equipment failure Archives - The Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C.

Resident Falls From Sling At Helia Healthcare of Belleville When Staff Use Incorrect Equipment

July 20, 2023 By Barry G. Doyle

The Illinois Department of Health has cited Helia Healthcare of Belleville after a resident fell from a mechanical lift when a paper transfer sheet broke mid-transfer. The resident suffered a head laceration and spent 22 days in the hospital.

Residents in healthcare facilities have different needs and require different types of assistance. For many seniors, transferring, or getting from one place to another, like chair to bed or bed to chair, can be quite difficult. In some cases, residents in facilities will need help from caregivers to safely transfer. A mechanical lift, when used correctly, helps to keep the senior safe during a transfer as well as the caregivers. Mechanical lifts are used when the senior can bear little to no weight and require significant assistance to transfer. The lift does the heavy lifting and keeps everyone safe.

In the case at Helia, the resident needed extensive assistance getting from his chair to his bed. His care plan noted that he needed to be helped by 2 staff at a time and that those 2 staff members needed to use a mechanical lift.

After the incident, the staff interviewed said that the facility had not had enough mechanical lift slings on hand. The staff said that leadership told them they could use a paper transfer sheet in place of a sling, which clearly goes against the safety instructions and precautions for the lift.

On the day of this nursing home fall the 2 caregivers used a paper transfer sheet that was not made for the mechanical lift. When the lift was in the air, the sheet split in half and dropped the resident to the floor. The resident hit his head and began bleeding from the impact. The resident was taken to the hospital, where he remained for 22 days.

This is the kind of unnecessary injury that occurs due to taking shortcuts in providing care to residents. Here there was a clear instruction, only use manufactured approved accessories, which was discarded for convenience sake and as a result, utterly predictable injury occurred.

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.

Grove at the Lake resident suffers multiple injuries in mechanical lift accident

May 4, 2022 By Barry G. Doyle

IDPH has cited the Grove at the Lake nursing home in Zion after a resident there sustained a fractured ankle, an intracranial hemorrhage, and had her dialysis port ripped out when the sling failed while she was being transferred in a mechanical lift by a single aide.

This resident was dependent on staff to transfer her using a mechanical lift. It was well-established that this is an activity which required the assistance of two staff. The resident’s Minimum Data Set (MDS) and care plan called for the assistance of two staff with transfers. The facility policies and procedures also called for assist of two with transfers being done with a mechanical lift. Besides all of those reasons, it is good, safe nursing practice – having two people assist in a transfer using a mechanical lift allows one staff to control the lift itself while the other protects the resident during transfer. We have written many times about how having one person do a two-person job is a formula for disaster (see here, here, here, here, and here for examples).

On the day of this nursing home fall, the resident was being transferred to bed by a single aide using a mechanical lift. During the transfer, one of the loops that attached the sling to the lift itself failed, causing the resident to fall to the ground. As a result of this fall, she suffered a broken ankle, an intracranial hemorrhage, and had her dialysis port ripped out.

In the investigation, the aide involved reported that she had inspected the sling before use and attached the sling properly. The sling was sent to the manufacturer for analysis before it could be inspected by the state surveyor.

During the investigation, the aide acknowledged that the transfer was supposed to be done with two staff, but there were only two aide on duty that night and the other aide was too busy to help. She further acknowledged that she frequently transferred residents on her own – and the resident said as much when asked by the state surveyor.

One of the immediate causes of this fall was the fact that there was a single aide doing the transfer when two were required. However, there is a larger issue, and that is understaffing of the nursing home. When there are facts such having one person doing a two person job, that the staff present were “too busy” to help one another, and that the shortcuts in the care of residents were being routinely taken, these are signs of an understaffed nursing home.

Sadly, understaffing is a feature, not a bug in 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.

Sling breaks during transfer at University Nursing & Rehab

August 9, 2021 By Barry G. Doyle

IDPH has cited and fined University Nursing & Rehabilitation Center nursing home in Edwardsville after a resident there suffered a broken hip and broken shoulder after falling during a transfer with a mechanical lift when the sling to the lift broke during transfer.

Used properly, a mechanical lift is a very beneficial piece of equipment for use in a nursing home. It allows residents who have significant strength and mobility issues to be transferred from bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to chair, and so forth safely while at the same time reducing the risk of injury to residents and staff.

The key part of that statement is of course, the “used properly” part. Proper use of a mechanical lift includes making sure that there are two staff members involved in all transfers because having on person do a two-person job is a formula for disaster (see here, here, here, here, and here for examples). The other part of “proper use” is that the lift itself and all of the associated equipment is in condition for safe use and is used properly in accordance with manufacturer specifications.

The resident at issue here required the use of a mechanical lift for all transfers. On the day of this nursing home fall, she was being transferred from a shower chair to her bed. There were two staff present, but during the course of the transfers, the loop that attaches the sling to the lift device itself tore, causing the resident to fall to the ground. The staff member who was assisting the resident during the transfer kept the resident’s head from hitting the floor, but the resident complained of leg pain and back pain. The resident was sent to the hospital where she was diagnosed as suffering from a fractured hip and fractured shoulder.

The investigation into this mechanical lift accident revealed two things. First is that the type of sling in use at the time of the accident was manufactured by a different company than the lift itself. Neither the manufacturer of the lift nor the manufacturer of the sling recommended mixing their products with those made by other companies. Second, the sling had been in use for two years and five months, and the sling manufacturer recommended that its product be replaced after a year. The bottom line is that the sling was being used well past the end of its useful life in a manner that neither the manufacturer of the lift or the manufacturer of the sling recommended.

Past that, there was no set protocol for inspecting the slings to ensure that they were in good condition for use. The administrator told the state surveyor that there was a laundry aide who was good about inspecting the slings but they did not have a protocol for inspecting the slings otherwise. If the laundry aide did not do an inspection, there was no one who regularly did one or was trained to do so. Without having enough trained eyes on the condition of the sling, this was allowed to fall into disrepair, leading to the failure of the sling and injury to this resident.

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.

Resident Falls From Sling At Helia Healthcare of Belleville When Staff Use Incorrect Equipment

Grove at the Lake resident suffers multiple injuries in mechanical lift accident

Sling breaks during transfer at University Nursing & Rehab

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