Treatment and care of Alzheimer's patients has certainly come a long way in recent years, but if you are the manager or proprietor of a nursing home or other Alzheimer's care facility you can't just rely on your advanced technology and methods or your highly trained staff to keep everything running perfectly.
In addition to this, you need to make sure you, your staff and your facility as a whole is properly insured. Fortunately, like medical treatments the process of getting insured in this area of the medical field has become more streamlined in modern times, and so getting Alzheimer's facilities general liability insurance is a fairly simple process.
Of course, there are a few things you should know first before jumping right in and buying the first policy you can get:
What is the Point of Liability Insurance?
Alzheimer’s can be pretty unpredictable, and this can lead to accidents. Before you know it you could find yourself facing getting slapped with a lawsuit of someone gets injured as a result of an accident at your facility. Having general liability insurance will help pay for any money you owe as a result. In many cases this will cover the medical expenses that can arise in the event of injury, ensuring that the hurt person is properly taken care of.
It's Not Always the Patients You Have to Worry About
Sure, accidents can happen just about anywhere with patients and staff going about their regular days. But Alzheimer's patients, like many others in nursing homes or assisted living, often have friends and family dropping by to visit. These are usually pleasant occasions, but sometimes incidents can happen involving them. Just like someone getting injured inside someone's home, a guest can fall and hurt themselves or run into other kinds of unforeseen trouble.
This is why you need to make sure you have liability insurance to cover not just you, your patients and your staff, but everyone setting foot on the property. Bear in mind that if you allow pets to come with guests or service animals of any kind, your liability insurance should cover animal visitors as well.
'General' Liability Insurance Can Still Be a Custom-Fit
Take stock of the size of your facility, the amount of patients (or residents) you have, as well as the size of your staff. Larger Alzheimer’s facilities will obviously need greater, broader coverage amounts whereas smaller places may be perfectly fine with just meeting minimum coverage amounts. Regardless, it is a good idea to consult with an experienced insurance broker or representative about what specifics you are looking for in liability coverage.
Do You Still Need Other Kinds of Insurance?
Sometimes general liability insurance is all your facility needs, but this depends entirely on the type of care you provide.
For example, you may need additional forms of insurance based on the kind of medical procedures your staff may perform. Likewise, similar to homeowners insurance, you’ll probably want to look into insuring the property (the buildings and grounds) itself in the event of a fire, storm damage, vandalism, etc. Again,
consulting an insurance expert about this will help you figure out exactly what you need.
Insurance Coverage is About Peace of Mind
Hopefully no serious incidents will ever happen at your facility, but unfortunately there's no way of knowing that. It really just comes down to keeping everyone safe, and people are actually more likely to use your facility if they know it is properly insured. At the end of the day, getting Alzheimer’s facilities liability insurance makes you a responsible business manager and owner.