One of the biggest issues faced by families with loved ones in nursing homes is ensuring their relatives’ safety and protection from risks that aren’t associated with their underlying health problems. These risks include bedsores and muscle atrophy caused by staff neglect and, especially for elderly nursing home residents, falls. Nursing home residents often fall from bed while sleeping or trying to get to the bathroom without assistance. Many such falls happen because nursing home residents slip or trip and fall while walking, whether in their rooms or common areas such as hallways and dining facilities.
Many slip and fall accidents occur due to staff shortages, general indifference to resident wellbeing, or simple inattention. Falls often cause severe injuries ranging from concussions to hip fractures. These injuries can render residents, especially elderly residents, less mobile or even bed bound which can lead to serious and even fatal complications such as muscle atrophy and pneumonia. It’s imperative that family members are made aware when falls happen so they can protect their loved ones' rights and ensure that proper standards of care are maintained.
The Scope of the Problem
Slip and trip fall accidents occur frequently in nursing homes. Studies show that as many as 50–75% of nursing home residents fall each year. What's particularly alarming is that many of these falls could be prevented by addressing nursing home negligence and the resulting lack of safety measures.
Common Hazardous Conditions That Cause Nursing Home Falls
Unsafe Flooring Conditions
Unsafe flooring is one of the major contributing factors of nursing home falls. Nursing homes are frequently found liable when residents are injured due to hazardous conditions, including:
1. Floor surfaces that are worn or uneven due to poor maintenance, including torn carpets or buckled wood.
2. Improperly marked transitions where different flooring surfaces like carpet and tile meet.
3. Floors that have been mopped or waxed without warning signs.
4. Spilled liquid or water tracked in from snow or rain outside.
Nursing homes have a duty to inspect and maintain all flooring surfaces. If nursing home staff or management fail to address such hazards or ignore appropriate inspection and maintenance schedules, they may be liable to anyone who falls and gets hurt.
Inadequate Lighting
Many elderly nursing home residents have weak or compromised vision, which requires stronger lighting for them to move safely within their nursing home facilities. Even people with 20/20 vision are often injured due to inadequate lighting caused by nursing home negligence, including:
1. Burned-out bulbs that aren’t replaced in a timely manner.
2. Dim lighting in hallways, especially at night.
3. Lack of motion sensors to trigger lights in bathrooms and other spaces.
4. Insufficient lighting of transition areas.
5. Poorly maintained emergency lighting systems.
Studies show that upgrading lighting in old people's homes can reduce falls by over 40%. When nursing homes fail to provide adequate lighting, they expose their residents to avoidable risk of injury and open themselves up to legal liability.
Negligent Care Practices
Nursing homes may also be liable for falls caused by inadequate care and neglect in the following areas:
Insufficient Staff
1. Not enough staff available to assist residents with mobility needs.
2. Staff forced to rush through their duties due to overwhelming workloads.
3. Insufficient staff to supervise common areas.
Lack of Training
1. Staff who haven’t been trained in proper procedures to transfer patients from bed to wheelchair or wheelchair to toilet.
2. Lack of a defined and universally applied anti-fall protocol.
3. Failure to practice emergency response measures.
Insufficient Assessment and Monitoring
1. Failure to assess resident fall risk
2. Disregarding changes in resident mobility status
3. Failure to take due care in preventing falls
Establishing Nursing Home and Care Facility Liability
Duty of Care
Nursing homes and other in-patient care facilities owe a heightened duty of care to keep their residents safe. This includes maintaining safe and secure living facilities, providing adequate supervision, implementing appropriate fall prevention measures, and responding quickly to any hazardous conditions that arise.
Nursing homes can be held liable if they knew or should have known about dangerous conditions that cause residents to be injured. Proof of that liability can be found in maintenance records, staff notes and reports, records of similar incidents in the past, and proof that safety inspections weren’t done and protocols weren’t in place or weren’t enforced.
This duty of care obligates nursing homes to take reasonable preventive measures to ensure the safety of their residents. These include: regular, facility wide safety inspections; prompt repair and maintenance of any hazards; clearly defined safety protocols; procedures for emergencies; adequate staffing; and proper training for all staff and administrators.
Proof of Negligence
When nursing home negligence is the suspected cause of a slip-and-fall accident, you must act quickly to gather evidence. This should include: photographing the accident scene and any visible hazards that may have caused the fall as well as the injuries it caused; obtaining incident/accident reports, medical records, and statements from witnesses, including staff members and other residents; requesting maintenance and inspection records and video of the area and the accident; and reviewing the facility's fall prevention protocol.
The best way to do all of this is to hire an experienced nursing home negligence lawyer to protect your rights and those of your loved ones.
Taking Action: Protect Your Loved One's Rights
If you or a family member has been injured in a slip-and-fall accident in a nursing home, you must act quickly to insure the maximum financial recovery. At Horn Wright, LLP, our experienced New York nursing home negligence attorneys are committed to protecting the rights of elderly residents and their families.
Our dedicated legal team will investigate the accident, gather and preserve crucial evidence, work with experts to document liability and injuries caused by the fall and use every other available tool to fight for the maximum compensation your loved one deserves.
Don't let nursing home negligence go unchallenged. Call Horn Wright, LLP, today for a free consultation about your case. Our compassionate attorneys will help you understand your legal options and hold negligent nursing homes accountable.