Why is fall prevention so important to nursing homes?
Preventing residents of a nursing home from falling is critical for safety. Falls can cause disabilities, a reduction in independence, a functional decline and a lesser quality of life for the elderly. Falls have caused older individuals to feel helpless, become depressed and anxious. These falls can be almost completely prevented with proper care.
Nursing Home Falls Statistics
More than 1.5 million people over 65 currently live in nursing homes. An unacceptable 16 to 27 percent of falls in nursing homes are because of inadequate lighting, environmental hazards, and slippery floors. Approximately 50 to 75 percent of the elderly in nursing homes fall every year. The horrifying fact is 20 percent of these individuals die as a result of their fall. This is 1,800 people every year. Ten to twenty percent of these falls result in serious injuries.
If your loved one has suffered from a fall in a nursing home, contact us for help today!
Prevention for Falls in Nursing Homes
Fall prevention is essential for the health and safety of the elderly. It is important to be educated and to ensure that a fall-prevention strategy is implemented in your loved one’s nursing home.
Falls are more common for the elderly living in nursing homes than those who live in their communities. They have less mobility and may have chronic diseases, be unable to perform daily tasks and have issues with their cognitive abilities. If you know someone who has fallen in a nursing home you are urged to call an Austin nursing home accident lawyer.
The saddest part of these falls by the elderly is most of them could have been prevented. Some of the most common causes are patients with weakness in their muscles or a problem walking are not properly supervised. Many nursing homes also allow dangerous conditions including wet floors, the wrong bed height, environmental hazards, incorrect wheelchair size and improper maintenance to exist.
When patients are not properly monitored for medications for anxiety and sleep, patients fall. When specific patients are allowed to move around the home freely, falls will occur. When assistance from the faculty and nurses is not given when and where it is required, patients will fall. If you have a friend or family member in a nursing home who fell because they were not receiving proper care for their feet, their shoes did not have the correct fit or their walking aids were not correctly maintained you need to call an Austin nursing home accident lawyer.
Elderly patients who take medications to sleep are at a high fall risk and require close monitoring. In patients with cognitive difficulties or who are new to the medication, the risk is even higher. There are programs to help prevent falls and if they are not being used by a nursing home it is negligence. New patients need to be assessed for falling risks and the staff must be educated regarding fall prevention. It is critical all devices needed by the patients for mobility are easy to use and extremely well maintained.
When a patient is unable to see where they are going because of insufficient lighting they can easily fall and this is negligence. When floors are left slippery because they are wet it is especially dangerous to patients with balance and mobility issues. A bathroom without handles on the walls, seats and non-slip flooring is dangerous. A nursing home is required to provide a safe environment for all of its patients.
Don´t sit back and watch your loved one being mistreated, call Briggle & Polan right away for a consultation and case evaluation.
For more information visit our Nursing Home Abuse page.
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