Nursing home elopement in Orange County can raise serious concerns when a resident leaves a care facility without supervision and suffers harm. These circumstances can often point to failures in monitoring, staffing, or safety protocols that should be in place to help prevent vulnerable residents from harm. Reviewing the details of an elopement incident can help to shed light on how the incident occurred.
Hire a Trusted Nursing Home Neglect Lawyer
Hunter Law, PC, has experience in cases involving nursing home negligence. Failure to protect residents is a liability. Orange County nursing home elopement cases often involve wandering residents who suffer injury. Stephen R. Hunter is an elder abuse and neglect attorney with over 16 years of experience handling such cases across California.
These cases require a review of the facility’s policies and procedures on supervision, staffing, and safety to determine what happened and whether the facility took the appropriate precautions to prevent it from happening.
What Nursing Home Elopement Means and Why It Happens
Nursing home elopement refers to the act of an individual leaving a care facility unsupervised and without authorization. This often occurs in individuals with cognitive conditions such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Elopement may also result from poor staffing, ineffective practices, or failed or unenforced safety precautions.
Residents may try to leave the facility in order to return to a more familiar environment or to find loved ones. If a facility fails to assess its residents and identify those at risk for wandering, or if appropriate safety measures are not taken, the risk of elopement may increase dramatically.
Common Risks When a Resident Leaves Unsupervised
If a resident is left unsupervised while they are wandering, the risk of a serious injury can develop within moments. Someone who is lost could quickly enter an area with traffic, uneven surfaces, extreme heat or cold, or other environmental dangers without anyone noticing.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 6 in 10 individuals with dementia will wander at least one time in their lives. This number shows how prevalent wandering behavior is and how important it is for these vulnerable individuals to be safeguarded. A few minutes without proper intervention can easily result in falls, dehydration, or other health concerns.
How Facilities Are Expected to Prevent Elopement
Care facilities should take steps to reduce the potential for unsupervised wandering. These steps may include recognizing at-risk residents, monitoring entry/exit points, and increasing staff supervision. Care facilities may also have alarms, monitoring systems, and individualized care plans in place to prevent elopement.
California Health and Safety Code § 1599.1 outlines residents’ rights, including the right to receive appropriate care and supervision for their safety and well-being. If adequate measures are not in place, it can create an increased risk of residents leaving the facility undetected.
What Happens After an Elopement Incident in Orange County
After an elopement incident in Orange County, facilities typically conduct an internal review and prepare a report about how the event occurred. A review may look at the staffing levels, supervision, and how long it took to locate the resident. In more serious cases involving injury, the incident may be investigated further.
Civil claims arising from the events are generally filed in the Orange County Superior Court. Review findings may be used in the determination of how and why an incident occurred and could have been prevented. For more information for elder adults and their caregivers, the Santa Ana Office on Aging is a great resource. Additionally, a long-term care ombudsman can be another addition to your team to protect your loved one.
FAQs About Orange County Nursing Home Elopement
How Is Elopement Different from General Wandering in a Care Facility?
Unlike regular wandering in a care facility, elopement has distinct characteristics. Wandering may take place anywhere within the premises of the facility. However, an elopement can involve wandering outside of the facility and generally causes the resident to be completely out of view of staff and from a secured and supervised area of the facility without authorization.
How Do Facilities Monitor Residents Who Are at Risk of Elopement?
Directives for monitoring residents who are at risk of elopement should be clearly stated. This may include using a keyed entry system, alarms, direct supervision, and resident care plans that address the problem of wandering or elopement. Monitoring also includes regular assessment of a resident’s status and ongoing modification of safety measures. Documentation, constant vigilance, and communication between staff help to keep track of residents who may be at increased risk for injury.
What Are the Risks When a Resident with Dementia Wanders Away?
When a resident with dementia wanders away, the risk for injury increases dramatically. In a short period of time, after residents wander or elope from a controlled or supervised setting, they could fall, forget where they are, or enter into dangerous conditions. The Alzheimer’s Association says that as many as 50% of individuals with dementia who are not located within 24 hours of elopement are likely to experience a serious injury or death.
What Are the Outcomes When a Resident Wanders from a Nursing Facility?
The outcomes when a resident wanders from a nursing facility can be serious for the resident if they are not found in a timely manner. Research indicates that at least 30% of wandering nursing home residents sustain injuries, underscoring the dangers of wandering. Such incidents frequently lead to falls, exposure to the elements, or other dangers outside of a secure setting. The longer a resident is wandering, the more dangerous the situation becomes.
What Questions Should Families Ask After a Nursing Home Elopement Incident?
Families should ask specific questions after a nursing home elopement incident to understand how the situation occurred. Questions for the facility may include asking what supervision procedures were in place, how the elopement was discovered, and how long the resident was missing. Family members may also inquire as to what, if any, changes were implemented after the incident.
Contact a Nursing Home Neglect Lawyer
A resident leaving or wandering away from a nursing home in Orange County may bring into question the level of supervision, safety precautions, and how the resident was able to leave the facility unnoticed.
When a wandering incident leads to injury, understanding what occurred often requires a close review of staffing, monitoring practices, and response times. Hunter Law, PC, investigates the events of an elopement and how the incident unfolded to see if adequate safety precautions were in place to protect a vulnerable person in a care setting. Schedule a consultation to hire a nursing home neglect lawyer with an understanding of nursing home elopement laws.
