A recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that over 21% of nursing home residents fell within their first 30 days at the facility.
The article reviewed recent data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services for more than 230,000 first-time residents admitted to nearly 10,000 nursing homes across the United States in 2006.
According to the study, nearly one-fifth of residents had falls upon admission.
Many times, the injuries are thankfully minor, but other times, the falls result in broken bones, fractured hips, or deadly head injuries. Our law firm is contacted when the falls result in horrible injuries at a Virginia nursing home or assisted living facility.
Often, the family has complained to the nursing home has fallen dozens of times over weeks and weeks with no intervention by the facility to reduce the risk of falls or reduce the potential injuries from those foreseeable and predictable falls.
My Take: If one out of every five new nursing home residents fall within the first 30 days of admission, then every nursing home should assess every resident upon admission for the risk of falling and, regardless of how they score, take precautionary steps for every resident to not only reduce the risk of falling but also reduce the seriousness of injuries which could result – to do anything less is unacceptable!