Falls in Nursing Homes: Common Injuries & Causes
- Reviewed By
Anthony C. Lanzone, Founding Partner
Table of Contents:
- Common Injuries Resulting From Nursing Home Falls
- Causes & Risk Factors of Falls in Nursing Homes
- Preventing Nursing Home Falls
- Are Nursing Homes Required to Report Falls?
- Who Is Liable for Falls in California Nursing Homes?
- What to Do if Your Loved One Falls in a California Nursing Home
- Can You Sue a Nursing Home if Your Loved One Is Injured in a Fall?
- How Our Nursing Home Fall Lawyers Can Help
- Let Lanzone Morgan, LLP, Give Your Loved One a Voice
Common Injuries Resulting From Nursing Home Falls
Older adults are particularly vulnerable to injuries from falls in nursing homes due to reduced muscle mass, loss of bone density, slower reflexes, polypharmacy, and other medical conditions.
Half of all U.S. nursing home residents experience a fall at least once a year, and those who are hurt in falls are more likely to fall again. Additionally, nursing homes may fail to report as many as 43% of serious falls, making the true number of fall injuries potentially much higher than suggested by publicly available data.
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
Dangers of Delayed Responses to Fall Injuries
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 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. Head injuries require immediate testing and intervention to prevent bleeding or swelling inside the skull from impacting the brain.
Repeated Fall Injuries
Once a resident falls, the likelihood of another fall increases, with each additional incident posing a risk of serious or even fatal injury. Residents can develop a fear of falling that leads them to limit their physical activity, creating a vicious cycle of increased frailty that further raises their fall risk.
Repeated falls can also be a red flag for negligent care. After a fall injury, nursing home staff should adjust a resident’s care plan to prevent future incidents and keep them safe. If your loved one is hurt in a fall more than once without the facility making major preventative changes, they may be suffering from neglect.
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Did You Know?
Roughly 1,800 nursing home residents in the U.S. die from fall-related injuries annually.
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. However, most California nursing homes are chronically understaffed. A recent study found that additional skilled nursing hours may significantly reduce the risk of falls in well-run nursing homes, but may lead to even more falls in facilities already struggling to meet the recommended hours per resident.
Most falls occur in nursing homes due to the following issues:
- Inadequate monitoring and supervision
- Lack of assistance with walking, standing, dressing, and toileting
- Medication errors
- Slippery floors
- Poor lighting
- Inadequate bed rails
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 needed, and ensure nurses are available to perform transfers when required.
- Maintain a safe environment. Keep floors clean, dry, and clutter-free. Keep common areas well-lit.
- Prescribe assistive devices. Provide at-risk residents with canes, wheelchairs, supportive shoes, and other assistive devices.
- 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 dose and frequency, monitor side effects, and adjust medications if side effects increase the risk of falls.
- Avoid understaffing. High resident-to-staff ratios make it impossible to provide every resident with the necessary supervision and assistance to prevent falls.
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.
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
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 ongoing abuse.
- 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.”
Can You Sue a Nursing Home if Your Loved One Is Injured in a Fall?
Yes, you can sue a nursing home if your loved one has fallen and suffered an injury due to the facility’s negligence. Nursing homes are legally responsible for preventing falls and taking quick action to address injuries. If poor or inattentive care causes your loved one to suffer an injury from a preventable fall, you may be eligible to take legal action.
How Our Nursing Home Fall Lawyers Can Help
Our compassionate nursing home abuse lawyers can help you report neglect and get justice for your loved one. We are one of the leading nursing home abuse law firms in the United States, with over 75 years of combined experience and $250 million in compensation recovered.
We take a comprehensive approach to building cases against negligent nursing homes by doing the following:
- Investigate the fall: We’ll interview residents, nurses, your loved one, and other witnesses.
- Gather evidence: We’ll obtain your loved one’s medical records, staff logs, nursing home inspection reports, and other evidence to prove liability.
- File a lawsuit: We’ll represent your family in settlement negotiations and go to trial if necessary to recover the compensation your loved one deserves.
