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Serving Philadelphia, Delaware County, Montgomery County, Bucks County and Chester County since 1996.
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Nursing Home Selection
Resolving Disputes
Disagreements with a nursing home can come up regarding any number of topics, and almost none is trivial because they
involve the day-to-day life of the resident. Disputes can arise about the quality of food, the level of assistance in feeding,
troublesome roommates, disrespect or lack of privacy, insufficient occupational therapy, or a level and quality of
activities that doesn't match what was promised, among other areas.
The nursing homes that live up to the ideal of what we would want for our parents or ourselves are few and far between.
The question is how far you can push them towards that ideal, what steps to take in pushing, and at what stage does the
care become not only less than ideal, but so inadequate as to require legal or other intervention. This can be a hard
determination to make and in some cases needs the involvement of a geriatric care manager who can make an independent
evaluation of the resident and who has a sufficient knowledge of nursing homes to know whether the one in question is
meeting the appropriate standard of care.
Following is a list of the interventions a family member may take, in ascending order of degree. Move up the list as the
severity of the problem increases or the facility does not respond to the less drastic actions you take. In all cases,
take detailed notes of your contacts with facility staff and descriptions of your family member and his or her care.
Always note the date and the full name of the person with whom you communicate.
- Talk to staff. Let them know what you expect, what you care about and what your family member cares about.
This may easily solve the problem.
- Talk to a supervisor, such as the nursing chief or an administrator. Explain the problem as you see it.
Do it with the expectation that the issue will be favorably resolved, and it may well be.
- Hold a meeting with the appropriate nursing home personnel. This can be a regularly scheduled care planning
meeting or you can ask for a special meeting to resolve a problem that wasn't resolved more informally.
- Contact the ombudsperson assigned to the nursing home. He or she should be able to intervene and get an
appropriate result.
- If the problem constitutes a violation of the resident rights described above, report it to the state
licensing agency. This should put necessary pressure on the facility.
- Hire a lawyer. When all else fails, a lawyer has the tools to make the facility obey the law.
- Move your relative. If nothing else works, move your family member to a better facility.
This may be difficult, depending on the situation, but it may be the only solution. It does not prevent
you from pursuing legal compensation for any harm inflicted on the nursing home resident while at
the earlier facility.
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Call Us: (610) 446-9626
Fax Us: (610) 446-9985 |
Visit our offices:
17 Mifflin Ave. Suite 202
Havertown, PA 19083 |
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