19 Trial Lawyer • Winter 2023 ized nutrition and hydration plans for each resident. If Sarah’s mom’s dehydration diagnosis occurred after a facility inspection documented a failure to develop such plans, that would be admissible evidence of notice. The “violations” tab is one of the most useful on the DHS website. Under the “abuse” heading, it shows all substantiated allegations of abuse and neglect in chronological order that can then be isolated for the relevant time period. The allegations are somewhat vague, e.g., “failed to provide safe environment,” could cover everything from a resident’s elopement from the facility to a residenton-resident assault. But, in addition to displaying the nature of the violation, clicking on each violation will provide a more detailed explanation of the basis for its substantiation. Even better, the site allows you to click on “request a copy of the investigative report,” which is email friendly. One click and you will receive a PDF in your inbox that will provide additional details of the investigation. It takes a couple of weeks, but it is well worth it. In one case I had involving resident-on-resident assaults, there was an unusually high number of “failed to provide safe environment” violations. As it turns out, one of the residents had repeatedly physically and verbally assaulted a number of other residents, culminating in a resident-on-resident assault that severely injured my client’s decedent causing her death. Discovery showed it to be the same resident, over and over, which put the facility on the hook for failing to protect residents from abuse. Also included under the “violations” tab are licensing violations — specific violations of the Oregon Administrative Rules. These often go hand in hand with subs tant i at ed abuse and neg l ect violations, but they also include violations discovered during annual inspections. Since understaffing is amajor contributing factor in many complaints against longterm care facilities, it is worth looking into when deciding whether to accept a case. In one pressure ulcer case, DHS cited the nursing home each month for a six-month period for failing to provide adequate staffing of CNAs. Faced with this evidence, including payment of fines, the facility was forced to acknowledge that understaffing led to the poor care provided to my client’s mother. The case settled shortly thereafter. Business search We all use the secretary of state’s website to determine who the registered agent is for service of a summons and complaint, but the website can also help determine other potential defendants. Shell games abound in the long-term care arena. Many smaller memory care and assisted living facilities appear to be mom-and-pop operations when in reality they are one of many facilities with assumed business names under the same ownership. It is easy to find out if a facility is part of a conglomerate. As an example, Sweetbriar Villa is a small memory care facility in Springfield. While my client’s mother was a resident, the actual momand-pop entity who owned it sold it to a corporation and the client noted a difference in the quality of care provided. A business name search on the website showed Sweetbriar Villa to be an assumed business name. The registrant was RSL Springfield, LLC. A business name search showed RSL Springfield to be a member of Radiant Companies, Inc. For Radiant Companies, Inc., the website has an “assoc search” tab which showed it to have 15 member companies, including RSL Springfield, LLC, in Oregon. A Google search of Radiant Companies, Inc., revealed it to be Radiant Senior Living, Inc., which owns facilities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Montana. This information can prove helpful when determining whether to conduct an ORCP 39 ( c ) ( 6 ) depo s i t i on , particularly with regard to the company’s ownership, structure and development of its policies and procedures. The facility’s own website Nearly every long-term care facility See Pre-Discovery p 20 The website,https://ltclicensing.oregon.gov (see above), allows searches by facility name, type and funding source. 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.
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