Did Your Loved One Suffer Abuse at a Virginia Beach Nursing Home? Our Attorneys Can Help
Searching for the Right Virginia Beach Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer? This is All We Do.
Senior Justice Law Firm represents families impacted by elder abuse and neglect throughout Southeastern Virginia. Bed sores, broken bones, patient falls and wrongful death are inexcusable.
Call or Live Chat with Senior Justice Law Firm today for a completely free Virginia Beach nursing home abuse attorney case consultation.
Senior Justice Law Firm
2601 Granby Street
Norfolk, VA 23517
(757) 530-4255
Virginia Beach Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys
Signs of Abuse or Neglect in Virginia Beach Nursing Homes
- Bed sores or pressure ulcers
- Falls and broken bones
- Significant weight loss greater than 10% of the resident’s total weight
- Untreated infection
- Sexual assault or physical abuse
- Wrongful death
If your parent or loved one suffered any of the above injuries inside a Virginia facility, speak with our Virginia Beach nursing home abuse law firm immediately to learn more about your legal rights.
Free Virginia nursing home neglect case consultation: (757) 530-4255
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Lawyers Representing Victims in Virginia Beach
When people think of Virginia, they tend to think of the bustling metropolis atmosphere that spills over from Washington, D.C. and all of the beaches that tourists come to enjoy. But the southeastern area of Virginia is the most populated area of the state. In fact, this makes the Hampton Roads region appealing to retirees—which means that southeast Virginia is full of nursing homes and long-term care facilities for the aging population. Virginia Beach is home to many of these nursing homes as a popular retirement location.
Unfortunately, despite the state’s active retirement scene, many Virginia Beach nursing homes don’t meet the standard of care that you might expect for your loved ones. Staff tend to be overworked and underpaid, and this can lead to your family member being neglected or abused—whether intentionally or not. There are more citations for poor nursing home care in southeastern Virginia than any other region of the Commonwealth.
If you believe that someone you love is the victim of nursing home abuse or elder neglect in Virginia Beach or the surrounding area, you should take action immediately. Nursing home neglect is only allowed to exist in silence. Report the abuse to the appropriate state agencies and retain a Virginia Beach nursing home negligence attorney.
We are Virginia Beach nursing home abuse attorneys who work specifically on nursing home abuse cases. We want to help families seek justice against nursing homes that abused and neglected their loved ones.
Nursing Home Inspections in Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach Nursing Homes Pass—But Barely
Virginia Beach is a trendy choice for older folks who would like to live out their retirement in comfort. The mild weather, stunning beaches, and variety of fun but easy activities is a draw, from the Virginia Beach Boardwalk that stretches all the way from 2nd Street to 40th Street to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. This means that nursing homes in Virginia Beach tend to be near capacity, since the area is so popular.
However, the nursing homes in the area tend to perform rather poorly on their yearly inspections, which are conducted by the state and review a wide variety of areas, from staffing to the administration of medicine and proper hydration. Even if your loved one lives in a residence that has historically done well in reviews, he or she is not safe from potential nursing home abuse.
There are 27 nursing homes within the Virginia Beach area, and unfortunately, only a handful receive scores higher than the bare minimum 1 out of 5 in quality and sufficiency of care. The highest scoring facilities tend to be those run by nonprofits where the focus is on the residents’ health and wellbeing, not on profits. These locations typically have 50 beds or fewer, while locations with 100+ beds struggle to maintain an acceptable level of treatment for their residents.
If you suspect that your family member is not being treated properly or that nursing home abuse and neglect were the cause of your loved one’s death, reach out to a skilled nursing home neglect lawyer in Virginia Beach. We can help you plan the next steps to file a suit against the nursing home and prompt a change in their standard of care to protect residents going forward.
Abuse and Neglect in Virginia Beach Nursing Homes
What Abuse and Neglect in Virginia Beach Nursing Homes Looks Like
Nursing homes in Virginia Beach, like many across the country, are predominantly run by for-profit organizations. This means that filling beds up to the highest capacity they can manage is in their best interest, because each resident is paying to stay there, and that increases profits. The packed facilities often leave staff overworked and unable to give individual attention to residents, because each nurse must attend to many residents at once.
When staff cannot provide adequate care and then make a mistake that leads to injury, suffering, or death, this is called nursing home negligence. On the other side of the coin, staff may also intentionally abuse or mistreat residents. Regardless of which form of abuse your loved one suffered, the nursing home can be held liable.
It is important that you keep an eye out for your loved one by understanding the most frequent signs of nursing home neglect.
Common Virginia Beach Nursing Home Injuries Resulting in Litigation
Virginia Beach Bedsores
One of the most common signs of abuse in a nursing home setting is bedsores. These injuries that resemble ulcers on the skin arise when someone is lying down for a long time without moving, putting pressure on small areas of the body. For older residents with mobility issues, it is easy to see how this might happen if staff does not have the time or attention to help patients move every few hours.
There is no other factor that can cause bed sores besides negligence, so if your loved one has bedsores, the nursing home is guilty of abuse. These sores can progress from skin-level all the way to the bone, which is an extremely painful condition that leaves someone exposed to infection, sepsis, and MRSA.
