Caring for ailing patients is a difficult job with ample opportunities to cause harm unless done with the utmost care and professionalism. In the nursing home setting, these concerns are further compounded by the facts that patients are often particularly fragile and vulnerable. In many cases, such patients are limited in their ability to speak for themselves. Fortunately, state regulators closely monitor nursing homes and other healthcare facilities through periodic inspection and the publication of their findings for use by prospective and current patients and their families.

The Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) monitors a variety of healthcare facility types throughout the state, including hospitals and nursing homes. This includes conducting periodic inspections and issuing publicly available facility compliance reports containing the results. These reports cover a wide variety of criteria depending on the type of facility:

• Personnel and staffing
• Record keeping
• Sanitation and sterilization
• Design and layout of the facility
• Medication storage and dispensing practices

When there is reason to believe you or a loved one has been injured by institutional negligence at a healthcare facility, examining that facility’s most recent compliance reports can be a good first step in the investigation process. While the reports do not contain information about the specific incidents that give rise to a violation, they do describe the nature and severity of the violation. Moreover, the fact that a violation was noted in such a report prior to the point in time when a similar practice caused an illness or injury can be compelling evidence that the facility had notice of the deficiency and failed to address it. Effective medical facilities negligence attorneys use all the tools at their disposal to investigate allegations of medical negligence and get justice for their clients.