Friday, March 15, 2013

Giant Nursing Home Found Guilty in California Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Sometimes, it is hard to make a decision on where to take a family member for a care. Often times, it ends up picking the best nursing home in town regardless of its extra-expensive asking price to make sure that a loved one will be in good hands. However, the fact that we don’t know and might surprise us in the end is that either small time or big time nursing home, both have their own ups and downs.

Surprisingly, recent news reports revealed that one of the biggest known nursing home in the country was found guilty in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against it.

According to reports, the Sacramento Superior Court has returned verdicts of wrongful death lawsuit and elder abuse against the largest assisted living company all over the country, the Emeritus Corp.

The said lawsuit was filed by the family of a former patient of Emeritus facility who died shortly after leaving the nursing home about five years ago. Accordingly, Joan Boice, who has been under Emeritus’ custody since she had Alzheimer’s disease until she died shortly after she left the nursing home in 2008. She was 82-years-old at the time of her death. She had at least four bedsores that were listed as major factors in her death.

Boice’s family’s legal representative has argued during the trial that understaffing and lack of training represented a strategy on Emeritus’ part to cut costs.

On the other hand, a spokesperson for the nursing home giant affirmed that the company is dedicated in providing excellent care to its residents. Apparently, the assisted living company was disappointed with the recent verdict.

Following this news, a Los Angeles wrongful death lawyer speculated that this will probably make a change to all the nursing home facilities out there as well as to those people who are investing too much money on what they believed to be the best nursing home in town. For the nursing homes, instead of eyeing at their profits alone, they should also be looking on every single detail of what is going on inside their residences. Meanwhile, for the families who entrust their loved ones to the assisted living homes, make a wise decision, he added.