Are nursing homes liable for falls in Maryland? If you have an elderly relative who’s been injured because of the negligence of their care home, you may well be pondering this question.
Falls can be life-altering events for vulnerable seniors; they often cause severe injuries that lead to a diminished quality of life for older people. Moreover, a fall in a nursing home can’t be written off as a mere accident; it must raise serious questions about the level of care and supervision provided in the facility.
This post aims to shed light on when nursing homes are liable for falls by residents, what happens after a fall, and the actions you can take to uphold the rights of your loved ones.
Are Nursing Homes Liable for Falls?
When is a nursing home liable for a fall? This question has a multifaceted answer – the assignment of liability will rely on a number of different factors.
Adequacy of Care Plan
Nursing homes should have detailed, individualized care plans in place for each of their patients. These plans should account for the medical needs of each individual, and make provisions for fall prevention in light of these needs. If your relative’s care plan did not make adequate provisions for their fall risk, this may indicate negligence on the part of the care home.
Staff Training and Supervision
Nursing homes must train their staff in proper fall prevention practices. Additionally, staff must supervise residents to ensure they don’t endanger themselves, particularly in cases where residents are very infirm. The failure to provide an appropriate level of training or supervision is likely to amount to negligence on the part of the care facility.
Environmental Safety
According to the National Floor Safety Institute, floors and flooring materials account for two million slip and fall injuries in the U.S. annually. Considering how prevalent this risk is, there’s no excuse for care homes to allow wet floors, poor lighting, or uneven flooring to endanger elderly residents. If you can prove that one or more of these factors played a role in your family member’s nursing home fall, it’s likely this will establish negligence on the part of the facility.
Use of Safety Equipment
Grab bars, non-slip mats, and slip-proof footwear should all be made available to nursing home residents, particularly those with limited mobility or lower body strength. Again, the failure to use these tools when appropriate is likely to be viewed as nursing home negligence.
Resident’s Health and Mobility Status
The biggest factor in many nursing home slip and fall cases is the health and fall risk of the resident. Different residents require different levels of care; what amounts to negligence in the case of one resident might be acceptable in the case of another.
Say, for example, your elderly relative has no major history of limited mobility, is relatively strong for an older person, and is not usually accompanied from place to place by care home staff. If they have a fall while walking within the facility, it may be difficult to establish negligence unless there was a clear breach of proper practice by the facility. However, if the same circumstances arise in the case of a patient with severely limited faculties, a finding of negligence would be much more likely.
Compliance with Regulations
A lack of adherence to state and federal regulations governing nursing home operations (such as the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987) will serve as a major indicator of negligence in a slip and fall case. Regulations set out requirements in terms of:
- Quality of care
- Resident rights
- Staffing
- Resident assessments
- Care plans
- Reporting requirements.
Response to the Incident
A nursing home’s response to a fall is potentially as relevant as the fall itself when it comes to liability. If care home staff fail to get a fall victim to safety and arrange for medical attention promptly, this alone can amount to negligence. This may be the case even if the fall itself had nothing to do with carelessness on the part of nursing home staff.
Additionally, if the treatment a resident receives after a fall is ineffective (or if it makes their situation worse) it may be possible to sue the care facility for medical malpractice.
Resident’s Own Conduct
Although nursing homes are responsible for their residents’ well-being, this responsibility isn’t absolute. If a resident knowingly endangers themselves, this may absolve the care facility of liability in relation to any resulting accident.
Maryland is a contributory negligence state, which means that any negligence whatsoever on the part of your elderly family member may invalidate a nursing home negligence claim. This is why it’s so important to present a watertight case if you’re filing a nursing home malpractice lawsuit.
To discuss how this rule might affect your case, you should consult with a lawyer.
What Happens When a Resident Falls in a Nursing Home?
When a resident falls in a nursing home, their health and safety should be the first priority of facility staff. The resident should receive care and assessment from an onsite nurse or doctor; this should include a thorough medical examination to identify potential injuries that may not be immediately apparent, such as fractures or concussions.
From there, the nursing home should undertake a formal assessment of what happened, focusing on the reason for the fall. The report from this assessment should note the circumstances leading up to the fall, witness statements, any hazards that might have contributed to the fall, and the steps taken following the incident. This report will be of crucial importance in any legal action undertaken in relation to the incident later.
The care home must also notify the resident’s family about the incident as soon as possible after it occurs. An unreasonable delay here may amount to negligence on the part of the facility.
Advocating for the Rights of Your Loved Ones
If someone close to you has suffered injuries in a nursing home fall because of inadequate care procedures, you deserve to pursue justice on their behalf. If you’re wondering what happens when a resident falls in a nursing home, you should consult with a lawyer to start looking for answers.
Contact us today by calling (410) 625-4878 or filling out our online contact form. We provide free initial consultations, so there’s no risk for you in coming to tell us your story.