When drug rehabs admit patients, they are 100% liable for the safety of those patients.

Patients who are allowed to commit suicide or fatally overdose while under the supervision of a rehab facility are not at fault.

Families can file lawsuits against negligent facility operators and seek justice.

To find out how to hold a negligent detox center responsible for a tragic death, please get in touch with us to schedule a free case consultation with a real lawyer.

When Does My Family Need a Lawyer?

If your loved one is seriously hurt or dies while in the care of a drug treatment center, and facility negligence is to blame, it’s a good idea to review your case with a lawyer.

Strong legal representation is often necessary when a large Santa Barbara company or corporation behind a rehab brings in its team of lawyers.  You’ll want your own lawyers when they try to blame your loved one for what happened, or classify a tragic death as just a “medical emergency.”

• A California Rehab Facility Wrongful Death Lawyer can fully investigate your case and back it with evidence. That’s proof of every mistake a facility’s staff made.
• Your lawyer files your claim and battles with insurers, allowing your family to mourn in peace.
• Taking on the high-priced lawyers of the Luxury rehab facilities common along the Santa Barbara and Ventura County coastlines.
• Your lawyer can often secure much more for your family than they could win by taking on a major health network themselves.

See: How many drug rehabs are in Santa Barbara and Ventura County?

What Is a Drug Rehab Responsible For?

Drug rehab facilities take in vulnerable patients and are counted on to provide a safe environment and an ever-present staff. They take in struggling Substance Use Disorder sufferers; they accept money from families and often receive state and federal funding.

This all leaves facility owners with a higher accountability to their clients than a normal business would have. They must meet legal requirements and make good on their own guarantees to hopeful families who entrust the safety of their loved ones to them.

But facilities and their staff members can become negligent in their duties.

These are a few of the ways they can be held liable when harm comes to a patient:

Duty of Care to the Rehab Patient

Facilities have a legal “duty of care” to the patients they accept. They also have certain accepted health care standards that must be observed.

There is the basic “premises liability” duty of care that businesses must show their clients. This is a basic protection from unsafe surroundings or assaults. It might be a bed without railings that allows a patient in withdrawal to fall to the floor and break a wrist.

What’s more, with the detox services provided, an extra responsibility for care providers can often be established in wrongful death cases. It’s a “special relationship” established between clinicians and patients that increases the duty of facilities to keep patients out of harm’s way. It makes it easier for families to prove negligence.

State Laws and Licensing Violations

Facilities can also be found liable for injuries and fatal accidents when they are ignoring state laws and health care standards.

There are state laws instructing on the minimum number of staff that should be on duty at all times at a facility. There are laws mandating how much NARCAN should be available at each drug clinic.

There are also laws against recruiting patients from other states and offering incentives for patients to be guided to certain Ventura County and Santa Barbara rehabs (patient brokering).

Drug rehabs must also often meet the ASAM standards. It’s a requirement for some facilities as they seek to earn state licensing. These standards govern how patients should be assessed during intake and treated. The ASAM criteria go over how often patients should receive bed checks.

If these laws and guidelines are ignored and a patient dies of an overdose, the presence of clear violations makes it much easier for families to prove negligence.

Unlicensed Facility Negligence

Places like Sober Living Homes that aren’t licensed can start providing services they aren’t qualified to safely offer.

California’s recovery residences are only supposed to provide residents with peer support and a place to stay. However, they can offer unqualified medical services and counseling, and residents can end up suffering harm.

This would leave these businesses facing legal liability.

Staff Mistakes

Staff members can fail to provide proper surveillance for vulnerable patients. They can make mistakes in an emergency, such as a reaction to an overdose. Generally, it’s the owners who are liable for their actions under “vicarious liability.”

Their lapses in care and the staffer’s qualifications can leave a parent company or corporation liable. Operators are required to do background checks on all hires. They must arrange for the training of staff members.

All drug treatment centers must have liability insurance to cover a staff member’s errors in judgment. Families can draw from this support when staff members contribute to the death of a patient.

Broken Promises

Rehab providers are also liable when they break their own promises. They may guarantee constant monitoring on their website. They may promise families that their grounds will be a drug-free environment during recruitment.

When their own corporate policies and promises are broken, it leaves parent companies and corporations legally vulnerable for patient injuries and fatalities.

Companies can also neglect the outside standards they’ve agreed to uphold. They might subject themselves to independent licensing, earning certification that helps show their commitment to quality care.

