Falls are the most common nursing home injury and the most predicted: every resident arrives with a fall-risk score, a care plan, and interventions on paper. When the fall happens anyway — repeatedly — the question isn’t clumsiness; it’s whether the paper ever became practice.
- Duty is documented: assessments, care plans, and physician orders define exactly what the facility promised — the rare negligence case where the standard is written down in the defendant’s own hand.
- The breach patterns: call bells unanswered, transfers unassisted, alarms disabled for quiet, floors and footwear ignored, sedating medications unreviewed — CDC fall-prevention guidance defines what should happen instead.
- The consequences: hip fractures, head injuries, and the fear-of-falling spiral that shrinks elders’ worlds.
Repeat falls are the pattern evidence: each incident report after the first documents notice. Families should request incident reports in writing, log what staff say, and check the facility’s inspection history — then bring it to our nursing home practice. Falls outside facilities — home care, hospitals — run through the elder-fall neglect analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
The facility says residents have a ‘right to fall’ and can’t be restrained. Is that the law?
Restraint limits are real; they don’t erase prevention duties — supervision, alarms, environment, and medication review are all restraint-free interventions the care plan likely already ordered.
She’s fallen three times this year. Does the pattern matter?
Enormously — repetition converts ‘accident’ into notice and unimplemented response. Request every incident report in writing.
What if she can’t remember or describe the fall?
These cases are built on records precisely because victims often can’t testify — logs, schedules, and physical evidence carry them.
Concerned about the care you or a family member received? Call (215) 464-4600 or contact us online — free, confidential, records-first evaluations.