The National Healthcare Corporation (NHC) operates over 130 facilities in the United States, which are owned by the company and third parties. This includes more than 70 skilled nursing homes and 18 assisted living facilities along with home care programs and residential living centers. The company provides various services including rehabilitation, Alzheimer’s units and hospices. They are located in 10 states including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Assisted Living Options Operated by NHC
NHC operates 15 assisted-living facilities in the United States including those in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Tennessee. When a resident is admitted into an assisted-living facility, staff members at NHC provide a level of care that is personalized to the individual’s health requirements, hygiene needs and preferences. The facility is staffed with licensed medical supervision around-the-clock.
Memory Care
Many memory-challenged residents admitted to an NHC facility have been diagnosed with some type of memory impairment or late stage Alzheimer’s disease that diminish their ability to manage life without assistance. The facilities provide much-needed services that reinforce the strengths and capabilities of the patient by offering full skilled support of the resident’s daily challenges in a serene and safe environment. These services are provided at NHC facilities in Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Rehabilitation Care
Rehabilitation services are often required for patients who had just received an artificial hip, knee or other joint replacement. Other patients might require rehabilitation, physical therapy and other therapies when recuperating from a slip and fall injury or other serious traumatic injuries. NHC provides rehabilitative care through skilled therapists trained to help the convalescing patient during the recovery process.
The team of medical experts provides compassionate, skilled postsurgical care through interdisciplinary approaches to both outpatient and inpatient residents to maximize the individual’s independence. In addition, the team provides extensive professional support, motivation and education that allow patients to return to active living after reaching full recovery.
Skilled Nursing Care at NHC
Many residents at NHC facilities require 24-hour nursing care by skilled medical professionals post-surgery or during all types of trauma recovery. These facilities provide weekly, monthly or yearly sub-acute care personally designed and implemented to maximize appropriate interventions and protocols to avoid frequent or unnecessary hospitalization. The facilities offer proper equipment, skilled medical professionals, an array of medical services and therapies for rehabilitation that work in concert with every resident’s needs.
Home Care Services
Many patients associated with NHC choose to stay in their home environment or at an assisted living center even though they likely need medical assistance or care what their daily activities. The company provides personalized programs and services at nearly every level of care including physical, occupational, and speech therapies along with wound care and infusion therapy.
Many patients receive visits from home health aides to provide assistance with daily activities that might include medication assistance, personal hygiene needs, bed or chair transfer, light housekeeping, walking or maintaining a safe, clean environment.
Hospice Care
When an individual no longer responds to any cure-oriented, aggressive treatment to manage illnesses or diseases, family members often turn to NHC Hospice Services to deliver physical and emotional support. The company offers special programs by providing counseling, support and education to the patient’s caregivers and family members through the final days, months or years of life. The National Healthcare Corporation provides beneficial hospice services in Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee through Caris Healthcare.
Legal Problems and Lawsuits Involving NHC
Like other nursing homes and healthcare facilities, NHC has its share of lawsuits and claims seeking compensation for injury suffered at their properties. In recent years, numerous suits have been filed by surviving family members of loved ones who have died negligent hands of NHC workers. In 2005, a Tennessee NHC resident fell in a slip and fall nursing home accident at an NHC facility suffering a fractured hip.
Due to negligence and lower standards of care, the injured victim developed urinary tract infections, untreated pain and Stage IV bedsores (life-threatening pressure sores) along with other indicators of mistreatment and neglect at the facility. The jury in the case returned a verdict in the wrongful death claim of malpractice and negligence totaling more than $4 million paid to surviving family members.
More Claims Made Against NHC
$4,100,000 Verdict After Man Dies in Tennessee Nursing Home
The family of an elderly man brought this lawsuit after their loved one passed away while in the care of a Tennessee nursing home. The facility was owned by the National Healthcare Corporation (NHC). In their complaint, the plaintiffs painted a tragic portrait of the man’s last days and months. They alleged he was subjected to neglect and mistreatment that animals are not normally accustomed to. For instance, they claimed he got a bed sore so bad that it reached his bone. They stated that an infection developed around his catheter and was left untreated. Also, they cited numerous falls that the man suffered from due to a lack of supervision. One of these falls led to a broken bone they allege. The defendant did reply forcefully that they were properly staffed and that he received adequate care. The jury dismissed this contention. It awarded them over $4 million in compensatory damages. This covered things like suffering, pain, and consortium. They also awarded the family tens of millions of dollars in punitive damages but these were later reduced because the judge did not the defendant acted with reckless conduct.
Texas Woman Seeks $5 Million After Her Mother Dies in Care Facility
The facts of this dispute are bizarre and hint at an eventual controversy. The woman involved entered a hospital because she had had potassium and iron shortages, difficulty breathing, and other issues. Eventually, she was transferred to a National Healthcare Corporation (NHC) facility. Many of the matters her daughter later complained about happened across the mom’s stay at both of these locations. Specifically, the mother added thirty pounds in eighteen days. Also, she suffered from fluid build up that either was not treated or was not treated properly. Finally, she sustained respiratory distress and subsequently passed away from the development of all these conditions. The doctors were supposed to use a combination of diuretics and other medications but this was not delivered adequately. When she passed, the daughter cried foul. She argued that the fluid build up, weight gain, and death were all related. Further, she contended that this all stemmed from the defendants’ negligent conduct. She seeks compensation for the mother’s pain and death; her loss; and the related harms and losses that accrued.
Families Sue Nursing Home Company After Fire Takes 15 Lives
In the late summer of 2013, a fire broke out in a Tennessee nursing home owned and managed by the National Healthcare Corporation (NHC). Apparently, the facility did not have in place a sprinkler system prior to the incident. Evidence of that fact was gleaned from reports that the NHC spent upwards of $10 million following this tragedy. In fact, the results were tragic. Fifteen people lost their lives in the blaze. This precipitated an avalanche of lawsuits. Thirty-two were filed. The NHC settled with as many as twenty-eight of them. Most of the causes of actions made the same basic claims: the facility was negligent in its failure to prevent the fire and have a sprinkler system in place; further, its negligence was the direct cause of the deaths and injuries; finally, it should be liable therefore to the plaintiffs for all of their economic and non-economic damages. Many of the plaintiffs secured some form of compensation. As noted, the NHC erected a sprinkler system going forward. Tennessee even made it a requirement for these types of facilities.
Do You Suspect Abuse at an NHC Facility?
Nursing homes have a responsibility to protect the patients at their facilities from episodes of abuse and neglect. Unfortunately, many nursing home patients suffer horrific episodes of abuse and other forms of mistreatment due to cost-cutting and other decisions made by management companies intent on extracting every dollar of profit possible from a facility— all at the expense of patients.
Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC has established itself as a leading elder abuse law firm who consistently secures record setting recoveries in different types of skilled nursing and elder abuse cases. Call us now for a free case evaluation. 888-424-5757
