Drug rehab facilities need adequate staffing to ensure the safe monitoring and response to patients who may be experiencing withdrawal, detox symptoms, and even an overdose.
These hazards and others can go unnoticed in a facility with too few employees. Victims can go too long without care and be at risk of injury or a fatal accident.
The decision to cut staffing at a drug rehab clinic can be used as evidence in an injury claim or a tragic wrongful death case. When negligent supervision can be proven, victims can expect help after an accident.
Drug Rehab Understaffing Penalties and Dangers
The staffing requirements for a California drug treatment center will depend on the number of patients at a facility and the level of care the facility provides. The requirements for an adolescent drug rehab center will be even stricter.
The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) monitors staffing levels at facilities and can perform unannounced inspections. Families can check the licensing records at facilities and see which facilities have been cited for understaffing.
Negligent staffing or negligent staff cuts can lead to liability for these dangerous consequences and more:
- Less monitoring of patients
- Fewer bed checks
- Fewer room searches
- Negligent supervision of the staff that is on duty, perhaps due to a lack of senior staff
- More time passes to notice the signs of an overdose
- Fewer staff members to react to a drug overdose (e.g., calling 911, administering NARCAN, monitoring during recovery)
Of course, support for victims and their families is never guaranteed. Large health care networks will be able to afford corporate lawyers who will try to keep the blame on victims after an accident. They can also try to put up roadblocks as families try to obtain internal documents proving understaffing.
An experienced attorney can force facilities to turn over evidence such as staff logs, internal investigation findings, and surveillance video.
See: Punishments for Drug Rehab Staff Ratios
Support for Victims and Families After a Drug Facility Injury
Families can help loved ones earn support after they’ve been hurt at a facility with negligent staffing.
A skilled attorney can also act on behalf of the family and demand these and other benefits for victims:
- Payment on all medical bills the victim accumulates
- Payment for the income the victim loses while away from work
- Reimbursement for the money families paid to get a loved one admitted
- Support for the pain and emotional trauma caused to victims (including the difficult setbacks in drug detox caused by an overdose)
When families are robbed of a loved one, they are empowered by California’s Code of Civil Procedure CCP 377.60. to file a wrongful death claim and seek support.
This claim must demand wrongful death damages (and in some cases a Survival Action damages):
- Money to help families pay for a proper funeral and burial.
- Money to help families cover medical bills left behind.
- Reimbursement for the income a loved one would have supported the family with in the future.
- Support for the love, care, and guidance that’s been lost.
- Support for the major life events that have been altered, such as holiday gatherings, family vacations, and the birth of children.
- Loss of companionship support for parents who lose a child at an adolescent drug rehab center.
Punitive Damages for Drug Rehab Understaffing
Punitive damages are fines issued against a drug rehab facility. They aren’t assessed strictly to help victims, but are meant as an extra punishment for a facility that engages in grossly negligent behavior towards patients. This is for extremely reckless misconduct, almost to the point of it being intentional.
Fortunately, victimized families get the proceeds of any penalties rehab clinic owners must pay.
Punitive damages are rarer and aren’t awarded in every case. However, when companies behind drug treatment centers purposely cut staffing for profit’s sake, there’s a stronger chance that a judge and jury will issue these penalties, leaving victims with more.
What If I Can’t Afford a Lawyer…
If you require our help, you don’t have to worry about how your family will pay a lawyer. Martin Gasparian works on a contingency basis. It means you don’t pay unless he wins for you and your family. Even then, the attorney’s fee is paid out of the settlement check a rehab clinic must write for your family.
Call us today or fill out a free case review form to find out about the benefits available. It’s a confidential meeting, and there’s never any obligation.