What are the Rights of Tennessee Nursing Home Residents?
During the process of selecting a nursing home, you may be promised many things by the management and staff of the nursing homes that you visit. When you make your decision about which nursing home seems to be the best fit for your elderly relative, you trust that they will be well taken care of once they are there. Everything may seem to go well for a while, but then you may begin to notice things during your visit which make you wonder whether your relative is receiving the care that they were promised. When this happens, it is only natural to wonder whether your relative has a right to a specific standard of care.
Tennessee nursing home residents do have rights. These rights are described in the Nursing Home Resident’s Bill of Rights, which was created by the Tennessee Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. According to this Bill of Rights, nursing home residents have a right to appropriate and adequate nursing and medical care. While this seems like a very general concept, the other rights which are contained in the Nursing Home Resident’s Bill of Rights provide more specifics. For example, residents have rights to privacy, information, and the exercise of their civil rights. They also have the right to a safe and clean living environment, and to be free from physical or chemical restraints, as well as from physical, verbal, and emotional abuse.
Tennessee nursing home residents also have rights to dictate many aspects of their care, such as the right to participate in or refuse treatment, and the right to voice grievances without the fear of retaliation. Their autonomy is protected by the rights to manage their finances, communicate freely with others, participate in community activities, and have private visits with family and friends. They also have rights which can help them to feel secure in their surroundings, such as the right to be treated with courtesy and respect and the right to not be transferred or discharged from the nursing home without their consent.
When a nursing home resident experiences abuse or neglect, they experience a violation of one or more of their rights. Some nursing home residents are capable of and comfortable with speaking up when they feel as though their rights are being violated. If your relative falls into this group, that is a good thing. When they tell you about how they have asked their caregivers to change things that need to be addressed, offer your support and help them to monitor the situation to make sure that it does improve.
Not all residents are able or willing to make it known that they feel as though their rights have been violated. Some residents are unable to communicate their concerns to nursing home staff or management because they are nonverbal. Others are timid and fearful that asking to be treated properly could lead to further mistreatment. If your elderly relative falls into one of these categories, and you either notice a violation of their rights or they tell you that their rights have been violated, you can be their voice and ask the nursing home to provide them with the care that they are entitled to.
If someone that you love has been abused or neglected by a nursing home, the experienced Tennessee nursing home abuse attorneys at Bailey & Greer, PLLC want to help you. We will sit down with you to learn about your case, explain your options, and help you decide how to proceed. Call us today, at (888) 470-9143 to schedule a time to discuss your case. At Bailey & Greer, PLLC, we are small enough to care, big enough to fight, and experienced enough to win.