In a unanimous decision, the justices rejected arguments by attorneys for hospitals that the law was intended only to cover only places like nursing homes and similar facilities.
Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch said there is nothing in the wording of the statute to support that claim.
Berch said adopting the view of the hospitals “would thwart the legislature’s goal of protecting vulnerable adults” in adopting the 1089 Adult Protective Services Act.
She said, for example, someone is as subject to bedsores from not being turned regularly in a hospital or a nursing home.
“Nothing in APSA indicates legislative intent to protect vulnerable adults from abuse, neglect or exploitation only when they are housed in particular facilities.”
Shannon Clark, an attorney for one of the survivor families in one of the two cases at issue, said the ruling is very important.
“It really does confirm that this is supposed to have a broad, remedial effect,” he said.
But the ruling also has immediate financial effects: It means that hospitals found negligent under the law could end up facing larger jury verdicts.
Monday’s ruling addresses two separate cases that now may go back to trial.
One was brought by the survivors of Helen Wyatt, who was a patient at Phoenix Baptist Hospital, where she received 350 medications and medical interventions from doctors, nurses, technicians and therapists.
The other suit was brought by survivors of Karl Kuhfuss Jr. who underwent three surgeries at John C. Lincoln Hospital and got postsurgical care there.
In both situations, the survivors contend the care their family members received violated the Adult Protective Services Act. But in both cases, trial judges threw out those claims, saying hospitals are exempt.
Among the contentions of the hospitals was that the law specifically applies only to facilities that “provide care” to vulnerable adults. They argued that the hospital “provide treatment,” which is something different.
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