IDPH has cited and fined University Rehab in Urbana after a resident there had a fall and suffered a head injury.
The nursing home fall that sparked this citationg was troubling enough, but the things that the surveyor found and reported were even more disturbing.
The resident at issue was weakness on one side due to residuals from a stroke. He was able to control his bowels, but needed help to get to the toilet. On the day of the accident, he recogninzed that he needed to use the bathroom, so he sounded the call light for help. Staff came to his room, shut off the call light and said that they would be back. While he was waiting, he had an episode of incontinence of bowel and because in his words “I don’t like to sit in it,” he went to clean himself up. While he was doing so, he lost his balance and fell over backwards. He suffered a laceration to the back of his head which required staples to close.
Falls like this have a potential for serious injury. It is a matter of luck, not good care, that this gentleman did not suffer a more significant injury like a fractured hip or brain bleed, both of which could have easily happened in this kind of fall.
What made this citation especially interesting is what the resident had to say:
[He gets up by himself] because the staff don’t come to help and when your pants are dirty, you don’t want to just sit in it. They take a long time to answer the light, and then they tell you they will come back to assist and then they never do. I’m not like a dog, I’m potty trained. I just can’t hold it and definitely don’t like sitting in it.
Each nursing home home has a Resident Council where the residents are able to give feedback to the administration on the things that they like and don’t like. They keep meeting minutes, and the minutes of the Resident Council meetings at this nursing home tell a story about why this fall occurred. They document complaints at multiple meetings of long response times to call lights and of staff coming and shutting off the call lights withotu actually helping the resident who activated the call light.
The things that happened in this particualr incident and what is being documented in the Resident Council meeting minutes is indicative of a nursing home that is either understaffed or that has a poor culture of delvering care to residents. These are systemic problems that lead to very predictable bad outcomes for residents in this facility. Understaffing at nursing homes is a feature of the nursing home business model. 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. Order our FREE report, Built to Fail, to learn more about why. 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.
Other blog posts of interest:
Auburn Rehab resident suffers fractured hip in fall
Call lights not being answered at Aperion of Mascoutah
Resident burned by hotpack at University Rehab
Fall in shower at Champaign County Nursing Home
Click here to file a complaint about a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health.
