Falls and Fractures in Nursing Homes
- Reviewed By
Anthony C. Lanzone, Founding Partner
Table of Contents:
- Causes & Risk Factors of Falls in Nursing Homes
- Common Injuries Resulting From Nursing Home Falls
- Preventing Nursing Home Falls
- Nursing Home Falls Are Preventable
- Who Is Liable for Falls in California Nursing Homes?
- Are Nursing Homes Required to Report Falls?
- Your Loved One’s Rights as a Nursing Home Resident in California
- What to Do If Your Loved One Falls in a California Nursing Home
- How a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Can Help
- Let Lanzone Morgan, LLP, Give Your Loved One a Voice
Causes & Risk Factors of Falls in Nursing Homes
Nursing home residents have a higher risk of falls than the general population due to conditions common in old age, such as frailty, loss of sensation due to diabetes, vision problems, arthritis, and other medical conditions. They are also more likely to take multiple medications, which can cause dizziness and other side effects that increase fall risk.
Older adults enter nursing homes because they need more care and supervision than they could receive at home. Yet most California nursing homes are chronically understaffed. Consequently, residents are more likely to fall in a nursing home than those who live in the community due to the following:
- Inadequate monitoring and supervision
- Lack of assistance with walking, standing, dressing, and toileting
- Medication errors
- Slippery floors
- Poor lighting
- Inadequate bed rails
Common Injuries Resulting From Nursing Home Falls
Older adults are vulnerable to injuries from falls in nursing homes due to reduced muscle tone, loss of bone density, slower reflexes, polypharmacy, and other medical conditions. Common injuries from nursing home falls include the following:
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Subdural hematomas
- Hip fractures
- Multiple bone fractures
- Cuts and bruises
- Sprains
- Internal bleeding
- Organ damage
- Emotional trauma
- Spinal cord injuries
Older adults often lose their independence and quality of life because of these injuries. They may live with permanent vertigo, cognitive problems, or mood disorders as a result of brain injuries. Hip fractures and spinal injuries can affect their mobility and make it harder for them to care for their own needs. Dependence on nursing home staff for basic needs can lead to a loss of dignity, especially in short-staffed nursing homes.
The emotional trauma caused by falls in nursing homes can cause your loved one to limit their activity levels for fear of falling again. This response can lead to a loss of muscle tone, increasing the risk of another fall.
Death After a Fall
Fall-related head injuries are often fatal, particularly if the nursing home fails to take prompt action. Many of our past clients were on the floor for extended periods before nursing staff assisted after experiencing an unwitnessed fall in a nursing home.
When a resident hits their head during a fall, the nursing home should immediately send them to the emergency room for an evaluation. Some nursing homes will say they monitored the resident instead. Head injuries require immediate testing and intervention to prevent bleeding or swelling inside the skull from impacting the brain. Additionally, inadequate monitoring may have caused the fall in the first place.
If your loved one passed away from a fall or from a delay in receiving medical attention after the fall, you may have grounds to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Our experienced California nursing home abuse lawyers can help you explore your legal options.
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Did You Know?
Nursing home residents are at much higher risk for falls than seniors in the general public. Although they are just five percent of the 65-and-older population, they account for 20 percent of deaths from falls in this age group. Every year, approximately 1,800 elderly nursing home residents die from fall-related injuries. The typical nursing home with 100 beds reports 100 to 200 falls annually. However, many go unreported. Residents reportedly experience an average of 2.6 falls per year.
Preventing Nursing Home Falls
Nursing homes can prevent falls and fractures by taking the following precautions:
- Identify risk factors. Screen residents for fall risk upon admission and include appropriate fall prevention measures in their care plans.
- Provide timely assistance. Assist at-risk residents with daily activities as often as necessary to prevent the resident from attempting them unassisted.
- Prescribe assistive devices. Provide canes, wheelchairs, supportive shoes, and other devices to at-risk residents, teach them to use them correctly, and train nursing staff to perform transfers correctly.
- Maintain a safe environment. Keep floors clean, dry, and clutter-free, and maintain adequate lighting, including the use of nightlights.
- Provide fall-preventive accommodations. Use bed rails for at-risk residents, ensure call buttons and personal items are within reach, and provide handrails in bathrooms, showers, hallways, and dressing areas.
- Use safe medication practices. Ensure residents receive the correct medication at the correct time, dose, and frequency, monitor side effects, and adjust medications if side effects increase the risk of falls.
If your loved one has been injured in a nursing home fall, call Lanzone Morgan, LLP, today at 1(888) 887-9777 for a free consultation.
Nursing Home Falls Are Preventable
Nursing homes must take a proactive approach to prevent falls. They should take precautions like assessing each resident upon admission and implementing an individualized care plan that includes fall prevention measures. Staff must clean spills, debris, and clutter in walkways promptly and block resident access to areas with wet floors. Staff must monitor each resident and provide the supervision and assistance necessary to prevent falls in a prompt, professional manner.
Fall prevention requires time and individual attention. In understaffed nursing homes, one nurse or CNA may be responsible for too many residents, creating pressure to rush through care or cut corners. High resident-to-staff ratios make it impossible to provide every resident with the necessary supervision and assistance to prevent as many falls as possible. Nursing homes that fail to prevent falls may be held liable for the resulting harm.
Providing Assistance to Prevent Falls
Staff should assist immobile residents with walking, dressing, and bathing and promptly change soiled or wet garments or linens to prevent residents from attempting to reach the toilet without assistance. The facility must train staff to use proper techniques for transferring immobile residents from bed to wheelchair and back.
Maintaining a Safe Facility
Every nursing home should be equipped with well-maintained handrails, grab bars, and walk-in showers. Facilities must also install protective bed rails on the beds of residents at risk of falling out of bed and ensure they have sufficient lighting throughout.
