Broken Hip Goes Untreated for 24 Hours Due to Failure to Check X-Rays At Elevate Care Waukegan

The Illinois Department Of Health has cited and fined Elevate Care Waukegan when a resident suffered a significant delay in treatment after experiencing a fall that resulted in a broken hip.

The incident in question began when a nursing supervisor found the resident lying on the floor beside their bed. Although the resident was experiencing pain, showing “facial grimacing and moaning when right leg moved,” the initial response was inadequate.

While the nurse practitioner ordered immediate X-rays due to the resident’s swollen leg, the staff failed to mark the order as urgent (“STAT”), instead entering it as a routine order. This proved to be a critical error. As the Director of Nursing later explained, “the X-ray should have been ordered STAT to ensure the results were received in a timely manner and any injuries could be treated properly and timely.”

The situation worsened overnight. A nursing assistant reported that the resident was “grimacing, wincing, and moaning whenever she had to turn her to provide care,” and it appeared the pain was coming from the right hip. Despite these clear signs of distress, no one checked for the X-ray results, which were actually available that evening and showed “an acute intertrochanteric fracture of the proximal right femur” (a broken hip).

The delay in care was substantial – almost 24 hours passed between the resident’s fall and their transfer to the hospital. The Nurse Practitioner, when later informed about the delay, stated, “If I would have received the results then, the resident would have been sent to the hospital sooner. They didn’t communicate with me.”

Multiple systemic failures contributed to this delay:
– Staff didn’t properly mark the X-ray order as urgent
– No one monitored or followed up on the X-ray results
– Poor communication between shifts
– Failure to properly document the resident’s condition
– Inadequate response to signs of pain and distress

The facility’s own policy required “prompt, appropriate action” for “X-ray or other diagnostic tests reveal suspected findings which may require immediate intervention including but not limited to… new fracture.” Yet in this case, a resident with a broken hip experienced unnecessary pain and delay in treatment due to communication breakdowns and failure to follow proper procedures.

When the resident finally reached the hospital, they were found to be a poor candidate for surgery and had to return to the facility with orders not to put any weight on the injured leg, an outcome that might have been different with prompt medical attention.

One of our core beliefs is that nursing homes are built to fail due to the business model they follow and that unnecessary accidental injuries and wrongful deaths of nursing home residents are the inevitable result. Our experienced Chicago nursing home lawyers are ready to help you understand what happened, why, and what your rights are. Contact us to get the help you need.