But it’s another assurance that can fall by the wayside. The factors that earn certification from a provider like CARF and Joint Commission end up being ignored. Families use these broken promises as proof that their loved ones did not receive the care and attention needed to prevent something like an alcohol withdrawal death.

See: Families from other states can file claims against California rehabs.

Negligence in Luxury Rehab Centers

With the tranquil settings afforded by Santa Barbara County and Ventura County, it’s a prime area for Luxury rehab clinics to pop up. That’s a term for some high-priced drug rehab facilities that frequently open their doors in California. Some are right on the beach. Some are “women-only” rehabs.

They are almost like resorts, but they have been under fire for some troubling business practices.

These facilities provide amenities such as:

• Deluxe single-patient rooms
• Gourmet food
• Beachfront locales
• Yoga, spas, and holistic medicine clinics

Critics point out that not all of these facilities are licensed by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), and yet some provide some of the services only licensed facilities are empowered to provide. That might mean unauthorized detox medical care, professional counseling, and unapproved treatments. This negligent care can prove deadly for patients.

Deluxe rehab facilities can be difficult to hold accountable because they will have teams of lawyers ready to defend the corporations in charge. These lawyers can also block access to important evidence locked behind the facility’s doors.

A skilled attorney can make legal demands to keep the evidence from being “misplaced” and get it turned over.

See: How to check a facility’s licensing and past violations.

Questioning Who Is to Blame for a Rehab Death

An experienced lawyer could help your family figure out who was responsible for the loss of a loved one.

These types of facilities can be owned and operated by many different types of businesses and organizations.

That might mean lawsuits against:

• A parent company or corporation
• A healthcare network
• A real estate business
• An investment firm
• A non-profit organization (perhaps a church or charity)

Support for Loved Ones After a Rehab Death

Patients must seek help with their medical bills and setbacks in their recoveries. Families must demand help with their financial burdens right after a tragic death. They must also make sure close relatives who depended on the victim for financial support each month are not let down in the future.

A lawyer would ensure that these benefits and more were included in any settlement:

Injured Patients: Patients should receive compensation for every medical bill for as long as care is needed. Compensation for the pain they must suffer, on top of withdrawal issues.  They can earn support for the emotional toll an injury in a facility takes. Support for the income they lose while unable to work. Support for much more.

Families After a Wrongful Death: Families who lose a loved one can seek support for the cost of a funeral service and burial. They need help paying the leftover medical bills. They can ask for help in the future when a loved one’s income will no longer be able to contribute to the support of the family. The loss of companionship and care must also be factored in.

Punitive Damages: Punitive damages are awarded by judges and juries to add extra punishment for grossly negligent health network owners and operators. They aren’t awarded in every case, but victims do get to keep any fines paid. Luxury rehab owners who cut staffing to boost profits could be hit with punitive damages.

Santa Barbara Recovery Residence Home Ordinances

Many unlicensed luxury rehab homes are classified like Sober Living Homes, not needing state licensing. These recovery residences offer rooms to people who may have just gone through detox at a licensed facility, and now need help reacclimating to normal life. A Sober Living Home can offer lodging, peer support, and the support of a house manager.

The location of these houses can be a sticking point for some communities. California basically mandates that homes with six or fewer residents (not counting the house manager) should not be prohibited from operating in single-family neighborhoods. It should be treated as a normal single-family home.

Communities can put some restrictions on recovery residences with seven or more residents. Each city has its own guidelines.

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara would limit where care facilities serving 7 to 15 residents could be in all but two of the local types of residential zones. A performance standard permit would also be required. That’s according to Municipal Code § 30.185.140

Thousand Oaks

Thousand Oaks Municipal Code 9-4.202. Definitions. confirms that “(3)Alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities as outlined in Health and Safety Code Sec. 11834.02 and 11834.23;” with six or fewer residents must be treated at normal single-family homes.

 

Contact Us if a Santa Barbara Area Rehab Caused Your Loved One Harm.

Attorney Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to families who lost a loved one at any local rehab facility. That can include cases involving drug treatment centers in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, and Isla Vista.

Find out how to hold a negligent drug rehab facility fully responsible for failing your loved one.

Call us today or fill out a free case review form.

There’s no obligation, but if you need our help, we don’t charge your family anything upfront. If you hire Mr. Gasparian, he is only paid if he wins the case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check that a negligent facility must write for your family.