IDPH has cited and fined the Pavilion of Logan Square nursing home in Chicago after a resident suffered a broken neck when the nursing home van he was riding in stopped short, causing him to fall from his wheelchair because he was not properly belted in.
Many nursing homes have vans which are used to shuttle residents to and from hospitals and doctor’s offices or on outings in the community. When this is the case, the whole operation must be safe for residents – from the way in which the van is driven to the way in which residents are gotten on or off the van to the way in which they are secured in the van.
The resident at issue was wheelchair bound and was being taken in a nursing home van from the facility to a local hospital to have testing done with an aide accompanying him. The resident was loaded onto the van by the driver who was also responsible for making sure that the resident was safely secured within the van. Doing this involves not only making sure that the wheelchair is locked into place so that it doesn’t move, but also securing the resident in place as well.
After leaving the facility, the driver came to an abrupt stop. The aide and the driver heard a crashing sound behind them and turned around to see that the resident had been thrown from his wheelchair. The driver had not applied a seatbelt to the resident and as a result he was thrown forward out of the wheelchair when the van stopped short.
They got him back into his wheelchair and upon arrival at the hospital, the accident was reported to the hospital staff as well as the resident’s complaints of neck and shoulder pain. A CT scan was done which showed fractures at the level of the C6-7 vertebrae. The resident was transferred to another hospital for further care.
One of our core beliefs is that many unnecessary injuries and deaths of nursing home residents occur as a consequence of the nursing home business model. Unfortunately, not investing in adequate training of the staff is a feature, not a bug, of the way in which too many nursing homes operate. This kind of accident is characteristic of accidents that are the result of an inadequately trained staff.
