home abuse and neglect includes the taking of personal property, checks, bank account information, credit card information, retirement accounts, and anything of value. Pressuring a senior to sign a power of attorney or redo a will may also qualify as financial abuse.
• Neglect. Gross neglect is the intentional failure to help nursing home residents. Examples include not giving residents their medications, not feeding them, not providing clothing that fits, and the lack of proper hygiene. Gross neglect includes the deliberate denial of resident’s rights. The key distinction between gross neglect and any neglect is that gross neglect is deliberate while other types of nursing home neglect which are also actionable are unreasonable. San Francisco nursing home neglect also includes failing to prevent self-neglect, which happens when residents due to their cognitive or physical impairments don’t take care of their basic needs like dressing and grooming.

San Francisco nursing homes can also be held liable for abuse and neglect caused by failing to protect residents who may wander away from the facility or the abandonment of a resident altogether by making the resident take care of himself/herself.

At Garcia & Artigliere, our San Francisco nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys file personal injury claims and wrongful death claims when nursing homes prioritize their profit at the expense of the safety and life of your loved one.

Medication mistakes in nursing homes

The US National Institute for Health, as of May 2023, reports that there are almost 6,800 prescription medications available, along with numerous over-the-counter (OTC) drugs. Alone, each drug has its own risks. Taken with other drugs, the adverse risks multiply – and the risk of dangerous interactions adds a whole new set of risks.

The NIH defines a medication error as:

“… any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the healthcare professional, patient, or consumer. Such events may be related to professional practice, health care products, procedures, and systems, including prescribing; order communication; product labeling, packaging, and nomenclature; compounding; dispensing; distribution; administration; education; monitoring; and use.”

The healthcare providers that nursing homes work with can be held accountable for prescribing the wrong drugs and other prescription errors.

At Garcia & Artigliere, our San Francisco nursing home abuse and neglect are skilled at holding nursing homes liable because they:

• Failed to provide and administer medications properly. Properly means giving the correct medications at the correct times in the correct dosages in the correct way.
• Neglected to review the possible side effects and drug interactions.
• Neglected to review your loved one’s medical charts and individualized healthcare plans.
• Failed to record which medications were given on the appropriate medical charts.
• Failed to understand the signs and symptoms that a resident needed medical help – and the type of help needed.
• Delaying necessary medical care.
• Providing improper medical care.

Delayed or denied stroke treatment

Nursing homes need to educate their staff about the signs of strokes because many stroke victims can be saved with immediate care. The most common type of stroke, an ischemic stroke, is normally treatable with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA)  - but only if the patient receives tPA within three (3) hours of the stroke. tPA helps break up clots so the brain can get the blood it needs. Prompt treatment can also help with hemorrhagic strokes.

About 17 percent of heart disease is due to stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2021, nearly 800,000 people had a stroke and nearly 200,000 died.

At Garcia & Artigliere, our San Francisco nursing home abuse and neglect lawyers work with heart doctors and elder care doctors to verify your loved one had a stroke and to show how prompt care by nursing home staff would have saved the life of a resident who was experiencing a stroke, or reduced the severity of the stroke.