Families checking a loved one into a drug rehab facility will understandably want to know about the measures the hospital takes to keep fentanyl away from patients.
Some of these precautions will be laid out on the facility’s website and literature. But addiction sufferers and their families should definitely ask to see or hear about the steps taken when sitting down with facility administrators.
Unfortunately, clinic staff members can fail in the duty to keep patients shielded from drug exposure, and injuries and even overdose deaths can occur. The families of the victims will wonder how they can hold a negligent facility responsible for the harm a loved one suffers.
Victims and families with questions can take advantage of a free case consultation with a real Bakersfield attorney. A Bakersfield Rehab Facility Overdose Lawyer can reassure a family and help them understand their rights and their options to get help for an overdose victim.
Tracking Down the Fentanyl Safety Plan at a Local Drug Rehab Facility
A facility’s emergency plan to take action when patients overdose on a dangerous drug is at least as important as its plan to block access to drugs like Fentanyl in the first place.
If they prevent access to the drug, then the overdose can’t occur. Keeping a loved one away from fentanyl will be top of mind for many family members anytime they must check them into a rehab hospital.
It’s perfectly reasonable for families to ask to see a detailed agenda of how staff members keep drug temptations out of their common rooms and bedrooms. Families may be able to see a plan on the hospital’s website or in literature the facility provides.
Beyond their own research, it’s a good idea for families to ask for details on any security plan in their first meeting with clinic administrators. Asking the staff to provide details of their blueprint for handling the threat of fentanyl before they write a check is always most effective. Facility operators will be more likely to provide anything families request while trying to convince them to become a client.
Another important question will be how the facility makes sure the protocol is followed every day, all day long.
What Should A Hospital’s Fentanyl Prevention Plan Include?
Once a prevention plan has been revealed, it’s up to a family to determine whether it’s a strong enough strategy to work.
Any prevention plan should include these factors and more:
- A plan to keep and dispose of any prescription meds at the site securely.
- A plan to keep patients, their rooms, and their belongings monitored. This might mean surveillance of cellphone messages and calls.
- Measures to prevent patients from being harmed by other patients, including providing access to illegal substances.
- Measure to keep unauthorized visitors out.
- Measures to prevent authorized visitors from bringing contraband into the facility.
- A comprehensive plan to act quickly if a patient does somehow overdose on fentanyl.
When facilities fail in these and other precautions, they violate their “duty of care” to their patients. In California, families can ask for support from the at-fault clinic to help a loved one recover from drug exposure or an overdose.
A skilled attorney can fully investigate what happened, securing sometimes hard-to-get evidence, to back a personal injury claim. This claim would seek money to pay for the victim’s medical bills. Support to cover the victim’s physical pain and emotional damages. Replacement of any lost income the victim suffers while having to miss work hours, even longer after an overdose, should be replaced.
For families who suffer the ultimate tragedy of fatal overdose, those left behind can ask for help paying any remaining hospital bills and with funeral costs. The time that’s been lost with the loved one in the future, especially during special life moments like holiday gatherings, should earn compensation. The loss of love and care in the years ahead must also factor into any settlement check. A Bakersfield Wrongful Death attorney can help represent the entire family left behind and help seek justice and financial support for them.
A facility with the most well-laid out contingency plan may be the easiest to trust with the precious life of a loved one. A good blueprint is no guarantee that a company will take good care of your loved one, but facilities that don’t seem to have a well-thought-out plan to keep patients from their addiction may have a smaller chance of success.
Contact a Bakersfield Rehab Facility Overdose Attorney
If a drug rehab facility broke its promises to watch over and protect a loved one, please schedule a free case consultation with a real Bakersfield law firm. We can help you if your family member got hurt or suffered a fatal injury at a Kern County clinic.
We offer this confidential meeting with no obligation to you. A skilled lawyer can often help your family force a drug rehab facility to accept blame for an injury or a fatal incident at a clinic. We also have a good chance to earn your family much more than they could by filing a claim themselves.
We never want to see local families accepting less because they can’t afford to pay a lawyer. It’s why Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers of Bakersfield doesn’t ask for any money up front. We only get paid if we win your case for your family. If we do win, our attorney’s fee comes from the settlement check the drug facility’s insurer must write for you.