Nursing Home Falls

Nursing Home Falls and Fractures

A nursing home advertises that it will be responsible for the safety of resident. When a person is admitted to a long-term care facility and at regular intervals afterward, the nursing supervisor is responsible for performing a risk assessment, including the resident's risk of falling. Attorneys at our firm, Merovitz, Cedar & Gruber, LLC, (MCG Legal), represent clients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania nursing home injury claims. The lawyers have found that evidence of negligence leading to a nursing home fall and resulting fracture is often found in this risk assessment.

Nursing home falls and fractures are not normal

Not every nursing home fall is preventable, but measures must be taken to reduce the risk to a resident. The risk assessment must address the resident's physical, mental, psychological, and medical conditions. This is a critical area, since an elderly patient with a broken hip, ankle, or wrist, a skull fracture, or another fall injury may never fully recover.

Preventing bed falls in nursing homes

Every resident's fall risk is complex and several measures should be taken to ensure the patient's safety. Some examples of nursing home negligence include the following:

• After asking for help and getting no response, an elderly patient suffering from incontinence falls while attempting to get out of bed and to the toilet. This could be avoided by lowering the bed to the floor and leaving the bedrail down, by the use of special bed rails, or the use of a bed alarm.
• A bed or wheelchair transfer that should be performed by two staff members is attempted by a single nurse or aide (CNA), resulting in a transfer fall. Even when a transfer lift is used, it may be necessary to have two attendants help with a transfer, including moving a resident from a wheelchair to the toilet.
• A resident may be able to fall safely with protective pads in case of falls.
• Debris or a slippery floor causes a fall by a patient with no special falling risk.

Pursuing a nursing home fall claim

At Merovitz, Cedar & Gruber, LLC, (MCG Legal), our nursing home injury lawyers represent clients throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. If someone you care about has suffered a hip fracture, broken wrist, severe bruise, or other fall injury, and you would like to speak with one of our attorneys about an injury claim, please contact our Mount Laurel or Philadelphia office to arrange a free and confidential consultation. In most cases our services are contingency-based, meaning our client pays no attorney fees unless we recover damages on the client's behalf.