IDPH has cited and fined the Villa of South Holland nursing home after a resident suffered a head injury after being rolled from bed by staff.
The resident at issue suffered from advanced multiple sclerosis and had contractures and muscular weakness of her extremities. Because of her disease process, she could not hold a side-lying position. Her care plan included assist of two with personal care and turning and repositioning.
On the day of the incident, an aide was providing incontinence care to the resident without any assistance. She was new to caring for the resident, and was not aware that a two-person assist was required to care for the resident. While she had the resident laying on her side the resident fell from the bed, suffering a head injury which was treated at the hospital.
There are two basic issues with this nursing home fall: (1) a breakdown in the care planning process and (2) understaffing of the nursing home.
One of the basic steps to the care planning process is communication of the care plan to the staff charged with caring for the resident. After all, having a great care plan is no good at all if the people providing the care don’t know about it. Here, the needs of the resident were properly identified and a plan put into place to address those needs, but the plan was not carried out because the aide charged with caring for the resident did not know what the plan was.
A well-run nursing home will have a system in place for communicating the plan to the persons charged with implementing it. If the fall here happened because the plan was not communicated to the aide, it begs the question, how many residents are not receiving the care they need because the staff charged with caring for them do not know what they are supposed to do?
During the investigation of this fall, the Director of Nursing acknowledged to the surveyor that root cause of the accident was not enough staff the care was being provided. This speaks to understaffing of the nursing home, which has serious implications for the overall quality of care at this facility.
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 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:
Lack of footrests on wheelchair leads to broken ankle at South Holland Manor
Resident breaks in leg in failed mechanical lift transfer at South Holland Manor
Fractured hip from fall at Villa of South Holland
Resident rolled from bed at South Holland Manor
Two serious falls at Holy Family Villa
Resident rolled out of bed at Generations at Applewood
Brain bleed from being rolled from bed at Bria of Palos Heights
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