Many California drug rehab facilities promise to give 24/7 access to a medical staff, but then patients get hurt or die because there wasn’t proper medical supervision.
This failure to provide what was promised in brochures, on websites, and in person can serve as strong evidence. Facilities that don’t provide the services they advertised can end up being investigated by state officials, fined, and forced to provide support to families.
To find out how your family should proceed after a tragedy, take advantage of a free case consultation. Call us today or fill out a free case review form.
Dangers When Doctor Supervision Is Promised But Not On Hand
Many drug treatment centers can offer constant medical monitoring. But when they don’t have the necessary number of doctors and nurses on staff, as promised, they can put patients in extreme danger. Patients are also in danger when facilities offer care they aren’t licensed to provide.
Families can seek answers and file lawsuits, but they’ll need evidence to show how broken promises led to a deadly situation.
Fortunately, a facility’s own marketing promises made in ads and mentioned over the phone can become evidence. They may claim in a bold headline on a website to provide 24/7 monitoring with a doctor on site at all times.
However, a failure to deliver puts patients at risk when they are at their most vulnerable. This might include a failure to meet their critical needs during an overdose or during life-threatening withdrawal complications.
These false claims are actually illegal in California and can leave health care networks fully accountable when patients are neglected and allowed to get hurt.
Evidence that a Rehab Didn’t Have Proper Medical Staff
A California rehab facility wrongful death lawyer is especially helpful to families when it comes time to collect evidence of negligence and even false advertising on the part of facilities.
Evidence for a rehab wrongful death case can be difficult to obtain at times, especially when corporate lawyers for rehab owners are trying to block access.
A skilled lawyer would conduct a full investigation and make legal requests for things like surveillance video, hiring records, and monitoring logs.
These and other details would help families hold facility owners responsible:
- Proof that a response to a medical emergency, such as a fentanyl overdose, wasn’t handled properly
- Evidence that a nurse or doctor wasn’t available during an emergency
- Medication records showing mistakes
- A failure to spot the signs of drug use that a doctor may have caught earlier
- A mistake in monitoring a withdrawal patient’s breathing and vital signs
- Evidence that normal staff members were allowed to skip monitoring and bed checks
- Marketing details showing that facilities promised services that it didn’t provide or wasn’t licensed to provide
Marketing Rules and the Law for Drug Rehab Facilities
California’s SB 349, signed into law in 2022, forces every rehab facility to remain accountable for advertising claims made to the families of Substance Use Disorder sufferers.
The statute holds facilities accountable for the promises they make. It also makes them legally liable when they claim to offer certain treatments and services they aren’t licensed to provide, especially when their negligence causes a patient to get hurt.
11857.3.
(c) It is unlawful for a treatment provider to make a false or misleading statement, or provide false or misleading information, about the nature, identity, or location of substance use disorder treatment services in advertising materials, on a call line, on an internet website, or in any other marketing materials.
The law providing stronger patient protections allows the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the Attorney General to investigate facilities that falsely advertise. Injured individuals and their families are also empowered to investigate, report, and take legal action.
A business that posed as a licensed detox facility could face fines from the state or risk being shut down. Injured victims could receive support for their medical bills and lost time at work. Families mourning the loss of a loved one to an overdose could seek money to pay for a funeral and to replace the income the victim had supported the family with.
What Can’t an Unlicensed Detox Center Provide?
California’s DHCS licenses different types of detox centers. The level of licensing would depend partly on whether facilities provided inpatient care or outpatient therapy.
An outpatient treatment clinic usually wouldn’t require full-time medical supervision and would offer less-intensive care.
A medical director and 24/7 medical oversight would be required for higher-level licensed residential care facilities. The DHCS demands that overnight facilities have a Residential Detoxification Facility License and frequently update that licensing. These facilities would be equipped and staffed to handle higher-risk SUD patients.
Outpatient centers and Sober Living homes that promise or provide these types of services could end up liable for a tragic outcome:
- Group therapy and individual sessions
- Making treatment plans for patients
- Prescribing certain medications
- Offering this care after being warned by an investigative body
- Providing testing they aren’t qualified to administer
- Providing access to certain medications
- Accessing certain medical information
Contact Us if a California Detox Allowed Your Loved One to Get Hurt.
Attorney Martin Gasparian offers a free, confidential consultation to victims who were hurt or families who lost a loved one at a drug treatment center. There’s never any obligation for this informational session.
We can help families, even if an at-fault facility has since shut down.
Call us today or fill out a free case review form.
Remember, your family needs no upfront money to hire a lawyer if needed. Mr. Gasparian begins work immediately, but is only paid if he wins your case for your family. Then our fee comes out of the settlement check a drug treatment facility must write for you.