- Provide compassionate legal support: We’ll 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
Lanzone Morgan, LLP, is an accomplished law firm dedicated to advocating for elder abuse victims, with a primary focus on nursing home abuse and neglect cases. We provide a voice for the voiceless, advocating for their rights 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 choosing a law firm can be daunting, and we do not take the faith you place in us lightly.
Call (888) 887-9777 or contact us online today for a free consultation.
- 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.
VIEW SOURCES
“Chapter 1. Introduction and Program Overview.” The Falls Management Program: A Quality Improvement Initiative for Nursing Facilities. (n.d.). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved September 15, 2026, from https://www.ahrq.gov/patient-safety/settings/long-term-care/resource/injuries/fallspx/man1.html
Khoja, J. S., MacLean, K. G., Lee, Y., Joshi, R., Daiello, L. A., & Berry, S. D. (2026). Falls in the Nursing Home: The Impact of Staffing Levels and Agency Staff Use on Injurious Falls. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 27(3), 106083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2025.106083
Nursing homes failed to report 43 percent of falls with major injury and hospitalization among their Medicare-enrolled residents. (2025, November 5). Office of Inspector General | Government Oversight | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://oig.hhs.gov/reports/all/2025/nursing-homes-failed-to-report-43-percent-of-falls-with-major-injury-and-hospitalization-among-their-medicare-enrolled-residents/
Yardi, S. (2025, January 13). Nursing Home Care Statistics 2025 by Facilities, Long-Term Care, Finance. Market.us Media. https://media.market.us/nursing-home-care-statistics/#:~:text=CDC%2C%20NIH)-,Falls%20Among%20Nursing%20Home%20Residents,-Approximately%201%2C800%20older
Rubenstein, L. Z., Josephson, K. R., & Robbins, A. S. (1994). Falls in the nursing home. Annals of internal medicine, 121(6), 442–451. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-121-6-199409150-00009
Lavedán, A., Viladrosa, M., Jürschik, P., Botigué, T., Nuín, C., Masot, O., & Lavedán, R. (2018). Fear of falling in community-dwelling older adults: A cause of falls, a consequence, or both?. PloS one, 13(3), e0194967. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194967
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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.
VIEW SOURCES
“Chapter 1. Introduction and Program Overview.” The Falls Management Program: A Quality Improvement Initiative for Nursing Facilities. (n.d.). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved September 15, 2026, from https://www.ahrq.gov/patient-safety/settings/long-term-care/resource/injuries/fallspx/man1.html
Khoja, J. S., MacLean, K. G., Lee, Y., Joshi, R., Daiello, L. A., & Berry, S. D. (2026). Falls in the Nursing Home: The Impact of Staffing Levels and Agency Staff Use on Injurious Falls. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 27(3), 106083. https://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610(25)00600-0/abstract
Nursing homes failed to report 43 percent of falls with major injury and hospitalization among their Medicare-enrolled residents. (2025, November 5). Office of Inspector General | Government Oversight | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://oig.hhs.gov/reports/all/2025/nursing-homes-failed-to-report-43-percent-of-falls-with-major-injury-and-hospitalization-among-their-medicare-enrolled-residents/
Yardi, S. (2025, January 13). Nursing Home Care Statistics 2025 by Facilities, Long-Term Care, Finance. Market.us Media. https://media.market.us/nursing-home-care-statistics/#:~:text=CDC%2C%20NIH)-,Falls%20Among%20Nursing%20Home%20Residents,-Approximately%201%2C800%20older
Rubenstein, L. Z., Josephson, K. R., & Robbins, A. S. (1994). Falls in the nursing home. Annals of internal medicine, 121(6), 442–451. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-121-6-199409150-00009
Lavedán, A., Viladrosa, M., Jürschik, P., Botigué, T., Nuín, C., Masot, O., & Lavedán, R. (2018). Fear of falling in community-dwelling older adults: A cause of falls, a consequence, or both?. PloS one, 13(3), e0194967. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194967