When Is a Nursing Home Considered Negligent in Preventing Falls?
Nursing Home AbuseWhen a loved one enters a nursing home, the facility should make their safety and well-being its top priority. However, nursing home negligence can lead to serious injuries, particularly when it comes to falls.
Nursing home staff must prevent falls, and when they don’t, you have the legal recourse available to hold them accountable for their negligence.
Unfortunately, nursing home falls are far too common. Roughly half of nursing home residents will fall in a given year, and some may fall more than once.
According to government statistics, approximately 10 percent of nursing home falls will result in a serious injury. Although nursing homes were not negligent in every fall, if your family can prove nursing home negligence, you may recover substantial financial compensation.
A nursing home abuse lawsuit is one way to get justice and accountability from the facility that was supposed to care for your loved one. The first step toward holding the nursing home accountable is hiring an attorney to handle your case.
A nursing home abuse lawyer can gather facts to prove that the facility was negligent in the circumstances surrounding your loved one’s injury. They can then file a lawsuit against the nursing home, resulting in a settlement or jury award if they can prove that the facility was negligent.
You must contact a nursing home abuse lawyer as soon as possible to learn more about your legal rights and determine whether you should get compensation for what happened to your loved one.
What Is Nursing Home Negligence?
A nursing home assumes a duty of care to your loved one when they move into the facility, and your loved one is relying on the facility to protect them and take steps to further their safety.
The duty of care is that the nursing home must act as a reasonable facility under the circumstances to prevent harm to your loved one. If the nursing home breaches its duty of care by doing something unreasonable under the circumstances, it can face accusations of negligence in a lawsuit.
Nursing home negligence means that the facility took a wrongful action that endangered your loved one or failed to do what was necessary to keep your family member safe. In this case, your family can receive compensation when your loved one has suffered an injury in a fall.
Nursing Homes Need Fall Prevention Plans
Nursing homes must prevent falls among their residents. Under federal regulations, they must assess each resident’s risks and develop a unique fall prevention plan.
Successful fall prevention plans depend on staff vigilance but certainly do not involve a form of nursing home abuse that is known as chemical restraints.
Although the nursing home does not make an ironclad guarantee of your loved one’s safety at all times, and it cannot possibly prevent every single accident, it is legally responsible when your loved one suffers harm from their negligence.
Whether a nursing home is negligent in the fall that caused your loved one to suffer an injury depends on the facts and circumstances of the situation.
A nursing home abuse attorney can gather evidence proving that the nursing home was careless and failed to follow its legal obligations in fall prevention. If your nursing home abuse attorney succeeds, your family may qualify for financial compensation.
Why Nursing Homes May Fail at Fall Prevention
Nursing homes aim to make a profit, and publicly traded companies or private equity firms own many of these facilities. Sometimes, individuals own nursing homes and strive to make as much money as possible from their property.
Nursing homes receive most of their revenues from Medicaid payments for resident care. Skilled nursing facilities want to use these payments for profit and try to economize on resident care whenever possible.
The main area where nursing homes try to cut corners is staffing. Expenses to hire and pay employees are perhaps the most significant entry on a nursing home’s profit statement. A nursing home may understaff the facility to the fullest extent possible to save money.
Although the federal government recently finalized a rule requiring certain minimum staffing levels at a facility, its status is in doubt as courts have challenged it. Further, the change in presidential administrations may revoke this rule, freeing nursing homes to understaff the facility.
Nursing homes may understaff the total number of employees working in the facility and will not pay employees what is necessary to retain their services. Or, they might hire too many nursing assistants without hiring enough senior nurses to guide the residents’ care.
Examples of Negligence When Your Loved Suffers an Injury in a Fall
A nursing home can be negligent in several ways when your loved one has suffered an injury in a fall. The primary way that nursing homes are careless comes down to the supervision of your loved one or the lack thereof.
Not having enough staff can mean your family member remains unattended for an extended period. They may need to use the toilet or try to accomplish another function that requires the help of nursing home staff, only to learn that they cannot find an employee when needed.
The result is that your loved one may try to get up to do something on their own when they risk falling.
Other examples of nursing home negligence that can result in your family member’s falling include:
- Carelessness when transporting or moving a resident in helping them perform the activities of daily life
- Not properly clearing a central walking path of debris or hazards, resulting in a slip and fall accident
- Ignoring safety protocols in equipment, such as not correctly installing guardrails on a bed
- Failure to provide mobility assistance to residents
Failure to Institute and Follow a Fall Prevention Plan
Each resident needs an individualized fall prevention plan to factor in unique circumstances. Nursing homes cannot simply have a one-size-fits-all fall prevention plan that they use for every single resident.
