LawCall: Nursing Home Laws Changing

Attorney Will League discusses proposed changes to nursing home laws related to coronavirus.

Different way i.

I a agree it's the 1970s all over again.

One of the things we're watching is stories out of other states regarding nursing home law.

And the idea some states may be trying to change laws so if you family member is injured or passes away from the covid virus, that you couldn't bring a lawsuit over that, and dawesn't seem right.

First off, what is going on?

And is alabama doing that same kind of thing?

>> will league: well, even before the coronavirus pandemic, there was -- we had a lot of nursing home liability cases where there are skilled nursing facilities involved, and really malpractice claims. and malpractice claims are difficult to win without any tightening of the laws.

There's a healthy debate as to whether or not, you know, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, you know, should be liable during this time.

Before coronavirus, one of the biggest issues we saw from a litigation standpoint is your loved one is in a nursing home and there's a breach of standard of care causing him or her to be injured, loss of life.

We've had patients, our clients that have died of dehydration, died of thirst.

And the typical issue we run into, sharon, is the staffing issues, the lack of staffing.

So the ratio between workers and residents is typically at the root of most issues.

And when you're putting a loved one in a nursing home, make sure that you look out and find out if the facility has been cited for deficiencies.

You see nursing homes in west coast and even on the east coast, families are learning there was all types of deficiencies before this, and only now when they go back and look at the department of health, they're finding that stuff.

So it was difficult to make a claim against a nursing home before and it's difficult now.

Now, with the pandemic, the cdc guidelines there's enhanced standards on a nursing home that they must follow for visitors, ppe equipment, and making sure they follow those cleanliness standards.

Now, it's difficult from a proof standpoint to show where a germ came from, but a resident like that you're in a home and haven't left and haven't gone anywhere, you caught it there.

Despite best efforts it could be argued you caught the virus through the fault of no one.

That's a hurdle.

Say there's a situation, a case filed in georgia, a couple case in the midwest against skilled nursing homes where they failed to use the ppe equipment or failed to meet the standards of the cdc guidelines.

If you're allowing visitors, allowing nurses to come in and out without protective equipment and putting those residents at risk, and at that age, if they have underlying health conditions, it's a death sentence.

They can be liable for that under current alabama law.

However, there are some states that are limiting the laws during the pandemic.

There's an executive branch in georgia signed some -- more restrictive laws.

Now whether or not they can do that, they may come from the legislative branch, so there will be some constitutional questions there.

But right now in alabama you can maintain the claim against a skilled nursing home facility and, you know, we're starting to have people call that they weren't -- either they weren't informed there are were 17 cases and didn't have time to get their loved one out or it was a failure to meet the cdc guidelines and then there's one where there's several positive covid-19 cases and ppe was not followed, protocol was not followed.

Those circumstances, there may be a claim, you know, for a breach of the standard of care.

Now, the limits, sharon, in georgia, you still can claim gross negligence, willful or wanton conduct.

So they're taking away negligence.

I don't see how that works.

Under alabama law you can prove breach of standard of care, which is the law as it sits now.

>> sharon doviet: it's so frightening for many of our friends who have parents that are in nursing homes and they can't even communicate with them.

The parent may not even