Negligent rehab facilities can contribute to the tragic death of a loved one.

To get answers as to what happened, families can demand access to patient and facility records under their rights guaranteed in the California Health & Safety Code.

These documents can serve as important evidence of neglect when filing lawsuits and holding a careless drug treatment program liable for wrongful death.

The Right to Information after a Fatal Rehab Overdose

The rights of family members to all information regarding a tragic overdose death are explained in the California Health & Safety Code (HSC). The entire section entitled “CHAPTER 1. Patient Access to Health Records.” Goes over the patient’s and the family’s rights to any information a drug rehab business is trying to obscure.

HSC 123100.

“…It is, therefore, the intent of the Legislature in enacting this chapter to establish procedures for providing access to health care records or summaries of those records by patients and by those persons having responsibility for decisions respecting the health care of others.”

Families can request these records and should be able to view them within 5 days. They are also supposed to get copies of the documents within 15 days.

The turnover of documents can include anything deemed as part of the patient’s records:

• Medication records
• Phone and 911 records
• Withdrawal monitoring records
• Emergency response documentation
• Records documenting the circumstances of a death
• The facility’s final death report in some cases
• The facility’s incident report in some cases

When facilities try to relabel certain documents so they don’t have to turn them over, a skilled California Rehab Facility Wrongful Death Lawyer can call them on it and demand they be turned over. Your attorney could also make legal requests for security footage and other documents important in showing how and why your loved one died.

The right to information is also addressed further down in the chapter.

HSC 123110.

“(a) Notwithstanding Section 5328 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, and except as provided in Sections 123115 and 123120, any adult patient of a health care provider, any minor patient authorized by law to consent to medical treatment, and any patient’s personal representative shall be entitled to inspect patient records upon presenting to the health care provider a request for those records and upon payment of reasonable costs, as specified in subdivision (j).”

See: The Federal Laws regarding information about a patient’s death.

Who Can Request Drug Rehab Documents?

A request can be made for answers, but family members may have to get special approval to get access to documents.

These are a few of the people who can file claims and secure records:

• The parents of a child patient who died at an adolescent rehab facility
• The guardian of an adult patient
• An authorized health care agent
• A person whom the patient has authorized to obtain records.

Family members such as a spouse, parent, or an adult child of the victim who wasn’t named as a guardian or personal representative would usually have to get court approval to secure some documents.

See: How to read a toxicology report.

Seeking Other Important Evidence

Your attorney can help your family gain all evidence that may be locked up in drug rehab program offices.

Whatever evidence drug treatment center owners and lawyers are unwilling to provide, your drug rehab negligence attorney would use whatever means necessary to secure.

• Security footage showing a lack of supervision for patients or in keeping drugs out of a facility
• Monitoring logs that show how long a patient was allowed to be alone, how long they were in an overdose before being found
• Records showing how long staff members waited to call 911 after a fentanyl overdose, withdrawal complication, or self-harm incident was discovered
• Negligence in the action taken to help an ailing patient
• Hiring records showing that unqualified staff or even staff with criminal records were given jobs

This and other hard evidence can help families file wrongful death claims. An experienced lawyer would demand benefits for loved ones, such as money to cover funeral bills and leftover hospital expenses. Support should also cover the loss of income families may experience now that the victim can no longer provide a weekly paycheck.

Contact Us if Your Loved One Was Hurt at a Rehab Facility.

Attorney Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to victims and their families after injury or death at a California drug treatment center. We can also help families gain support even if an at-fault rehab was shut down after an accident.

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

If you need our help, we are there, even if you don’t have any money. We only get paid if we win your case for your family. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check a negligent facility must write.