Instead, they need to analyze the resident’s individualized risks and health conditions right after they move into the facility.
The fall prevention plan is a document subject to adaptations as the resident’s health and situation change.
Nursing homes must update the fall prevention plan to keep their residents safe. They may need to take more extensive interventions as the resident’s health worsens or they have a history of falls.
Any change requires reanalysis and potential adaptations to the fall prevention plan.
Nursing homes may have a fall prevention plan, but it is not extensive enough to protect the resident from a possible fall. The nursing staff may not always follow or update it as necessary.
When you sue a nursing home after your loved one has suffered an injury in a fall, your nursing home abuse lawyer will ask for the individual fall prevention plan during the discovery phase of the lawsuit, which the nursing home must provide.
Your nursing home abuse attorney will question nursing home staff about how they followed this fall prevention plan. Negligence may have caused the fall, and the nursing home staff may have prevented it if they had followed the fall prevention plan.
What to Do After Your Loved One Has Suffered an Injury in a Nursing Home Fall?
There are many things that your family must do when your loved one has suffered an injury in a fall or died from an accident. If your loved one has sustained injuries, one of the first things that your family must do is take steps to ensure that the fall does not happen again in the future.
You must proactively engage the nursing home staff, demand answers about what happened, and learn what they intend to do to protect your family member.
You may even want to consider moving your loved one to a new facility if their current one cannot keep them safe.
A nursing home fall may be a result of neglect, and under federal regulations, this is a form of nursing home abuse. If you report suspected abuse, the nursing home must take action to make a report to the state within two hours if a resident has suffered an injury.
You should also report the abuse so there is a record of the incident. You may raise your concerns directly to the nursing home or use an intermediary, such as a nursing home ombudsperson.
Then, your family should also hire a nursing home abuse lawyer as soon as possible while you can still gather evidence showing that the nursing home was negligent.
A nursing home abuse attorney can investigate the fall and show how the nursing home was responsible. They may file a nursing home abuse lawsuit on behalf of your family that leads to significant compensation.
Nursing Home Abuse Lawsuits Can Result in Compensation for Your Family
Your nursing home abuse lawyer will file a lawsuit on behalf of your family if you believe that negligence was the cause of your loved one’s injury.
You can seek answers during the lawsuit, as your nursing home abuse lawyer will find more information in the lawsuit’s discovery phase. They will speak to the staff, including the administrator, to learn what the nursing home did to keep your loved one safe from harm.
The timeframe of your case depends on the facts and circumstances of your situation. The nursing home and its insurance provider may decide to fight your case for as long as possible, resulting in your lawsuit going to trial.
Alternatively, the nursing home may try to settle your case before trial, as is the typical result in many of these abuse lawsuits. Nursing homes may not want to face the jury when they know that their negligence has resulted in a serious injury to a vulnerable resident.
If your nursing home abuse lawsuit is successful, your family may recover wrongful death damages if the fall resulted in the death of your loved one.
Or, if your family member survived the fall, your compensation will encompass the damages that they have experienced, including pain and suffering from neglect and their fall injuries.
Your family may even qualify for punitive damages if you take your case to trial and win, depending on the extent of the nursing home’s wrongdoing.
It Costs You Nothing Out of Pocket to Hire a Nursing Home Abuse Attorney
You do not need to worry about the cost of hiring a nursing home abuse attorney for your family. These lawyers work on a contingency basis, meaning they do not receive any money unless they successfully secure a settlement or jury award. Then, your nursing home abuse lawyer will receive an agreed-on percentage of your compensation.
You will not have to cover any bills or fees throughout the case, and if you do not win, you do not have to pay your lawyer anything for the time they put into your case.
A skilled attorney can gather evidence, such as medical records and witness testimonies, to establish the nursing home’s negligence and determine the extent of your loved one’s injuries.
They can also guide you through the legal process, advocating for fair compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and any other damages incurred due to the fall.
Nursing home negligence can have severe consequences, particularly regarding falls.
If your loved one suffered a fall in a nursing home due to negligence, consult a knowledgeable personal injury attorney who can fight for their rights and hold the facility accountable. Your loved one deserves to live in a safe and secure environment; a skilled attorney can help make that possible.
Nathan Hughey, an attorney and fourth-generation South Carolinian, founded Hughey Law Firm in 2007. Before that, he spent five years defending nursing homes and insurance companies. Leveraging his experience, he now advocates for those injured or wronged by such entities, securing over $220 million in verdicts and settlements.