Maximum fine given to nursing home for preventable fall
SignonSandiego had an article about another California nursing home being hit with the most severe citation – and the maximum fine of $100,000 – in connection with a patient who died from a preventable fall. I wish more States including apathetic South Carolina would investigate, enforce, and fine nursing home incidents like California.
The patient, who was not identified, was recovering from hip surgery at Aviara Healthcare Center on Regal Road in Encinitas. He was admitted to the facility in April for physical therapy and was a known risk for falls. He fell twice there within 24 hours between May 9 and 10. After the first fall, the Aviara staff put an alarm on the patient's gown. Despite the alarm sounding, no staff member responded when the patient got out of bed and walked into the hallway. This probably took several minutes but no employee came in to check on him or assist him. alarms are only as good as the people responding to them.
The wall in that area lacked a handrail, so when the man began stumbling, he grabbed a large mechanical device used to lift residents out of bed. He fell and pulled the equipment down to the floor with him, and his head hit the metal frame of the lift, according to a report by the California Department of Public Health. The patient was hospitalized and died from the blunt-force trauma.
Seven Aviara employees said the lift was supposed to be kept in a shower room and not the hallway. Even after the man's death, a state health investigator found the lift still stored in the same hallway location.
Aviara also was fined $16,000 because it failed to closely monitor a patient who wandered away from the facility three times within nine hours last month.
