Jacksonville Injury Attorney Blog

Medicare rates nursing homes throughout the country on a scale of one to five stars, with one being the lowest. Four nursing homes in Jacksonville received the lowest rating. They are: Glenwood Nursing Center in Arlington; West Jacksonville Health and Rehab Center on the Westside; Palm Garden of Jacksonville in Spring Park; and San Jose Health and Rehab Center in Mandarin. All of these facilities are located in Duval County, Florida.

Nursing home abuse and neglect are concerns for all nursing home residents and their families. If you are concerned, one step you should take is to look at the Medicare ratings located at www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/. The State of Florida, Agency for Heath Care Administration, also has ratings of every nursing home in the state located at http://ahcaxnet.fdhc.state.fl.us/nhcguide/

You should also tour the facility. Look for cleaniness, a lack of foul odors and polite and eager staff. Also consider the quality of a nursing home's medical director. Once your family member becomes a resident, make frequent visits, ask questions, request meetings with the staff and medical director if you have concerns and do not hesitate to have your loved one transferred if you sense a problem.

As Jacksonville nursing home lawyers, we have seen many types of nursing home abuse and neglect including: failing to provide adequate nutrition; undiagnosed infections; clostridium difficile infections (c. diff.); sepsis; failing to provide proper medication; failing to timely transfer a resident when serious complications arise; and neglected bedsores.

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As Jacksonville nursing home attorneys and medical malpractice attorneys, from time to time, we review cases on behalf of clients who signed an arbitration agreement prior to being admitted to a hospital, nursing home or assisted living facility.

Such agreements purport to require that any claim, dispute or lawsuit for medical malpractice, or nursing home abuse or negligence, be submitted to an arbitrator instead of a jury. In our opinion, in the event that negligence is proven, arbitrators are likely to award less than juries. In addition, such agreements often limit the damages you can recover and prevent you from being reimbursed your lawsuit costs in the event that you are sucessful. Lawsuit costs for medical malpractice cases often exceed $50,000.00.

Although such agreements can sometimes be challenged and found to be unenforceable, often they are enforceable ,and, as set forth above, greatly limit your rights. Our recommendation is to never sign such an agreement.

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Many of the nursing homes throughout Florida including Jacksonville provide excellent care to their residents. However, some do not and nursing home abuse causes needless suffering to our most vulnerable citizens.

Florida state regulators fined a West Palm Beach Nursing Home $18,000.00 after a resident was infected by maggots from a wound inside a cast on his broken leg. The nursing home's care plan required that the wound be cared for every three days; however, the nursing home could only provide documentation that it did so once a week.

Earlier this year, the nursing home in question was placed on a watch list by the state because of its poor performance on inspections. The nursing home was rated a one out of a possible five stars on its inspection grade, including just one star for quality of care.

Prior to this incident the state warned there was “immediate jeopardy” to residents' health and safety for various care violations. To check out Florida’s watch list and get other state ratings of nursing homes, click here.

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