FutureCare is a Maryland-based family-owned business with 14 nursing home facilities in Maryland, about half of what HCR ManorCare has. It was founded in 1986, celebrating its 30th anniversary in November. Its first nursing home was FutureCare Pineview.
FutureCare is the largest Maryland-owned provider of nursing services. Facilities are located in Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County and Prince George’s County. Most of its facilities are in Baltimore City.
FutureCare provides both short-term rehabilitation and long-term care. It accepts patients directly from hospitals who require services and rehabilitation. It also accepts patients with Alzheimer's, dementia, and physical limitations for long-term admission. FutureCare facilities also provide ventilator care and weaning, stroke recovery, PICC line placement and management, stroke and surgical recovery, and hospice services.
Our nursing home lawyers do not like big chain nursing homes because we believe that far too often they put profits over people. The corporate mentality does something to people and their employees often overly focus on the bottom line of money instead of the bottom line of patient care. We have brought lawsuits against FutureCare -- wrongful death lawsuits -- where we think the care provided was just awful. We have also suffered through what we believe are intellectually strained arguments to defend themselves.
But it is important to understand that "big nursing chain" is a relative term. FutureCare is a lot better than Genesis which is a national chain without Maryland roots. FutureCare invests more into staffing than many big chain nursing homes. Employees seem happier at FutureCare than a lot of nursing homes. Ultimately, as far as quality, it varies. FutureCare has some very good nursing homes, and it has some that are not so good.
Nursing Home Lawsuits Against FutureCareBelow is a partial list of lawsuits filed against FutureCare in Maryland in recent years with a summary of plaintiff's allegation if available.
There were probably little if any out-of-court settlement talks before these lawsuits were filed. Nursing home lawyers are not going to reach a settlement in many FutureCare claims without first filing a lawsuit. This is typical of nursing home cases.
Nursing home defendants typically want to conduct discovery before making a settlement offer. Why? They want to determine both whether there was negligence and the scope of the plaintiff's damages which is often hard to do without depositions and other pre-trial discovery.
FutureCare does not have a team of trial counsel in Maryland, hiring outside counsel in when a lawsuit is filed against them. FutureCare negligence and wrongful death cases are often defended by Walker & Murphy, a small, well respected Rockville defense firm.
When we sue FutureCare, we use this address and resident agent:
FutureCare Health and Management of Old Court, Inc.
8028 Ritchie Highway
Pasadena, Maryland 21122
The lawsuit against FutureCare is served on:
Timothy J. Pursel, Esquire
8808 Centre Park Drive, Suite 204
Columbia, Maryland 21045
Like a lot of nursing homes, FutureCare tries to get its residents to waive their constitutional right to a jury trial in the event that FutureCare causes its residents harm or even kills them. (This is an example of a waiver given to one of our clients by FutureCare.)
In these agreements, FutureCare may require the execution of this waiver before accepting that patient in their care. has been known to require a signature of these one-sided before agreeing to provide patient care.
For many families, it can be a relief to finally get approval for treatment, so most either don’t read the terms of the agreement or have little understanding of what rights they are giving up.
Patients who sign arbitration agreements run the risk of giving up their right to a jury trial. Agreements like these often have provisions regarding the selection of arbitrators to decide the case—sometimes the arbitrations must occur in other states, and sometimes the arbitrators are selected by the company writing the agreement (who do you think they are going to rule for?).
Plaintiffs’ lawyers across the country fight these agreements, with differing results in each state. Maryland trial courts have been inconsistent in ruling on the enforceability of these agreements—some judges permit them, and some judges don’t. The best strategy is to argue that that the patients signing the documents lacked capacity (because of mental disease, for example, Alzheimer's). Accordingly, the agreement waived the rights of parties not listed in the agreement (see Dickerson v. Langoria), or that the FutureCare admissions officer did not properly explain the relevance of the agreement.
A few years ago, the Maryland Court of Appeals examined in Addison v. Lochearn looked at whether arbitration was mandatory when an arbitration agreement was signed by a FutureCare patient was lawful. Essentially, it held that FutureCare had no right to immediately appeal a denial of its claimed right to arbitrate. But this was a unique circumstance, and probably has little precedential value for future cases.
Sample Lawsuits and Expert ReportsThe majority of meritorious Maryland nursing home lawsuits against FutureCare reach a settlement. Here are some sample legal documents we have filed in nursing home lawsuits against this company and a sample idea of their defenses:
If your someone you love was injured or killed as a result of their negligence and you think a FutureCare mistake was the cause, call us today at (800) 553-8082 for a free Internet consultation to discuss a potential lawsuit. There are no fees or expenses unless a recovery is obtained.