IDPH has cited and fined Addolorata Villa nursing home in Wheeling after a resident there suffered a dislocation of a prosthetic shoulder due to an improper transfer performed by an aide.
Bed mobility is a term which is used to describe the movement of a nursing home resident in bed. Some nursing home residents, due to generalized weakness or other issues, need assistance with being repositioned in bed. When a resident needs assistance with bed mobility, it is incumbent upon the nursing home staff to provide that assistance safely.
The resident at issue had been determined to need the assist of two with bed mobility in part due to a history of having rheumatoid arthritis and rib fractures from falls. On the night she was injured, at bed time she was seated near the foot of her bed when the aide assigned to her said that she would position her in bed. The resident advised the aide that two people normally assisted her with that, but the aide insisted that she could do it herself. She lowered the head of the bed, instructed the resident to lay down and grabbed around the top of the shoulders and began pulling her toward the head of the bed. No lift sheet was used. When she did so, there was a loud pop and the resident experienced significant pain. The resident told the aide that her shoulder was hurting and the aide responded that she wasn’t going to touch her any more, and alerted the nurse on duty.
The nurse on duty notified the resident’s doctor who in turn ordered x-rays which showed that the resident’s artificial shoulder had become dislocated and that there was a fracture of the scapula. As of the time the citation was written the resident remained in a sling and had significant pain in the shoulder which was poorly controlled by medication.
The underlying story here is one which has been told many, many times on this blog: the resident was injured as a result of one person attempting to do a two-person job. See here, here, here, and here for just a few examples. In the process, the resident’s safety was sacrificed and the injury to the resident was the predictable result.
The key question of course is why did the aide feel it necessary to do a two-person job by herself? The answer will likely come back to understaffing of the nursing home. Sadly, understaffing is a key component of 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.
Other blog posts of interest:
Fall from mechanical lift at Hillcrest Retirement Village
Alden Valley Ridge resident rolled from bed, breaks both legs
Multiple fractures from fall at Lutheran Home for the Aged
Resident suffers broken hip in unsafe transfer at Pearl of Rolling Meadows
Fall from shower chair leads to brain bleed and death at Manorcare of Arlington Heights
Resident breaks both legs in unsafe transfer at Symphony of Buffalo Grove
Click here to file a complaint about a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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