The Elder Abuse Act Protects Your Loved One Who is 65 Years and Older And Those Aged 18-64 Who Are An Inpatient at a 24-hour Health Facility During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Into the Future
Elder abuse attorneys protect the vulnerable in Orange County Aa
Patient care at nursing homes is an issue that has come to light over the years and now in light of the Covid-19 Pandemic. The regulations that protect patients and govern the facilities where they are treated are contained in California’s Health and Safety Code, Title 22 and Code of Federal Regulations. The Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act provides remedies and protections to Elder individuals, those 65-years and older and to some people’s surprise patients who are aged 18-64 years old who are in 24-hour health facilities.
Welfare & Institutions Code Section 15610.23 states in pertinent part:
“(b) “Dependent adult” includes any person between the ages of 18 and 64 years who is admitted as an inpatient to a 24-hour health facility, as defined in Sections 1250, 1250.2, and 1250.3 of the Health and Safety Code.”
That means that if your loved one is in a 24-hour health facilities, such as being admitted to a hospital or a skilled nursing facility, (SNF), where many times people are transferred to complete rehabilitation, then they are given the same protections that elderly people, aged 65-years or older are provided by California’s Elder Abuse Act.
The reason this matters is many fold. Statistics compiled in the last ten years show that:
“Medical malpractice deaths have steadily risen in the past ten years. It is now the third-leading cause of death in the United States with more than 250,000 people dying every year from surgical errors and negligence.”
Additionally, inadequate staffing levels, especially at long term skilled nursing facilities have led to unnecessary patients injuries, such as patients falls, decubitis ulcers (bed sores), providing the wrong medication and performing medical procedures in a negligent manner. The Elder Abuse Act allows an attorney not only to proceed based upon medical negligence laws, but allows an attorney to seek additional compensation for harms and losses that are not provided for in a traditional medical malpractice lawsuit. Many people know that since 1975 California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) has limited a person or her family’s (in the case of medical malpractice that results in death to the patient) pain and suffering, their non-economic harms and losses to $250,000.00. That means that surgeon who negligently amputates the wrong leg or cause the death of a mother delivering a child is limited by MICRA from ever compensating the patient or her family for pain and suffering more than $250,000.00.
If the medical malpractice or negligence occurs to patient that also fall under the Elder Abuse Act, then the patient or her family can recover pain and suffering that is not limited by the MICRA limit of $250,000.00. Further, the Elder Abuse Act allows the patient or her family to demand punitive or exemplary damages for actions by the medical care providers that is guilty of recklessness, oppression, fraud or malice while committing the abuse. An attorney attempting to recover these harms and losses has to show that the employer of the health care providers directly cause the harm or ratified by way of a managing agent the harm caused by the employees. In order to prove this type of punitive damages, you need an attorney and law firm that has experience in obtained the necessary documents, depositions and answers to written questions (interrogatories) that provide evidence of this heightened standard of proof.
Elder Abuse in Orange County
As an Orange County attorney pursuing Elder Abuse claims for many years, Kyle Scott and his staff at Kyle Scott Law have experience in holding medical care professional at nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities and hospitals accountable for their negligent health care and sometime health care that is reckless, oppressive, fraudulent and malicious. By using the laws that are in place to protect the Elderly and those persons who are 18-64 who are in 24-hour health care facilities when the medical negligence and abuse occurs, your loved one or in cases where tragically the loved one passes, your family can obtain justice for the Elder Abuse caused by health care providers.
If you or your loved one have questions about health care that you think may rise to the level of Elder Abuse or medical malpractice, then call Kyle Scott Law at 714-544-1460 or email us at info@kjslaw.com and let us evaluate whether you have facts that support an Elder Abuse or Medical Malpractice claim.