Even if they’re not dealing with a condition like arthritis or Parkinson’s, elderly nursing home residents still have a harder time moving around than the average person. As part of their jobs, nursing home staff members and owners are expected to take certain precautions to reduce the risk that any of their residents will get severely hurt in a preventable fall—an expectation that, unfortunately, not every facility meets.
Falls in Blue Bell nursing homes can often serve as grounds for civil litigation, but only if you can prove that the people who were supposed to care for them failed to do their jobs. That can be a deceptively tricky thing to prove, even if you have past experience with injury claims. You can get help from our winning nursing home neglect lawyers throughout every stage of the legal process.
What Are Nursing Home Staff Members Supposed to Do to Prevent Falls?
Falls in nursing homes in Blue Bell can still happen even if nursing home staff members are as diligent and considerate as possible. While there’s no way to universally prevent every fall, nursing home employees and owners are expected to do a lot of things to make the risk of accidental falls as small as possible, including:
- Installing handrails in public areas and hallways
- Keeping floors clean and free of slipping or tripping hazards
- Putting non-slip mats in bathrooms and showers
- Making sure both public and private spaces are well-lit
- Making sure residents have access to walkers, canes, and other assistive equipment in good condition
- Checking in regularly on residents who are confined to a bed or wheelchair to make sure they haven’t accidentally fallen out
- Helping residents exercise and keep their physical strength up whenever possible
- Being especially attentive to residents who are taking medications that affect their mobility or balance
This is far from an exhaustive list, so if you have questions about whether a nursing home should’ve done more to prevent a specific fall, you should discuss the matter with one of our experienced attorneys.
How to Sue Over a Fall in a Nursing Home
Because falls can and do happen in nursing homes without anyone being at fault for them, the fact that a fall happened isn’t enough on its own to justify a nursing home abuse lawsuit. To get compensation on your loved one’s behalf after this sort of incident, you need to prove the accident wouldn’t have happened if a specific nursing home employee had done—or in some cases, hadn’t done—a specific reckless or careless thing.
What counts as reckless or careless can be subjective. There may be multiple people who played a role in causing or allowing a particular fall to occur. Support from skilled legal counsel in Blue Bell can be essential to building a strong claim over a fall in a nursing home.
Talk to a Blue Bell Attorney About Legal Options After a Nursing Home Fall
Nursing home residents have a right to be supervised and properly cared for at all times. A failure by nursing home staff to provide that care should not be taken lightly, especially if it leads to a preventable fall. Taking effective legal action over falls in Blue Bell nursing homes can be much more difficult in practice than many people expect.
It is vital to have help from experienced lawyers who know how to fight and win on behalf of families just like yours. Call Ostroff Godshall Injury and Accident Lawyers today to learn more.
