San Francisco, CA - Late last year, Tranquility Inc., the corporation that owns the San Miguel Villa nursing home in Concord, agreed to pay $2.3 million to settle allegations of “grossly substandard services” it provided to its residents between 2012 and 2017. An investigation by the Department of Health discovered that the 190-bed nursing home submitted false claims by billing the Medicare and Medi-Cal programs. The investigation also found that residents at the facility were overmedicated with psychotropic drugs and suffered excessive falls. Due to a lack of adequate personnel, there were numerous resident-on-resident altercations. As a result, many residents experienced mental and physical harm. San Miguel Villa continues to operate, but it’s been under new management since 2020.Nursing home residents overprescribed psychotropic drugsOverprescribing sedatives to nursing home residents is, unfortunately, a far too common practice. If you suspect a loved one might be over-sedated, reach out to experienced lawyers right away. Nursing homes resort to sedating the people under their care to compensate for the lack of personnel. While the use of psychotropic drugs is recommended for certain dementia sufferers, nursing home staff routinely use sedatives as a form of chemical restraint. To hide the abuse, nursing home doctors often come up with phony diagnoses. If you’ve been told your elderly father has suddenly developed dementia, be very wary. If you know he was perfectly sound of mind only a month ago, you may want to discuss the issue with knowledgeable San Francisco nursing home abuse lawyers.Signs a patient might be overmedicatedWhen you visit a loved one in a nursing home, watch out for any signs of abuse or neglect. Have a look around the room, check if the sheets and their clothes seem clean, and demand explanations for any bruises they have. Sometimes it may be hard to tell if a resident is under sedation. Look out for signs such as:

• Lowered inhibitions

• Lightheadedness

• Drowsiness

• Slurred speech

• Shallow breathing

• Lack of muscle coordination

• Reduced dexterity

• Memory problems

Elderly folks like to take a nap in the afternoon, but if you constantly find your loved one asleep during the daytime it might be a sign they’ve been sedated.

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Talk to the nurses and ask if there’s been any change in your relative’s condition. If they cannot offer you a convincing explanation, see a good California nursing home abuse lawyer.What remedies are available for nursing home abuseYour nursing home abuse lawyers can help you file an official complaint, but you can also sue the facility and seek compensatory damages under personal injury laws. If the abuse has been going on for a long time, you need to have your loved one examined by an independent doctor. Many psychotropic drugs have dangerous side effects. If your loved one developed a condition after being put on unnecessary drugs, you may need to seek the opinion of reliable medical malpractice lawyers. The doctor who overprescribed psychotropic drugs to your relative needs to answer for their wrongdoing. You can sue the doctor overseeing the residents’ care, but you can also file a lawsuit against the facility.