Those of us who have relatives in nursing homes place a lot of trust in the people paid to care for them. We rely on these workers to make sure our family members have a good quality of life and are protected from injury and illness. But sometimes harm does come to nursing home and hospice residents, and when that happens, our first instinct is to look for gaps in our loved one's care. If those gaps are found to exist, a lawsuit may follow.

This was the case of a nursing home resident who died in December 2010 after living at a West Virginia care facility for just over a year. A family member of the relative has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home, its parent company and the employment service it uses. The Ohio woman claims that the nursing home and its employees failed to provide adequate nutrition and sufficient hydration to her family member, who was transferred to hospice care seven days before her death due to her deteriorating condition, according to the lawsuit.

The woman says that employees were negligent and breached the applicable standard of care in their treatment of her family member, whose exact relation isn't clear. She's seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

Unfortunately, substandard care is fairly widespread across the elder care industry. Nursing homes and other facilities that cater to ailing and otherwise vulnerable adults often lack adequate staffing and many times employees are underpaid, overworked or both. As a result, sometimes residents don't get the attention they need and their health and well-being suffers. It's therefore important to make sure that if you have loved ones in a nursing home, you talk frequently not only with them, but with the people charged with caring for them. If you find problems with their care, they should be documented and addressed before things get worse.

Source: The West Virginia Record, "Ohio woman sues nursing home for relative's death," Kyla Asbury, Jan. 17, 2012