18 Trial Lawyer • Winter 2023 Brian Dretke By Brian Dretke OTLA Guardian Sarah called my office to talk about a potential claim against the memory care facility where her mother lived. Mom had just been admitted to a local hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured hip from a fall — her third fall in six months. Once admitted to the hospital, she was noted to be dehydrated and had a urinary tract infection. Sarah was rightfully incensed because the facility was charging over $8,000 per month. The new facility administrator had promised Sarah her mom would be in good hands because of the facilities dedicated, highly trained and compassionate staff. That certainly was not the case, and Sarah said that when she visited her mom every week it seemed there were very few staff on duty, and call lights often went unanswered. On several occasions, she found her mother’s meals and water pitcher on a tray located too far from the bed for her to reach them. Before setting up a meeting with a potential client like Sarah for a thorough intake, there are a few key pieces of information I request so I will be well prepared. With the name, type of facility and dates of residency, there are resources available that can help determine if a facility’s poor resident care is an anomaly or a common occurrence.While isolated incidents can certainly be the basis for a claim of abuse or neglect, a facility with a history of poor resident care is more likely to experience high turnover and understaffing — two condi t ions re l evant to c l aims of negligence. Oregon DHS website There are hundreds of long term care facilities in Oregon; small mom-and-pop adult foster care homes with up to five beds, assisted living and memory care facilities with room for 50-100 residents, and skilled nursing facilities owned by national corporations with the capacity for over 150 residents. While each type of facility provides different levels of care, all are licensed and regulated by the Oregon Department of Human Services under the Oregon Administrative Rules and state and federal law. DHS conducts routine inspections and investigates both licensing violations and allegations of abuse and neglect. The Aging &PeopleWith Disabilities Section of DHS maintains a website that is invaluable for practitioners who litigate claims for resident abuse and neglect. Over the past decade, DHS has significantly increased the type of information available and has made it easy to obtain information about complaints, inspections and violations. The website, https:// ltclicensing.oregon.gov, allows searches by facility name, type and funding source. Once on the website, clicking the “facility search” button will allow one to enter the facility name and the type of facility, e.g., adult foster home, assisted living, skilled nursing or residential care. Once entered, scroll down to “facility search result” and click on the facility name. The tab for “facility information” will provide the name of the administrator, facility ownership and the number of licensed beds. Clicking on the “inspections” tab will provide the dates of licensing inspections, also known as surveys, and the number of deficiencies cited. Clicking on the date of the inspection will bring up each type of deficiency cited and the facts giving rise to the citation. This information can be particularly helpful in showing the facility was made aware of a problem but failed to implement procedures to remedy it. For example, every long-term care facility is required to develop individualPRE-DISCOVERY RESOURCES IN ELDER ABUSE CASES
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