Nursing homes do more than ensure that your loved ones receive adequate healthcare. These institutions are also responsible for your loved one’s day-to-day enrichment and well-being. This means that nursing homes must abide by certain food safety standards if their loved ones are to remain happy and healthy.
Unfortunately, some nursing homes are inclined to cut corners in the kitchen. This is never acceptable, as unsafe food handling can cause residents to fall sick. Should your loved one show signs of food poisoning, an allergic reaction, or another food-related condition, you can work with an attorney to inspect a nursing home’s food care policies.
Unsafe Food Handling Compromises Your Loved One’s Health
The nursing home employees who handle the food passing through facility kitchens should approach that food with diligence. This means checking the expiration dates on available foods, washing their hands before making dinner, and attending to residents’ allergies as applicable.
Nursing homes are also expected to feed their residents nutritious meals made out of fresh ingredients. Facilities that fail to engage in basic kitchen maintenance or that violate residents’ right to safe food put the health of those in their care at risk.
Nursing home residents who face poor food handling can find themselves contending with food poisoning or unanticipated allergic reactions. If these conditions do not receive immediate attention, the patient enduring them may suffer long-term health complications.
Food Management and Nursing Home Neglect
A kitchen team’s failure to acknowledge basic food handling safety processes can constitute negligence in the eyes of the law. This negligence, particularly when it results in the harm of one of an institution’s residents, can see the entire institution held accountable for a party’s losses in a court of law.
This is the case even when the aforementioned neglect appears unintentional. Nursing home staff have an obligation, otherwise known as a duty of care, to operate their facilities with residents’ best interests at heart. Institutions that cannot uphold their duty of care can subsequently face legal consequences.
How to Challenge Instances of Nursing Home Neglect
If you want to hold a nursing home accountable for your loved one’s food-related condition, you can file a civil complaint with the court in your area. In this complaint, you need to present evidence elaborating on the ways you believe that the nursing home in question violated your loved one’s right to thoughtful and reasonable care.
You are required by law to submit an elder neglect or abuse claim within a court’s statute of limitations. So long as you submit your complaint within the appropriate deadline, a county clerk can consider it. It is up to the county clerk and their peers to determine whether or not their case moves forward.
Should your elder abuse or neglect case move forward, you can opt to either negotiate for a settlement outside of court or take your loved one’s losses to trial. You can work with a New York personal injury attorney to determine what compensation your loved one may be entitled to. Depending on your right to representation, you may be able to use that compensation to move your loved one to a more efficient facility.
Bring Unsafe Food Handling Concerns to a New York Elder Abuse Attorney
Your elderly loved ones are entitled to more than a safe place to live. They also have a right to clean, healthy food at least three times a day. Should your loved one have to eat unhealthy foods or foods that have not received appropriate care, you can take their concerns and/or losses to civil court.
Ready to pursue a civil case on an elderly loved one’s behalf? Contact Dalli & Marino, LLP, for more information about your options. You can arrange to speak with an English or Spanish-speaking lawyer by calling (888) 465-8790 or filling out our contact form.
