How to deal with Nursing Home Disputes

Most of us have had or will have a relative or loved one cared for in a nursing home at some time in our lives.  Perhaps many of us will, ourselves, be there one day.  The graying of America has put many of our loved ones in the care of these institutions now.  With the increase in our population of elders, the flaws in the care of elders become ever more apparent, leading to more complaints about care, billing, short staffing, administration and other problems.  These complaints are certainly appropriate for mediation but few of them get there unless the family member faces a problem so grievous as to compel suing the institution.  If the monthly charge for care is arbitrarily increased without justification, if Uncle Bill's clothes are being stolen, if dear old Dad doesn't always have an aide there to help him eat when he needs help, there may not be enough of a dispute with the nursing home to sue.  However, there is certainly a cause for the family to complain.  When the complaints are repeatedly ignored, there is growing outrage. Families want to place their frail elderly in safe nursing homes.  Finding an appropriate facility is no easy task, and all beds are often full.  In my own practice, I hear many more stories of families with valid concerns about everyday wrongs than I do stories of lawsuit-worthy situations, though, of course, both exist.  Currently, there is nowhere to send the family with the less serious problem to assure that anyone will actually listen to their complaints. That was the impetus for the effort to create programs for mediation in nursing homes and hospitals.  This is still a new field.  Establishing programs to deal with disputes in pro-active ways through mediation requires that the administrators and insurers of these institutions accept the concept.  When they do, it works very well.  When they don't, we end up only mediating disputes which are litigated, often after great expense to both sides. No effort at prevention of a suit is normally made. The nature of many disputes is such that mediation can lead to greater understanding, a forum to voice distress, and an opportunity to problem solve before little annoyance piled on bigger annoyance drives people to seek ways to express their anger through the courts.

What lawyers can do, with positive experiences of mediation, is to educate those around us, suggest mediation whenever possible, and to seek the assistance of those in the field to implement this tried and true method of ADR in our own healthcare consumer experiences. If you have never had a complaint about your own healthcare or those who deliver it, you likely will in the future.  Seniors are the biggest consumers of the healthcare dollar.  We must bring ADR into the places where our seniors are at risk.  Soon enough, we will be the ones at risk ourselves.

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Carolyn L. Rosenblatt, R.N. has been practicing in the area of personal injury for twenty-five years, more recently in the area of elder abuse.  She and her husband and co-mediator, Dr. Mikol Davis, a clinical psychologist for nearly thirty years, are working to bring mediation to the healthcare setting, as well as mediating other healthcare related disputes.  They can be reached at: nurselawyer@HelpWithElders.com