Staff at the Taylorville Care Center in Taylorville, Illinois ignored their own plan of care, and caused one of the residents who lives at the facility to suffer a broken leg. According to the plan of care developed by Taylorville Care Center administration, the resident suffered from poor balance and dementia, and was considered to be a high risk of falls.
The plan of care called for extensive assistance of two persons for transfers from one point of rest to another (bed, chair, or toilet) as well as for moving, walking and turning. According to the certified nurses aide (CNA) who was taking care of the resident, however, she was able to walk and transfer herself. The CNA told investigators from the Illinois Department of Public Health that the resident’s walking devices “got tangled in a bedside table” and that she was the only CNA providing care to the resident.
CNAs are generally the people who perform, under orders, most of the day to day activities with the residents. They feed them, clean them, shower them, and put them to bed. When nursing home neglect happens, they are often viewed as the guilty party.
The reality of the situation is that many nursing homes simply do not staff enough CNAs to follow the plan of care. The Taylorville Care Center is rated an overall one star out of five by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and two stars out of five specifically for nursing home staffing.
In addition to the resident with a broken leg, two other residents experienced dangerous nursing home falls at Taylorville Care Center. One was the result of using a wheelchair with broken brakes. Any definition of nursing home neglect includes the failure to provide appropriate equipment.
The third nursing home fall at Taylorville Care Center took place after a resident’s bed alarm failed to sound, and the resident fell to the floor of her room. Illinois nursing home laws state that an investigation must take place after any nursing home fall, but no further explanation was ever provided for the bed alarm failure.
If you have a loved one who has been injured in a nursing home fall, contact our Chicago nursing home fall lawyers for a free and confidential evaluation of your case.
Other blog posts on nursing home falls:
Fall in shower room at Champaign nursing home
Multiple residents suffer fractures in falls at Bement nursing home
Resident falls from wheelchair fractures hip at Meadowbrook Manor