Nursing home and assisted living patients may wander and leave the care facility if they are not properly supervised. This can leave them at risk of serious injury, and facilities have an affirmative obligation to prevent elopement.
If your loved one suffered injuries as a result of wandering away from a care facility, an Orlando nursing home elopement lawyer from our team at The Florida Firm Injury and Accident Lawyers could help you hold the negligent parties accountable. Our nursing home abuse attorneys have a proven track record of success, and we are the firm other local professionals turn to when they need representation in nursing home abuse or neglect cases.
Facilities Must Evaluate Elopement Risk
People with cognitive impairment due to age or illness may wander if they are mobile. If nursing homes in Orlando fail to take proper precautions to prevent wandering and a patient suffers direct harm, our attorneys could bring a legal claim against the facility.
Because wandering is a known risk factor for nursing home residents, care facilities must have strict protocols in place to ensure their safety. They must assess new residents for elopement risk upon admission and implement enhanced supervision for the highest-risk patients. Patients who are most likely to wander include those who have:
- Alzheimer’s or dementia
- A history of wandering
- Sundowning syndrome, which causes confusion and fatigue late in the day and early evening
- A history of exit-seeking behavior, such as repeatedly asking to go home or stating a need to meet an obligation, like going to the store or to work
Newly-admitted patients are also at higher risk, and staff must supervise them closely until it is clear they do not have a propensity to wander.
Facilities have a duty to protect residents from harm while also allowing them to move about. As a result, care facilities must have security systems and automatic locking doors in place. If a facility provides outdoor space, it must be secure. Florida Statutes § 429.178 imposes enhanced requirements for facilities that provide specialized memory or dementia care.
Elopement Is Dangerous
Wandering away from a nursing home or assisted living facility poses high risks to the patient. They often lose their way and may be too disoriented or afraid to ask for help, or even know what help they need.
Dehydration and other heat-related illnesses pose a significant threat. A patient who elopes in the summer could develop life-threatening symptoms in just a few minutes to an hour. Conversely, a patient who wanders at night or in the winter months may be at risk of hypothermia.
There are numerous other dangers associated with wandering, including:
- Traffic accidents
- Falls
- Drowning in a canal, pool, or fountain
- Criminal assault
Whatever incident results in the harm, the care facility is ultimately at fault for failing to prevent the patient from wandering. Our elopement attorneys at The Florida Firm Injury and Accident Lawyers’ Orlando office could investigate to determine how your loved one was able to leave the nursing home without detection.
When Does Wandering Equal Negligence?
Nursing homes and other care facilities have an obligation to keep their residents safe. A failure to supervise or maintain reasonable preventive measures against elopement is negligent.
Our Orlando lawyers could review the nursing home’s anti-elopement protocols to determine whether they meet regulatory requirements. We could also assess whether staff followed these protocols and, if not, establish the cause of the failure and its impact on your loved one’s escape. In addition, we could scrutinize staffing levels at the time of the elopement and evaluate whether the staff on duty received proper training in the facility’s anti-elopement measures.
If our legal team finds that staff could have prevented your loved one from leaving the facility, you may be able to file a legal claim against them. Our firm has obtained numerous high-value verdicts and settlements against nursing homes, including an award of more than $1 million to the family of a patient who eloped and died of exposure.
Consult Our Attorneys if Your Loved One Suffered Harm After Wandering From a Nursing Home in Orlando
Nursing homes and other care facilities for the elderly must protect residents from wandering and getting hurt. If your loved one suffered harm after eloping from a facility, an Orlando nursing home elopement lawyer from our team at Colling Gilbert Wright could help you hold the responsible parties accountable. There is no charge unless we win a verdict or settlement in your favor, so contact our team today.