I am a lawyer in Greenville, South Carolina who represents patients, and families of patients, who have fallen at a nursing home or assisted living facility and become injured. I want to share with you the insights that I have learned in my practice through this patient family member guide that applies to patient fall prevention by nursing staff.

Has your beloved family member experienced a fall at a nursing home or assisted living facility in Greenville South Carolina, or anywhere in the Upstate of South Carolina? I have represented families and residents who have experienced a fall at a nursing home. A resident should never fall at a nursing home. In fact with proper care planning and nursing supervision and interventions, a resident fall is preventable.

If your loved one has suffered a fall at a nursing home, please don’t hesitate to contact us via phone at 864-235-4999 by tapping the button below or by filling out our request form for a free consultation.

Patient Family Member Guide: Fall Prevention

Is your family member at a short-term rehabilitation facility after hip fracture or hip replacement or femur fracture repair? Has your family member suffered a hip fracture in a fall at an assisted nursing facility?

Falls can happen at a nursing home providing long-term care or at an assisted living facility that provides short-term rehabilitation care.

The importance of a care plan

First, there should be a care plan in place for your family member. As part of that care plan, the nursing staff should assess whether the resident is a fall risk. A comprehensive assessment should be performed. Included in that assessment should be the resident’s ability to walk either assisted or unassisted, and the patient’s lower and upper extremity strength. Moreover, the patient’s mental faculties must be assessed as well in order to determine if the patient is capable of understanding directions or instructions. Frequently, a call light or call button may be in place on the patient’s bed. Unfortunately, the nursing staff is often unable to answer patient calls for assistance in a timely manner.

A nurse should respond to a patient’s call for service as soon as possible and definitely within a minute or less. As a patient advocate for your family member, you should ask the nursing staff exactly what is the facility policy on the timeliness of answering a patient’s call for assistance. If the nursing staff cannot supervise a patient in a room, then the staff should move the patient to a dayroom or up by the nurses’ station so that nurses and care team members can provide adequate supervision. Always remember, the facility employees have a very important duty to monitor and supervise every patient in their facility.

Many times, a patient who has undergone hip repair surgery will go to an assisted living facility for short-term rehabilitation care. A person with a new hip implant may be very weak and have balance issues. The patient may also be experiencing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Thus the patient must be properly supervised and assisted during times of mobility.

Also, a call system may have software included that will indicate the time of the call to the nurses’ station and the response time by the nurse to the patient’s room or bedside. Always ask if the patient call system has software that contains a record of patient calls or requests for nursing help.

Questions to ask when finding a suitable nursing home or assisted living facility

Here is a helpful list of questions you can use to determine if you want your loved one at a nursing home or assisted living facility:

• Who is supervising my family member while I am not there: nurses? Certified nursing assistants? Other team members?
• What is the call system like – does it record my loved one’s request for assistance?
• Who formulates the care plan? Ask to see the written care plan.
• How long does it take for the nurses to answer the patient’s request for assistance?
• How many patients are the nurses caring for at one time? 20? 30? 40?
• How many other patients is your nurse caring for at the same time while caring for your loved one?
• Does the facility use bed exit alarms?
• Does the facility use floor mat alarms?
• What is the facility doing to quickly respond to a patient who gets out of bed unassisted to use the bathroom?
• Does the facility document every patient fall in the medical record.

Inform the nursing supervisor if you believe that your family member is not being supervised closely enough.

If your family member has fallen at a nursing home or assisted living facility, feel free to call me or fill out the form below so that we can discuss the situation.