Benton House of Aiken
What Do I Do if I or a Loved One Was Neglected or Abused There?
Choosing an assisted living option for your loved one is a stressful decision to make. This is particularly true if your loved one has a condition such as Alzheimer’s and requires specialized services. While you can read brightly-colored brochures about nursing homes and the services they provide all day long, how do you really know if the facility is capable of providing quality care for your loved one?
One of the many ways to learn more about the assisted living and nursing home options in your state is to read reviews. The federal Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services inspect facilities certified to accept Medicare/Medicaid patients each year to ensure that they uphold the rights granted to nursing home patients. The Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services then gives facilities star ratings based on their health inspection reports and other quality measures. Other review sites also provide the opportunity for the family members of residents to provide reviews and ratings.
But even highly rated nursing homes can have problems. For example, Benton House of Aiken, an assisted living facility providing specialized memory care and other skilled nursing services enjoys high ratings on most review sites. However, Hughey Law Firm has successfully pursued claims against this facility in the past.
About Benton House of Aiken
Benton House of Aiken is an assisted living and memory care facility at 530 Benton House Way in Aiken, South Carolina. The cost of living at Benton House of Aiken is estimated at more than the $3,000 per month cost of living in an assisted living facility in South Carolina and Aiken; and is in line with the average cost of assisted living care within a 25-mile radius, which is slightly more than $3,700 per month. The facility accepts VA Aid and Attendance as well as most forms of long-term care insurance.
Services included in the monthly cost of a room at the facility are:
- Medication management
- Full-service beautician and barber services
- Several apartment styles and sizes to choose from
- The ability to have pets
- Monthly family events
- Assistance with daily activities
- Respite care
- All-inclusive dining with daily new recipes
What Is Memory Care?
Benton House offers specialized memory care services. Memory care should provide a low-stress environment fortified with safety and structure for those struggling with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. As with other assisted living residents, staff provide memory care residents with meals and assist with personal care tasks. But they are also specially trained to provide additional services as necessary for residents with dementia, including additional supervision and support with tasks.
Because residents with dementia are more likely to wander—approximately 60 percent of residents with dementia will walk off without supervision—memory care facilities often feature alarmed doors, enclosed outdoor spaces, and other provisions to keep residents in their expected locations.
Potential Hazards at Assisted Living Facilities
As previously mentioned, even highly rated facilities may present hazards that can jeopardize patient safety and care and lead to neglect or abuse of residents. Inadequate staffing is one of the biggest culprits of hazards in these facilities.
However, other potential hazards include:
- Inadequately trained staff.
- Failure of the facility to provide sufficient background checks to ensure that staff has obtained the proper certifications and do not have a history of violence towards others.
- Failure of the facility’s management to properly implement policies and procedures that will improve the resident’s experience and keep him or her safe.
- The failure of staff to adequately supervise residents and protect them from abuse at the hands of other residents.
- The failure of staff to adequately monitor and treat the patient for health conditions such as bed sores or to address fall risks that pose hazards to the resident’s health.
Contact Hughey Law Firm today if your loved one was injured from a hazard such as the ones listed above.
Why Understaffing at Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities Can Be Dangerous
Understaffing is one of the leading factors in nursing home abuse and neglect.
The failure to provide adequate staffing to handle the needs of residents results in these potential threats to patient safety:
- High turnover creates situations in which individuals who were not yet properly trained in the policies and procedures they must uphold provide patient care.
- Understaffed facilities have a higher number of fatigued staff members. Fatigue impacts an individual’s ability to make good decisions on behalf of their residents in much the same way alcohol impairment does. While few people would think it was a good idea for an alcohol-impaired person to provide care to nursing home residents, many do not think twice about severely fatigued staff providing care, including assisting with personal care tasks, wound management, and dispensing medication.
- Severe understaffing creates a situation where the existing staff can’t adequately provide care and monitoring for all patients, resulting in untreated medical issues, incontinent patients sitting for too long in soiled clothing, an increase in patients suffering from new and worsening bedsores, and residents falling or wandering away due to lack of supervision.
Let Hughey Law Firm Help With Your Nursing Home Negligence Case
The nursing home negligence attorneys at Hughey Law Firm are advocates for their nursing home clients, fighting for the right of the injured to obtain compensation for the expenses and impacts of their injury. Let us help you understand your legal options for pursuing compensation if your loved one was injured or died from abuse or neglect suffered in a nursing home or assisted living facility such as Benton House of Aiken. For your free case evaluation, contact us online or by calling (843) 881-8644.
Client Testimonial
“Thank you Hughey Law Firm! It was a pleasure to work with you on my case! From the beginning, every contact I had with your firm was professional, kind, helpful, and painless! I always felt kept in the loop, and important to you as a client. If you are looking for a personal injury attorney with integrity, I would highly recommend Hughey Law Firm!”
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