IDPH has cited and fined Alden Valley Ridge nursing home in Bloomingdale after a resident there was rolled out of bed while receiving a bed bath and as a result, suffered fractures of both of her legs.
The resident at issue had suffered a stroke and has significant residual weakness on both sides. She required max assist of two with bed mobility because she was unable to contribute to movement or control her body while she was being moved in bed. “Bed mobility” includes things such as being turned from side to side while receiving a bed bath or while being turned and repositioned in an effort to prevent bed sores or to assist in healing after bed sores have already occurred.
Assist of two means that two staff members have to be involved in moving the resident in bed. Not only is this something that is safer for the staff and help prevent things like back injuries to staff members, but it also is intended to help keep the resident from falling out of bed, as we have seen many times in this blog (such as here, here, here, here, and here) where a resident has been rolled out of bed because a single aide was doing a job by themselves that was meant to be done with the help of two people.
In this case a single aide was giving the resident a bed bath. As he rolled her onto her side to wash her back, she went over the edge of the the bed and landed on the floor. She was taken to the hospital where she was diagnosed with fractures to both legs, including multiple fractures in one leg.
On the surface level, this would appear to be like many of the other nursing home falls we have covered in this blog where a resident is rolled out of bed due to a single staff member doing the job of two people – except for the explanation offered by the aide as to why the resident ended up on the floor. He said that she as he rolled her onto her side, the air mattress she was laying on compressed, causing her to slide off the mattress onto the floor.
Further examination by the state surveyor determined that the mattress was inflated to a middle setting as an aid to preventing bed sores. However, the owner”s manual also stated that when it was inflated to its maximum setting, the mattress would provide a harder surface for safer use during transfers. In other words, the compression of the mattress that caused this fall was something that was addressed in the owner’s manual for the mattress – yet that staff never received nay training along those lines and did not know to adjust the settings on the mattress to help prevent just this kind of accident.
A single aide doing the job of two is an indication of an understaffed nursing home – and failing to adequately invest in staff training is another telltale sign of the nursing home business model at work. 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:
Alden Valley Ridge resident breaks leg in fall
Multiple fractures from fall at Lutheran Home for the Aged
Unsafe transfer at Rosewood of Inverness results in fractures of both ankles
Resident at Lexington of Streamwood suffers femur fracture due to unsafe transfer
Improper use of sit-to-stand lift results in multiple fractures at Radford Green in Lincolnshire
Click here to file a complaint about a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health.
