Nursing home abuse occurs in many ways but, most often, is the result of inadequate staffing and training. To succeed at trial, certain evidence must be produced to prove an elder abuse personal injury case.
An elder abuse attorney begins to discover evidence with the use of a document production demand to gather all medical records. These records will be thoroughly reviewed to determine the patient's medical condition (assessment), the types of treatment required, and the actual care that was provided. Often, the records reveal that the nursing home failed to perform the tasks necessary to ensure that the doctor's prescribed treatment plan was actually carried out by the nursing staff.
The document request should also include all records relating to in-house training workshops, called in-services. Typically, these will consist of one hour meetings in which the medical director or director of nursing will instruct the staff on how to perform certain tasks related to patient care, and such trainings are often required procedures mandated by various state or federal regulations. The records may reveal that the nursing home failed to provide such training or that the nursing assistants - who were assigned to the injured patient - never attended the training session.
Records can also be obtained from various outside sources to prove that the nursing home has a history of violations that are similar to the cause of the patient's injuries. In Riverside County, California, for example, the Department of Health Services maintains a Licensing and Certification (L & C) department that investigates complaints of nursing home abuse. L & C conducts unannounced investigations of the nursing facility, reviews the patient's medical records and interviews nursing personnel. If violations are found, then L & C issues a statement of deficiencies that lists the specific violations and requires the nursing home to take certain corrective measures.
The nursing home will respond with a "plan of correction"; however, the records obtained from L & C may reveal a repeated pattern of violations and no meaningful corrective action taken by the nursing home.
Once all of these records are gathered, they will be reviewed by a qualified expert witness who will testify to the standard of care that the law required of the nursing home, how the standard was breached, and that the failure to adhere to the standard of care was a substantial factor in causing injury to the patient.
The type of expert retained to provide trial testimony will depend on the particular type of breach that resulted in the patient's injury. For example, failure to administer proper medications may require the use of a medical doctor who will testify to the appropriateness of the medication, its dosage and its proper administration. Failure to assist a patient in bathing or feeding may require a director of nursing or other healthcare professional to provide expert witness opinion.
The trial evidence needed to prove nursing home abuse will come from many sources, but ultimately will depend on medical records and expert witness testimony.
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