IDPH has cited and fined Heartland of Galesburg nursing home after a resident there suffered a dislocated hip after an aide attempted to transfer her with a mechanical lift by herself instead of with a second aide.
The resident at issue had been admitted to the nursing home for rehabilitation following a hip replacement surgery. On the day of this nursing home fall, she sounded a call light to be taken to the bathroom. An aide brought a sit-to-stand mechanical lift to bring her to the bathroom and began preparations to bring the resident to the bathroom. As she did so, the resident asked her whether two aides should be used for the transfer. The aide told her that it wasn’t necessary. After placing the straps around the resident, the aide began to bring her to the bathroom, but the resident’s legs gave out from under her and she fell to the floor, landing on her buttocks.
The resident initially thought that she was okay, but as they brought her back into bed, she hard a sharp pain in the hip that had just been operated upon. She was sent to the the hospital where it was determined that she had a dislocated hip.
At the time of this mechanical lift accident, there was a facility policy in place what called for the use of two aides in making transfers. This was obviously violated by the aide in trying to do this herself. Making matters worse, the investigation into the incident indicated that the straps for the sling were not applied appropriately.
Aides attempting to do the job of two people by themselves has been a recurrent theme in many of the blog posts we have written (see here, here, here, here, and here just as a few examples). This is often due to aides feeling the pressure of all of the work that needs to be done to care for the residents assigned to them and the wait for help just puts them that much further behind. Failing to apply the straps properly also speaks poorly to the quality of the training that the aide received.
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:
Presence St. Anne resident suffers broken neck in fall from lift
Heartland of Galesburg fined for nursing home falls
Improper use of lift at Danville Care Center
Click here to file a complaint about a nursing home with the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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