Nursing Homes, Falls and Injury Liability

If a nursing home accepts Medicare, the nursing home must follow Federal Regulations which set forth the standard of care.  One of these regulations is 42 CFR sec. 483.25 (h) which provides:

The facility must ensure that:

1. The resident environment remains as free of accident hazards as  possible; and
2. Each resident receives adequate supervision and assistance devices to prevent accidents.

Regulatory Compliance

What must a facility do to comply with this regulation?  An administrative law judge for the Department of Health and Human Services found a Tennessee facility violated this regulation.  The facility had several residents, who had fallen many times.

One resident had Parkinson’s disease, long-term memory deficits, anxiety, periods of altered perception and restlessness.  The facility had implemented several interventions including a low bed with mats, a body alarm, adjustment of medications, a lap buddy in his wheelchair, providing therapy to assist in sitting in the wheelchair, use of a geri-chair, walking with assistance of a therapist, toileting the resident on regular intervals, and placing the resident near the nurses work station.  The resident continued to fall.  The court ruled that all these implementations were not enough and that the facility should provide continuous supervision when the resident was out of bed.  The Judge found that leaving the resident, unwatched for even a short period of time was an invitation for the resident to fall. 

Other residents fell because they disabled wheelchair alarms, body alarms were not working, would not use a walker etc..  The court found that more supervision must be given to these residents and that the facility violation of the regulation caused the residents to sustain serious injuries. 

Related Nursing Home Injury Information:

• Bedsore Lawsuits
• Compensation for Pressure Sores

Community Care of Rutherford County, Inc. v. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Docket No. C-09-595, Decision No. CR2173, Dated: July 6, 2010.