Albuquerque New Mexico Nursing Home Abuse Law Blog

New Mexico families may struggle with choosing a care facility when they are no longer able to care for elderly loved ones at home. They may worry that if they make the wrong choice, their elder relatives could face neglect, abuse and even a shortened lifespan. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies is introducing an informative system that is designed to provide additional information to families researching care homes. The agency runs a website for consumers to compare nursing homes. On the listing page, CMS will place a small red icon near the names of facilities where there have been reports of exploitation, abuse or neglect.

The icon could draw attention to the potential for problems at certain facilities. When people rely on recommendations provided by the home, they may not realize that there could be serious safety problems or ongoing reports of nursing home neglect or abuse. The icon will be displayed if an incident of abuse harmed a resident at a home in the year prior. It will also remain in place if any incidents of abuse that could have harmed a resident took place in the previous two years.

If you are looking for a nursing home that will provide good care for your loved one, you have certain requirements in mind.

Among those should be safety and security issues. The facility you eventually choose should have a comprehensive plan in place, from hiring practices to emergency procedures for safeguarding residents.

Any resident in New Mexico who has had to search for a nursing home to help provide care for their parent or another aging relative knows how difficult this process can be. Among the challenges associated with finding a facility that fits in a person's budget and that has an available room when it is needed, families must try to assess the quality of care their loved one will receive. 

While a nursing home should be a place where residents are kept safe, all too often they are the very places at which residents experience serious neglect, abuse or exploitation. Sadly, many families do not learn about these incidents until it is too late to help their relatives. While the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services does issue violations to nursing homes for these types of events, the reports can be hard for the average consumer to find. This inhibits a family's ability to properly select a nursing home that they believe will provide a safe home for their relative.

Placing a parent or other elder loved in a New Mexico nursing home or assisted living facility is hard even under the best possible circumstances, but if your loved one also has mobility issues, you may justifiably feel even more trepidation about doing so. At The Harvey & Foote Law Firm, we understand that your concerns may well be justifiable, because falls that lead to serious injuries and resident deaths are alarmingly common in these environments.

According to Industrial Safety & Hygiene News, the leading cause of preventable emergency-room hospital room visits among older populations is falls, which account for about 36% of these visits. Many of these falls occur in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, despite the fact that many residents live in these facilities in the first place because they require extra mobility assistance.