Responsibilities of a Nursing Home

Experienced Attorney

Assisted living facilities or nursing homes are establishments that you entrust to take care of your aging parents or grandparents. When your loved one becomes a patient in a living care facility, you expect that the best possible care will be provided to him or her. Even without a contract between your loved one and the home, the caregivers do have a duty to care for patients.

Ethical Responsibilities

In a nursing home, every caregiver is meant to act with professionalism. The caregivers have to analyze all ethical issues and prioritize ethics above all else. A nursing care doctor or caregiver must be trustworthy and reliable to the patients and to anyone else he or she has a business relationship with. He or she should put a client’s interests and welfare first and ensure that he or she avoids all harm.

Your loved one deserves dignity and respect. The caregivers should uphold his or her dignity and human rights. Your loved one may be in a vulnerable time in his or her life and it is important for the caregivers to protect but also to allow privacy and autonomy.

Legal Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the living facility do vary from facility to facility. In general, every state has its own laws that govern nursing homes. Even without a contract, there are still legal obligations. It is up to the nursing home to provide proper nutrition to the patients, to assist your loved one in caring for his or her living space, to supervise, to provide the proper healthcare and medication, along with taking care of the emotional and physical welfare. A nursing home cannot legally act negligently. If your loved one is suffering abuse or neglect, this is not legal and unethical. You do have legal recourse that you can take against the nursing home if you suspect that there is a serious problem.

If you feel as though the caregivers, doctors or other professionals at the nursing care facility have neglected or abused your loved one, then you may have a case. It does not matter if your loved one had a contract with the care facility. What matters is that there is a responsibility to all patients and if the nursing home acts in a way that is negligent or irresponsible, you may have a case. To find out more about filing a claim against a nursing home, consult with a nursing home lawyer, like a Nursing Home Malpractice Lawyers in Phoenix, AZ, as soon as possible.

Thank you to the experts at Rispoli Law, PPLC, for their input into nursing home law.