Florida Senate Report Concludes Florida Isn’t Doing Enough to Protect Assisted Living Residents
A new report by the Florida Senate Health Regulations Committee details the shortcomings of Florida’s oversight of assisted living facilities. Capitol News Service states the report follows a series of newspaper investigations into cases of assisted living facility abuse and assisted living facility neglect that lead to wrongful deaths. In most of these cases, the caregivers got away with little or no punishment for their wrongdoing.
Florida State Senator Ronda Storms, chairperson of the Senate Elder Affairs Committee, is prepared to make changes to address the shortcomings detailed in the report. Storms told reporters, “There is a lot of work to do there, but I think they gave us a good start and I’m looking forward to being able to address it.”
Recommended changes include stiffer penalties from the Agency for Health Care Administration in cases of assisted living facility neglect. The report also calls for the shutdown of locations where patients suffer assisted living facility abuse. Furthermore, the report suggests tougher licensing requirements.
Improving the current regulatory system is a good idea. However, no amount of government regulation is going to solve all of the problems. There will never be enough investigators and the fines will never be enough to discourage all wrongdoing. Furthermore, when government is involved, politics will always play a role in the outcome. That is why there will always be a need for assisted living facility neglect lawyers in civil practice to bring personal injury lawsuits on behalf of abused and neglected residents to hold wrongdoers accountable.
