If you have made the difficult choice to put your loved one in a nursing home, then it is crucial that you understand the history of the facility where your loved one is located. The last thing your elderly loved one should ever have to deal with is abuse or neglect of any kind. There are various ways that family members and friends can gather information about a particular nursing home facility.

Research the Facility

It is crucial that all family members properly research any facility they are considering placing their loved one. This can include multiple methods of research, but will usually start with a search on internet search engines. We strongly recommend not basing your decision about the facility on the reviews located on the website of the actual facility. No nursing home is going to put a bad review on their website. Rather, you should rely on third-party review sites to gain a full understanding of other people’s experience with the facility. You may be surprised by the amounts nursing homes are required to pay in fines for deficiencies during inspections.

Use Medicaid’s Nursing Home Compare Tool

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides an online tool that rates almost all nursing homes located in Riverside and the surrounding areas. Using this website, you can type in the name of the facility where your loved one is located and obtain valuable information about the facility. The website will give you an overall rating of the facility in question as well as more detailed ratings related to the characteristics of the nursing home. This includes information about the health inspection rating for the facility, the staff rating for the facility, as well as a quality measures rating.

Check if They Have a History of Violations

The Medicare website will also alert you if there have been any instances of nursing home abuse or neglect at the facility within the last year. This is a relatively new feature that has become available on the CMS nursing home compare website. Now, when you type in the nursing home facility, you may see a red icon with a white hand in the center next to the facility name. This icon indicates that the facility has received a citation for abuse, exploitation, or neglect within the past year or that abuse occurred that potentially harmed a patient within the last two years.

This red warning icon is updated monthly, and it will be removed if a facility goes without receiving any additional citations of abuse within a year. The abuse alert icon can indicate physical abuse, verbal abuse, and a failure to properly treat a patient’s medical needs.

Consult a Riverside Nursing Home Abuse Attorney

If you suspect that your loved one has been the victim of abuse or neglect inside of a nursing home in Riverside, contact an attorney as soon as possible. A skilled Riverside nursing home abuse lawyer will have the resources and legal expertise necessary to conduct a complete investigation into the allegations and secure any compensation and justice your loved one is entitled to. As a family member, your focus needs to be on caring for your loved one if any abuse has occurred. Let an attorney handle any lawsuit arising as a result of the abuse or neglect.