Many nursing homes do not want to be held accountable for acts of negligence which kill or injure their residents. How do they escape legal responsibility? Well, did the admission agreement your dad signed (or you signed for your mother) when first admitted to the facility contain a mandatory arbitration clause? If so, you may be in trouble!
Mandatory arbitration clauses, upheld by many courts in many states, provide that neither the resident nor their family may file a civil lawsuit against the nursing home. Instead, you may only file a claim with an arbitrator, often chosen by the nursing home, and the damages which may be awarded by the arbitrator (assuming you get one) could be limited by artificially low dollar amounts. And, by the way, many of these admission agreements specifically provide the nursing home may take you or your parents to court if you fail to pay for services…you just cannot sue them when they are at fault!