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Nursing homes must follow Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations guaranteeing protection of a resident’s rights. Those rights include the right to safety, humane treatment, and the protection of their human dignity. Under these guidelines, there are only six reasons a nursing home can evict a resident. If a nursing home facility attempts to evict a resident, their grounds must fall under one of these six reasons. Evicting a resident for refusing medical treatment isn’t lawful under CMS regulations unless their refusal results in one of the allowable grounds for nursing home evictions.
If a nursing home evicts a resident, the administration must provide at least 30 days’ notice, the eviction notice must be communicated in writing, and in a language that the resident understands. There are only six reasons a nursing home may evict a resident. These include the following:
In addition, the law requires a nursing home to address the issue and attempt to resolve the problem before serving the resident an eviction notice. They may not evict a resident without a plan for care at a new facility, or hospital, or the resident’s release to their home or with a family member. In order to protect your rights and receive legal help, contact a Phoenix nursing home abuse lawyer.
Elderly citizens do not lose their constitutionally guaranteed rights when they enter a nursing home facility, including the right to refuse medical treatment. A nursing home cannot evict a resident who refuses medical care even if the refusal makes them more difficult to care for; however, nursing home administrators may lawfully evict a resident if their refusal to accept medical treatment results in a medical condition that is beyond the facility’s ability to provide care. For example, most nursing homes cannot provide ventilator care, bariatric care, or acute psychiatric care for their residents.
If a nursing home evicts a resident because their medical needs exceed the facility’s care abilities they must document the specifics in the patient’s records including the following:
An eviction may not be based solely on the resident’s decision to refuse medical treatment, but a nursing home may evict a resident whose refusal causes care needs the facility cannot meet.
If a resident’s refusal of medical treatment endangers others in the facility, the nursing home has a right to evict them as long as they’ve attempted other means of resolving the problem and followed proper procedures for eviction. If the nursing home cannot protect the health and safety of other residents and staff due to the resident’s refusal of medical treatment, they have a legal right to evict them.
For example, suppose a resident has an infectious disease and the nursing home cannot prevent the spread of the disease, they may require the resident to leave the facility if they refuse medical treatment.
A nursing home cannot evict a resident for refusing sedatives or other mood-altering medications unless their refusal results in a mental state that makes the resident a danger to others in the facility. In this case, the nursing home administrator must first document their reasonable attempts to resolve the problem before evicting the resident.
Nursing home residents have a right to refuse life-extending care if they have a terminal illness. Some religious-based nursing home facilities may have policies regarding life-extending care for the terminally ill that require the resident to agree to all life-sustaining measures. This may be legal for religious-affiliated facilities in some states. If this is the case, the law requires the nursing home facility to inform the residents of this policy in writing when they are admitted into the facility.
When a nursing home serves a resident with a written notice of eviction due to the resident’s refusal of medical treatment, they and their family members have a right to appeal the decision. The appeal may be based on the premise that their refusal of medical care does not endanger other residents and staff members, or that the facility can provide medical care that meets the resident’s needs even if they refuse the treatment. For example, a nursing home cannot force the resident to take Xanax because their dementia makes them agitated at sundown. Even if they become aggressive, the facility cannot evict them unless they can show that the resident is a true danger to others and that they’ve first attempted to take other reasonable measures to accommodate the resident.
A nursing home cannot simply default to an eviction for a resident who refuses care.
The first line of defense against an unlawful nursing home eviction is a local ombudsman. An ombudsman is an advocate for fair treatment in a nursing home facility. They often set up informal mediation between a nursing home resident or their family representative and the nursing home administrators to come up with reasonable solutions, including for residents who exercise their right to refuse medical treatment.
When a nursing home continues eviction measures against a resident due to their refusal of medical treatment, an attorney can protect the resident’s rights by filing a lawsuit. A Phoenix nursing home lawyer can gather evidence to show that retaining the resident in the nursing home does not endanger others or exceed the facility’s ability to provide appropriate care.
The personal injury attorneys in Phoenix, Arizona, at Knapp & Roberts have the compassion and trial lawyer skills to tell your story to a jury. We will get to know you and your family so that we can help the jury understand what has happened to you and your family and how it has changed your lives. Obtain the compensation necessary for the injuries and losses you have suffered.
