Proving elopement liability in nursing home cases can help victims
Elopement (sometimes referred to as “wandering”) refers to situations in which nursing home residents leave the areas where they should be and without staff awareness. Unfortunately, in many cases residents leave the nursing home premises without staff members’ awareness, and subsequently are injured or even killed due to element exposure (particularly from the heat or cold), accidents (including traffic accidents), or preventable medical conditions (such as suffering from a medical event due to not having taken medication or another event that could have been promptly treated had staff been nearby).
The Liability of Nursing Homes and Long-Term Care Facilities
We trust nursing home and long-term care facilities to take good care of our loved ones. Such care includes making sure that they do not leave the facility on their own, without any staff awareness.
Often, these facilities are inadequately staffed, or sufficient safeguards and procedures are not implemented to prevent wandering and elopement. As a result, our loved ones pay the price when adequate monitoring is not provided.
When residents are injured or even killed as the result of leaving facilities due to negligent supervision, we seek to hold the facilities liable to the full extent of the damages suffered on behalf of our clients. Unfortunately, this is the only way that procedures, staffing, and other changes will be made to protect future residents.
Medical Causes Behind Wandering and Elopement
Wandering and elopement are often associated with some form of dementia. The statistics are significant: some studies show that approximately 20 percent of dementia patients wander from nursing homes at some time or another. Considering that around 50 percent of nursing home residents suffer from dementia, and that means a large number of Missouri and Illinois nursing facility residents are at risk. Demonstrating elopement liability in nursing home cases can be critical for victims or relatives hoping to hold a negligent facility responsible for personal injury.
The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA) requires nursing home recipients of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement to maintain certain standards in providing care to their residents. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) oversees these regulations and monitors nursing home compliance.
Demonstrating elopement liability in nursing home cases often starts with examining these regulations and how they can relate to the relevant claims being made. The OBRA guidelines that most closely relate to elopement include:
• Prevention.
• Under OBRA, nursing homes must assess a resident’s risk for wandering and elopement behavior — and then develop specific strategies to help prevent elopement and keep the at-risk patient’s environment “as free of accident hazards as is possible.”
• Resident assessment.
• Nursing facilities must continue assessing each resident’s “functional capacity” on a periodic basis.
• Assessment must happen no later than 14 days after resident admission and re-occur on a quarterly and annual basis.
• Assessments must adequately and appropriately consider a resident’s risk for elopement behavior, including assessing the resident’s level of cognitive impairment, any mood disorders and verbal expressions of a desire to leave the nursing home, among others.
• Care plan interventions.
• Residents who are identified as being high-risk for elopement must also have an adequate individualized care plan prepared to help keep them safe.
• These care plans must include meaningful strategies and interventions to prevent resident elopement, and must be specific to a particular resident’s cognitive impairments.
• Care plan interventions can include items like:
• Determinations of and treatment for agitation, anxiety, and depression;
• Regularly monitor resident’s activities and location;
• Maintain behavior logs which detail any patterns in a resident’s wandering;
• Initiate individualized activity plans to minimize wandering behavior for that specific resident;
• Utilize electronic alarms like elopement warning systems and exit alarms;
• Periodically review the resident’s medications, especially those that can cause or exacerbate agitation, anxiety, or depression.
In the event that elopement does occur, a nursing facility has a duty to address that occurrence in both a timely and appropriate manner. Staff members should quickly and completely search for the resident, and should notify facility management, family members, any attending physicians and law enforcement officials that the elopement has occurred. Staff should also be properly trained on responding to elopement and follow the policies and procedures established by law and the specific nursing home.
Unfortunately, serious injuries and even death do occur in some cases where these regulations and standards are not followed. Demonstrating elopement liability in nursing home cases can be useful for holding nursing facilities liable for their negligence, discourage them from continuing any negligent behaviors and help a family obtain financial restitution that can help cover any damages they have incurred.
How We Help
We accept wandering and elopement cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning that there is no fee to us unless we recover for you or your loved one. Please call us today to learn about the legal options available, and how we may be able to help.
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Source: “Protect the Innocent: Establish elopement liability” by Staci M. Yandle. March 2013, Volume 49, No. 3.