Falls in VA Beach Nursing Homes
Aside from bed sores, the most common type of injury that a nursing home resident might experience is from falls. Some falls are entirely accidental and nothing could have been done to prevent them, but in a large number of cases, a patient who was a known fall risk was injured due to the negligence of the facility.
For example, residents who are allowed to wander without supervision or who are put in beds where there is a risk of rolling out or falling when getting up may experience a fall. It is the nursing home’s responsibility to mitigate these risks, and failing to do so can result in unexplained injuries that you notice when you come to visit, as well as broken bones and subdural hematomas (brain bleeds).
Malnutrition and Dehydration
When people live in nursing homes, it is usually because they need some form of assistance in order to live their best life. For many, this comes as a result of mobility issues that can make it a struggle to eat and drink. But when overworked staff don’t have time to help someone eat, things can become dangerous. Residents can be forgotten and so skip meals or drinks, or they may be handed food and water and then left unattended, where they do not eat or drink as much as they need.
This can lead to dehydration and malnutrition, since residents might need more help with eating and drinking than they are receiving. Those who are left alone to eat are also at risk of choking or food “going down the wrong pipe” (aspiration pneumonia), which can lead to infection.
Physical and Sexual Abuse in Virginia Beach Nursing Facilities
You might find it hard to believe that the staff responsible for caring for your loved one might be physically or even sexually abusive. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon, as the staff who work in the nursing home spend long days overworked and attending to residents who may be uncooperative, challenging, defensive, or even slower moving. Shockingly, staff may take out their frustration on the residents, which is unconscionable.
Losing one’s patience is never an excuse to be physically abusive toward someone, and this goes for both the staff at a long-term care facility as well as other residents. It is the nursing home’s responsibility to ensure that your loved one is safe from physical harm from both staff and other residents who may tend to be aggressive or confused.
As with physical injuries, sexual abuse can also occur at the hands of staff or residents. Background checks can only do so much to dissuade this behavior, so it comes down to the nursing home’s standard of care to keep your loved one safe.
What You Get From a Virginia Beach Nursing Home Lawsuit
When families consider filing a lawsuit against a nursing home in Virginia Beach for abuse, they often feel like there is no point—after all, receiving monetary damages will do nothing to erase the pain and suffering that their loved one experienced at the facility.
However, it is important to remember that the vast majority of nursing homes in Virginia Beach are for-profit entities. Filing a lawsuit that demands monetary compensation for pain, suffering, and even death of a loved one will incur heavy profit loss for the facility, which is the most effective way to punish them and encourage change. Because for-profit organizations do not want anything to touch their bottom line, they are more likely to make lasting change at the facility to protect residents in the future so that they do not have to pay out again.
What happened to your loved one is unique to your family and the type of care your loved one received, but the most common types of claims that lawsuits against nursing homes make include damages for:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium (when someone is deprived of the family benefits of having a loved one, such as affection and family relations)
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Distress, both mental and emotional
- Medical bills
- Loss of earnings
- Funeral costs (if a wrongful death has occurred)
Sometimes, particularly severe cases of abuse and neglect go beyond basic “negligence” into a new category called “gross negligence.” If you can provide evidence that a nursing home was guilty of gross negligence, you may see the facility fined heavily by the government, placed in a remediation program, or even lose its license and close permanently.
Nursing Homes in VA Beach
There are almost 30 nursing homes in Virginia Beach, and only a few received anything higher than the bare minimum score for care. Some of the lowest rated facilities during their reviews include (but are not limited to):
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Virginia Beach Nursing Home Negligence News
Virginia Beach is one of the most popular locations that retirees and the older population choose for retirement, and this puts strain on the local nursing homes and care facilities. Unfortunately, those long-term care locations are often in the news—and it is not to praise them for their care.
A local Ombudsman noted that staffing levels are far from perfect in Virginia Beach and the nearby areas.
“Most [for-profit] facilities do not have enough staff in comparison to the number of residents on the floor. Will residents have to wait for assistance and be in their bed while they’re soiled, or try to wait for assistance and need help going to the bathroom and fall? The state recommends 15 minutes to respond to residents, but there is no regulation.”
This neglect of residents has led to fines across the state of Virginia as homes struggle to cope with caring for the many patients they are responsible for. Patients who have advocates on their side, like family members, are known to fare better and receive better care.
Filing a Virginia Beach Nursing Home Neglect Lawsuit
Virginia Beach Nursing Home Neglect Case; Free Consultation
Understanding what to do next once you have seen evidence of your loved one being abused or neglected in a nursing home can be challenging. Maybe you have already talked to the staff at the facility, and maybe they have changed their practices. More commonly, they do not change course on complaints alone. No matter what promises they have made in regards to future care of their residents, it is important to speak to a skilled nursing home abuse attorney. Senior Justice Law Firm would be happy to speak with you free of charge to discuss your situation. We can help you develop a strategy to proceed after the abuse, neglect, and even death of your loved one in a Virginia Beach nursing home.
Our lawyers work entirely on contingency fee, which means you pay no out of pocket expenses and we only get paid if we make a recovery for you and your family.
Our only focus in legal work is in nursing home abuse. We have the resources and experience to put the pressure on a nursing home and change the way they treat their residents.
Get in touch by using our chat feature or submitting your information below. You can also contact us via phone at (757) 530-4255.