Medication Management
Medications can cause dizziness, blurred vision, and balance problems. Medication errors by staff members can compound these issues. Nursing home staff must monitor side effects and adjust the medication or the resident’s care plan to prevent falls from medication side effects. Unfortunately, falls caused by medication errors and insufficient monitoring are common in understaffed nursing homes.
Who Is Liable for Falls in California Nursing Homes?
When you or your loved one selects a nursing home, you trust the staff to provide a safer environment than your loved one could have had at home. Thus, nursing homes have a legal duty to be aware of your loved one’s fall risk and protect your loved one from falling. When a fall does occur, the nursing home must take prompt action to prevent further complications.
When a resident falls in a nursing home in California, it often means the nursing home has breached its duty to provide the accepted standard of care. The nursing home may be liable if your loved one suffers an injury. If staff fail to take prompt action or send them to an emergency room, additional complications may occur, for which the nursing home may be liable. Multiple parties may be liable for your loved one’s fall-related injuries, including the following:
- The nursing home
- Nurses
- CNAs
- Doctors
- Pharmacists
Are Nursing Homes Required to Report Falls?
California nursing homes are required to report falls that result in death or that stem from nursing home abuse to the California Department of Public Health, generally within 24 hours. They can be fined $100 for every day they are late reporting abuse. Any delay in reporting abuse or seeking treatment may increase the nursing home’s liability.
Your Loved One’s Rights as a Nursing Home Resident in California
California Health & Safety Code Section 1569.269 entitles nursing home residents to dignified treatment and quality care in a safe, home-like environment. They have the following rights:
- To be free from neglect, abuse, or financial exploitation
- To participate in care planning and make informed medical decisions
- To receive reasonable accommodations to prevent falls
- To receive visitors, make phone calls, and send and receive mail
- To share a room with a spouse or partner residing in the same facility
- To be free of physical and chemical restraints
- To access medical records within 48 hours of such a request
- To present grievances without retaliation
These rights are meant to prevent injuries, including from falls, and provide a means for residents to get outside help when they fall because of nursing home negligence. Nursing homes have a duty to proactively protect resident rights at all times. At Lanzone Morgan, LLP, we are exclusively focused on protecting the rights, dignity, and welfare of the elderly community. If the nursing home fails to protect your loved one’s rights, we can help you hold the nursing home accountable and protect your loved one from additional harm.
What to Do If Your Loved One Falls in a California Nursing Home
If the nursing home fails to prevent your loved one from falling, it may be one of many forms of neglect your loved one is experiencing.
It is important to take fast action to protect them from continuing neglect. Advocate for your loved one and insist on an emergency room evaluation. Report the incident to the appropriate agencies immediately. You have multiple options for reporting nursing home abuse and neglect in California, including the following:
- Call the California Department of Aging Long-Term Care Ombudsman CRISISline at 1-800-231-4024 to report abuse that is currently happening.
- To file a complaint against a nursing home, call the California Department of Public Health at (800) 554-0354.
- If your loved one’s fall occurred in an assisted living facility or residential care facility, contact the Department of Social Services at letusno@dss.ca.gov.
- For information about nursing home residents’ rights or answers to general questions about nursing homes, call California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform at (800) 474-1116.
- Contact an experienced California elder abuse lawyer for assistance with reporting the abuse and to learn about your legal options.
“Oftentimes, the nursing home can be very vague about the facts of the fall. I would be persistent and ask everybody I could about the circumstances of the fall. If you're not getting straight answers, then I want to investigate because something fishy is going on. Also, if there's a fall in a nursing home, I want to know, ‘Was it witnessed?’ ‘Did somebody see the fall?’ Because a lot of times, I'll get a report that the nurse walked by the room and saw the elder on the floor. Maybe the nurses didn't witness the fall, but the roommates or the roommate's family witnessed the fall. And a lot of times I'll get a report from the roommates or the family of the roommates that the elder fell, and they were on the floor for 10 minutes or 20 minutes before anybody came.”
How a Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Can Help
Our compassionate nursing home abuse lawyers can help you report neglect and hold the nursing home accountable through a nursing home abuse lawsuit. We are one of the leading nursing home abuse law firms in the United States, with over 75 years of combined experience and $200 million in compensation recovered. We take a comprehensive approach to building cases against negligent nursing homes by doing the following:
- Investigate the fall – Interview residents, nurses, your loved one, and other witnesses.
- Gather evidence – Obtain your loved one’s medical records, staff logs, nursing home inspection reports, and other evidence to prove liability.
- File a lawsuit – Represent your family in settlement negotiations and go to trial if necessary to recover the compensation your loved one deserves.
- Provide compassionate legal support – Provide support 24/7 and treat you and your loved one with the same empathy and compassion as if you were our own family.
We handle nursing home abuse and neglect cases throughout California. Even if the incident occurred outside of California, we can direct you to the resources you need to get justice.
Let Lanzone Morgan, LLP, Give Your Loved One a Voice
We are a skilled elder abuse law firm dedicated to being a voice for the voiceless and advocating for their right to compensation and quality care. We have a proven track record of holding nursing homes accountable when a resident suffers falls and fractures because of neglect. We know that choosing a law firm can be daunting, and we do not take the faith you put in our law firm lightly.
Contact us today for a free consultation by completing our contact form or calling 1(888) 887-9777.
- Fact-Checked
This content has been legally reviewed and approved by nursing home abuse attorney, Anthony Lanzone. Anthony holds notable memberships with professional organizations including the American Association for Justice and Consumer Attorneys of California.
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- Fact-Checked
This content has been legally reviewed and approved by nursing home abuse attorney, Anthony Lanzone. Anthony holds notable memberships with professional organizations including the American Association for Justice and Consumer Attorneys of California.