Nursing homes offer vital care and support for older adults facing prolonged and even debilitating health conditions. Many professionals who provide these essential services do so with the dedication and compassion our elders deserve. However, this is not always the case. Neglect, medical mistakes, and even physical abuse are an unfortunate reality at too many elder care facilities in New Jersey. This kind of treatment isn’t just unacceptable—it’s illegal. 

Nursing homes that allow abuse and substandard care in their facilities can be held legally responsible for the harm they’ve caused. If you or a loved one has suffered inadequate treatment in a New Jersey nursing home, contact O’Connor, Parsons, Lane & Noble, LLC today. Our nursing home malpractice attorneys can help you take legal action to hold negligent providers accountable and recover just compensation for their wrongdoing.

Types of Nursing Home Malpractice Cases We Handle

Nursing home malpractice generally occurs when residents don’t receive the proper or adequate care expected from facilities and their staff. This can happen in various ways, all of which can have a devastating impact on their health and well-being.

Neglect

Neglect is failing to provide nursing home residents with appropriate care and attention. Nursing home neglect can happen at a fundamental level, such as when a facility doesn’t provide adequate food, sufficient water, or a clean living environment. It can also occur when staff don’t help residents with certain daily needs, like bathing, dressing, and using the bathroom. Neglect in elder care facilities can also look like:

  • Unsanitary rooms or shared living areas,
  • Unmonitored residents left wandering or lost,
  • Slips and falls due to insufficient safety measures, and
  • Bedsores from lack of movement or proper attention.

Understaffing or insufficient training is often the root cause of nursing home neglect. However, that doesn’t excuse this kind of negligence by facilities and their administrators. 

Abuse

Nursing home abuse happens when a care provider intentionally harms a resident. Abusive behavior can take several different forms:

  • Physical—hitting, slapping, burning, scratching, and improper use of restraints;
  • Emotional—threats, humiliation, yelling, isolating residents, and other psychological torment; and 
  • Sexual—all non-consensual intimate or sexual contact with a resident.

The very idea of hurting a vulnerable older adult may seem unthinkable. Unfortunately, this kind of malicious, exploitative behavior can and does happen. 

Medical Negligence

Nursing home residents are also vulnerable to mistakes and oversights in medical care. Examples of medical negligence in elder care facilities include: 

  • Medication errors—prescribing or administering incorrect medication or dosage to a patient;
  • Misdiagnosis—overlooking serious health conditions and failing to run necessary tests and bloodwork, causing patients to suffer irreversible consequences;
  • Lack of follow-up—failing to monitor residents with ongoing health conditions consistently; and 
  • Improper device maintenance—failing to properly administer IVs, catheters, ventilators, and feeding tubes. 

Even small mistakes by doctors, pharmacists, or other healthcare professionals can have serious consequences. Medical professionals must give the same level of care and attention to nursing home residents as they do to patients in a hospital or clinic, and failing to do so can have legal consequences. 

Warning Signs of Nursing Home Malpractice

Residents of elder care facilities may not always be able to speak out directly about the mistreatment or neglect they’re experiencing. That’s why loved ones need to be alert for potential red flags. Some signs that could indicate your loved one is suffering a form of nursing home malpractice include:

  • A significant change in a resident’s behavior or emotional state;
  • Dirty living spaces;
  • Cuts, bruises, or other unexplained signs of injury;
  • Bedsores;
  • Frequent reports of unmonitored slips and falls;
  • Cracked, dry lips or other signs of dehydration;
  • Sudden unexplained weight loss;
  • Absent or hard-to-reach staff members;
  • Attempts by staff to delay or stop family visits; and
  • Transfer to hospital for sudden, unexplained care.

If you notice these or other concerning signs, contact a nursing home malpractice law firm immediately. 

How a Nursing Home Malpractice Attorney Can Help

New Jersey nursing home residents have a legal right to dignified treatment and sufficient care. When that’s denied, you have the right to take action to hold negligent caregivers responsible. 

With the help of an experienced nursing home malpractice lawyer, you can file a lawsuit to hold any negligent parties responsible and recover financial compensation for your loved one. 

A trained legal professional can investigate the nursing home and the circumstances around your loved one’s injuries. By working with qualified medical experts, an attorney can build a case that shows how the provider’s negligence led to the harm your loved one suffered. If the lawsuit is successful, victims of nursing home malpractice can receive compensation for medical expenses required to treat their injuries, emotional distress, and other losses caused by their mistreatment.

New Jersey’s Trusted Nursing Home Malpractice Attorneys

There is no excuse for mistreating the elderly and vulnerable. At O’Connor, Parsons, Lane & Noble, LLC, we are proud to fight to hold negligent and abusive caregivers accountable for their wrongs. Our attorneys are compassionate, aggressive advocates with over 100 years of combined experience in medical malpractice litigation. In the past two decades, we’ve helped New Jersey residents recover millions of dollars of compensation for the harm they suffered by negligent care providers. If you or a loved one is concerned about nursing home malpractice, contact our office today to schedule a free consultation with an attorney.