How Significant is Medical Record Review in Nursing Home Injury Claims?
Proving nursing home injuries or abuse is somewhat complicated since the chances of medical record tampering is possible. A thorough churning out of the medical records is mandatory to prove the nursing home negligence. A well-experienced medical record review company can unearth negligence or substandard care from the part of the facility.
Prolonged care is a viable option for elderly ones when their medical needs cannot be taken care of at home. Nursing homes care for the elderly by monitoring their daily food intake, administering medications, providing physical therapy, and so on. However, negligence occurs in nursing homes, which leads to nursing home injury litigation.
One out of every three nursing homes in the United States receives citations for abuse, according to statistics. Every year, more than 25% of Americans die in nursing homes.
Nursing home injury lawsuit involves claims arising from nursing home neglect or abuse, with the nursing home and its medical staff being held liable for failing to provide proper care to an inmate. In other words, the nursing home violated the applicable standard of care by injuring the resident emotionally or physically.
What kinds of injuries occur in nursing homes?
• Emotional abuse/ Verbal abuse: When the nursing home staff verbally abuse the residents through shouting, cursing, threatening or humiliating, their physical as well as emotional well-being will be affected.
• Fall injuries: Most elderly residents have medical conditions that make them vulnerable to falling. There are more chances for them to fall and be injured when the staff is not efficient in supervising them properly.
• Lack of supervision/negligence: When the staff do not pay heed to the needs and calls of the elderly and avoid helping them, it becomes the neglect. Unattended wheelchairs with elderly or disabled or dropping residents during transport or choking accidents can occur due to negligence.
• Pressure sores: Bedridden elderly patients are vulnerable to pressure sores. They require constant skin monitoring and position changes. Pressure sores can develop and worsen if this is not done correctly. This would be considered nursing home negligence on the part of the staff.
• Physical abuse: Some negligent staff will be aggressive and handle the inmates roughly. They may beat or push the elderly or the disabled, leading to their injuries or death. Such negligence may result in wrongful death lawsuits.
• Sexual abuse: When the mentally disabled or elderly forced to have non-consensual sexual contact with the staff inside the facility, it is called sexual abuse.
• Medication errors: Medication errors occur by administering wrong medication or wrong dosage or administering different medications without considering the possible drug interactions.
For the above discussed nursing home injuries, the medical records should be reviewed by some expert medical record review companies.
Symptoms of nursing home abuse and injuries:
The common symptoms of nursing home abuse are listed below:
• Behavioral changes
• Bleeding
• Bodily injuries
• Decreased body function
• Dehydration
• Fatigue
• Hair and tooth loss
• Infections
• Loss of weight
• Malnutrition
• Memory loss
• Pressure ulcers
• Sedation
• Sudden demise
• Weight loss
Types of medical records needed to be reviewed:
• The resident's hospital records just before admission to the nursing home
• Admission records and evaluations obtained upon admission to the nursing home
• A comprehensive care plan for the resident, which must be established no later than 14 days after admission to the facility.
• Therapy records detailing a resident's physical therapy and occupational therapy education and assistance
• Records of medication and treatment administration
• Physician notes that must be taken upon admission, at least every 30 days for the first 90 days, and then on a regular basis
• ADL flow sheets that demonstrate how CNAs or certified nursing assistants assisted a patient with activities like cleaning, walking, eating, and moving in bed.
• Nursing and interdisciplinary notes demonstrating the resident's daily care and changes in condition.
• Lab and imaging reports displaying detailed images of a patient's injuries, fractures, and so on
• Computer audit trails and electronic charts
• Photographs of injuries, pressure ulcers, and so on. Investigation reports prepared in the event that a resident is seriously injured.
How medical record review helps in nursing home lawsuits:
To win a nursing home injury lawsuit, you must show that the caregivers failed to behave the same way as their peers would have and that this failure to fulfill the duty of care was the direct cause of the injuries. Negligence or the violation of the duty of care is the foundation of a case. It will require strong evidence in documents or expert testimonies to show the court how the negligence of the nursing home staff led to the injuries of the elderly.
The nursing home injury attorneys will have a lot complicated legal proceedings to deal with. In their busy work schedule it would be troublesome to sieve out the evidence of negligence. In such scenarios, offshoring medical records for review would be beneficial in winning nursing home injury claims.
Usually, the nursing home residents will have some pre-existing medical conditions and age-related health issues. The defense may argue that the damages or injuries claimed pre-existed at the time of nursing home admission.
If the claimants have memory-related issues, they might not be able to convey the cause of their injuries. People with psychological problems could not even express that they are abused or injured. In such circumstances, their behavioral changes notified in the medical records can be helpful.
An experienced medical record review team can excavate the negligence hidden in the medical records of the nursing home from identifying the discrepancies or contradictions in the medical records.
In some cases, the records would have been signed in different dates by certain staffs. In reality they would not have administered the medication or therapy on those particular days or the staff might not have been on present there. These contradictions can be revealed to win the claim.
A significant portion of long-term care lawsuits reveals medication and treatment administration while residents were not even in the building. I've also discovered records indicating treatments and medications given to residents after they died.
Sometimes, when a nursing home makes a serious error and then, rather than being honest, submits an outright false medical report, the victim’s family will search for the cause of death in the darkness. This is one of the most egregious breaches of a family's trust in the nursing home’s care. In such situations a medical record review company can come to the aid.
The medical record reviewers carefully peruse each and every page of the records and find out the relevant evidence to prove the nursing home’s negligence.
The medical record summaries extract the harm caused by the negligence of the caregiver with all the supporting documents. Even the contradictory statements given by the facility, the mismatching record entries, missing crucial records and the unwanted corrections like tampering the records will be identified efficiently.
In wrongful death claims, the expert review team can pinpoint the cause of victim’s untimely death as the negligence of the caregivers. Even from the minor records, they can bring to light the caregiver’s negligence.
Identifying the pre-existing conditions and rooting out the cause of certain injuries and health conditions may not be that easy for the legal teams. However, for a professional with knowledge in both legal and medical industries, such a herculean task will be a child’s play.
A comprehensive medical chronology or deposition summary can point out the contradictions in the expert testimonies or different medical records documented by different providers. In such a way, these medical review reports can also be helpful in winning claims.
The testimonies from the family and friends, both defense and plaintiff experts, etc., all can be taken into account to scoop out the negligence and substandard care.
If the negligence occurred due to short staffing, it would be projected out as a valid evidence by the reviewers to prove the cause of negligence. This will go against the caregiving facility for their incompetence.
The facilities are requested to have sufficient staff to give the standard care. When this rule is violated, facilities has to be answerable. The record reviewers can easily identify the tampered medical records to prove that the facility lacked proper staffing. Exposing falsified staff records allows the attorney to contest facility citations that they have provided enough caregivers to properly care for their invalid residents.
To wind up,
A skilled medical review team can quickly detect signs of nursing home neglect or abuse, such as tampered records, contradictory records, etc. Nursing home abuse attorneys will use resources such as witnesses, video surveillance footage, private investigators, and expert witnesses in addition to medical records to prove their case.
However, the medical record reviews that scoop out the evidence from medical records play a vital role in helping the nursing home injury attorneys to win the claims. Efficient medical record reviews with pinpointed facts unearthed from the medical records can help attorneys and jurors to understand the facts related to the litigation and how it should be approached.
Having a standard medical record review company by your side will boost your nursing home injury claim tremendously.