If one of their caregivers drops a paralyzed client that results in a broken hip? The on-duty caregiver was on her first night shift in this home. She dropped the client during a transfer from wheelchair to bed. The client is left-side paralyzed from a stroke a few years ago and also suffers moderate dementia. He landed hard on the floor in extreme pain. Ambulance was called and was admitted to hospital. Diagnosis: broken hip. Caregiver accompanied client to hospital, but for the duration only sat involved with her cell phone until released to leave her shift. Surely there is some legal recourse to make this agency pay the medical bills and rehab for this injury which would not have happened otherwise? Thoughts?
You can still question this with an attorney, as one would assume a correctly paired caregiver would know what to do. Was anyone from the family at the home since this was her first night with the client, to give instructions? Or was she left to make decisions on her own. Usually licensed professional agencies are insured.
As for the caregiver being on her phone while sitting in the hospital waiting for her shift to end, what could she have done? She's not an employee of the hospital. She probably was in contact with the agency explaining the situation, and such calls would be going back and forth.
It also turns on what the standard of care in that geographic area would be for a patient with similar medical conditions.
Other important issues would be whether or not the caregiver knew the patient had some paralysis, whether or not the agency trained her, etc.
A question that arises for me is the feasibility of transferring a patient with partial paralysis w/o assistance from another caregiver, or another person.
Another question is whether or not the wheelchair had removable arms and whether the family provided the caregiver with a slide board to make transferring easier, and safer.
Somewhat related questions are what your role is in this situation, and whether or not you have any standing to take action. You don't write from the perspective of a sibling or family member, but rather as an observer. Were you there when this incident occurred? If so, what was your role? Where are the family members? Does this patient live alone?
GardenArtist: Yes, attorneys complicate matters. But is that what it will take in order to get the company to provide payment (through their insurance) for all the incurred expenses? The geographical area is AZ, and there is very little, if any, government regulation of the home health care industry there. Practically anyone can hang a sign and open business as "home health care" out there.
For full disclosure, I am a family member (out of state), but have been VERY involved in care for them for over 4 years. They have no other family in the area who can offer help in any meaningful way. I am their daughter-in-law. I have been over-seeing their care and working closely with home health care agencies over the duration to see that they have caregivers on site 24/7. The client, my FIL, suffered a debilitating stroke over 4 years ago. He was also already showing signs of moderate dementia at that time. The stroke left him completely paralyzed on his left side. My MIL is not able to care for him completely on her own, and must have physical help in the home around the clock. My FIL, still having the use of the right side of his body was able to assist in his own transfers (from wheelchair to toilet, bed, car, etc) but does require help in rising and pivoting to make sure he lands where intended.
Yes, this agency knew his condition when they provided a proposal for his care. They came to the house and conducted their profile interview and was fully aware of the situation. Told us (yes, I was present for this interview) they hired only CNAs or higher and would have no problems in supplying the type of care we spelled out was required. (Of course, in subsequent weeks, it became apparent that they were really struggling to keep enough caregivers for the number of clients they kept accepting, and hardly any of them were CNA certified.) *All home health care agencies are hungry for $$$ and will say (market) anything to you to get the agreement, and then hope they can scrape by.
No, the wheelchair does not have removable arms, only legs. However, the caregiver and agency were also aware of his. Slide board and also gait belt are available in the home.
I'm assuming this agency is not going to step up and offer to pay for the medical bills / rehab through their insurance for these medical bills. Just wondering if an attorney will be needed to set this in motion? A broken hip is pretty serious.
However, an attorney can ease the way for out of court solutions. Sometimes people do need the leverage an attorney can offer.
But I'd bet that if you took an action againsint the home health company - whether traditional lawsuit or arbitration - that in the discovery phase there will be other clients who have been affected by mismanagement or misrepresentation or whatever else is found. Which your atty can also do work for. Now that could have a much larger settlement for your legal if the home health has assets or has a decent business liability & errors/omissions insurance.
I'd also suggest you do a bit of a drill down via Google on the home health agency - like go to Sec of State website for business registration which gives info on the companies structure to find out the corporate names and then do a search on those as well….kinda to find out what their pockets are and also if it's a web of companies, LLC's, S corps, etc which will mean lots more legal to wade through.
If their agent is an atty or law firm, then google them to see what type of law they do & who else they represent as an agent. All this will give you a way to get a feel as to your success in lawsuit. I'd bet you can put on your Nancy Drew hat and get this done in a long weekend! Good luck.