Nursing Homes Denying Residents’ Rights?

How far will nursing homes go to deny residents their constitutional rights? Recently, a Florida nursing home devised a scheme to deny its residents important rights before they even moved into the facility. This case went all the way to the appellate level in Florida, where the Florida Appellate Court found

that the nursing home effectively buried an agreement requiring arbitration and limiting liability in a package of documents that the resident’s daughter was asked to sign while her father was on route from the hospital to the home. Holding the agreement unconscionable the Court said it could not be enforced. The issue arose in a wrongful death action against the nursing home.

Once again we see how far nursing homes, hospitals and medical providers will go to deny patients their rights. They want you to limit your constitutional options before ever setting foot in their facility. Nursing Home patients and residents should expect reasonable safety when they put their care in the hands of others. If nursing homes, hospitals and medical providers are allowed to limit those rights through contract and/or tort reform, then the injured parties will continue to suffer more.