Nursing home negligence is a form of civil liability that arises when a long-term care facility — or its staff — fails to meet the standard of care owed to a resident, and that failure causes injury or death.
The standard of care is not aspirational. It is the minimum level of attentiveness, supervision, hygiene, nutrition, and medical oversight that a reasonably competent facility would provide to a resident with similar needs. When a facility cuts corners, understaffs its floors, ignores warning signs, or fails to follow its own care plan — and a resident is harmed as a result — that is actionable negligence.
Common forms include:
- Pressure ulcers (bedsores) from inadequate repositioning and skin assessments
- Falls from failure to implement fall-prevention protocols
- Medication errors — wrong drug, wrong dose, missed doses
- Dehydration and malnutrition from neglected feeding assistance
- Unreported elopement or wandering by cognitively impaired residents
- Delayed response to acute medical deterioration
- Physical, verbal, or sexual abuse by staff or other residents