When Nursing Home Patients are Dropped

Many nursing home residents are mobile and able to walk – with or without help – to and from meals, to and from the lavatory, and to and fro all of the public areas and various medical treatment areas of the facility. Others are not in good condition and need assistance that includes being lifted, and the risk of being dropped and injured.

Nursing homes are required to have established guidelines and methods as to how patients are properly transferred from bed to wheelchair and other transfers. When the protocols aren’t enforced or adhered to and patients are dropped it can have a long term impact on their health and confidence, and may be nursing home neglect. As a result, a nursing home lawyer would be needed to file a claim against the nursing home.

Care Needed When Transferring Patients

The transfer of patients is an every day occurrence in nursing homes and care facilities, and is one of the most basic actions that staff should be trained to do carefully and appropriately. Unfortunately, when staff is overburdened, rushed or have been poorly trained they can make errors that can cause serious injuries

There are many reasons why nursing home residents need to be lifted. They include:

• On and off of the toilet
• Into bed from the wheelchair and from the bed to the wheelchair
• From one chair to another chair
• From the wheelchair into the bath or shower
• Into or out of a Hoyer lift

Though every facility has different procedures in place, many require at least two staff members to be involved in patient lifts to ensure the patient is secure and safe.

Injuries from Being Dropped

When correct procedures are not adhered to, whether because the nursing home staff member was not properly trained or not properly supervised, a patient can be dropped to the floor, and because so many nursing home residents are in very poor  health or elderly, they may be particularly frail and vulnerable to terrible injuries.

In addition to risking fractures of limbs, broken hips and concussion, dropped patients may also suffer from traumatic brain injury, issues of internal bleed, and injury to internal organs. All of these dramatically increase the potential for patient death. Falls are the cause of more deaths than anything else in elderly patients.

Negligence is the Cause of Most Patients Being Dropped

When a nursing home patient needs to be transferred or lifted, special care needs to be exercised. When they are dropped that care has not been shown, whether due to insufficient training, understaffing or carelessness, it may be a case of negligence. Visit www.nursinghomelawfirm.org for the latest information on filing lawsuits against negligent nursing homes.