Patient Arises From Bed And Falls: Hospital Not Liable
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
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Quick Summary: The efforts of the nursing staff to assess, monitor and restrain this patient demonstrated full compliance with the standard of care. There was no negligence on their part, and the hospital was absolved of legal liability.
Despite the best efforts of the hospital’s nursing staff to keep a confused elderly patient safe in bed, the patient arose from bed, walked into the hallway, fell and fractured her skull, and died several days later.
In general, according to the Court of Appeals of Louisiana, "It is the hospital’s duty to protect a patient from dangers that may result from the patient’s physical and mental incapacities, as well as from external circumstances peculiarly within the hospital’s control. A determination of whether a hospital has breached the duty of care it owes to a patient depends upon the circumstances and the facts of the case."
The nurses in this case raised and locked the bed rails, and lowered the bed as close to the floor as possible. They tied the call button to the bed rails where the patient would easily be able to find it. They warned the patient not to get up by herself, but to use the call button to summon assistance. They placed a sign by her bed to remind her not to get up by herself.
Working in conjunction with the attending physician, the nurses increased the level of precautions. They restrained her in a Posey vest, which had to be retied under the bed when they found the patient could untie it by herself if the Posey was only tied to the bed rails. The nurses instituted fifteen minute checks on the patient around the clock, and the door to her room was tied open so that any person passing the room could look in on the patient. They and the physician tried to enlist family members to serve as sitters, although none could be lined up in time before the incident in which the patient sustained her mortal injury.
Borne vs. Medical Center, 655 So. 2d 597 (La. App., 1995).