The patient, who himself is a physician, pushed his call button several times to get help to walk to the bathroom.  After a thirty-minute wait without any response he got up on his own, but fell while walking to his bathroom and injured his head, back, arm and shoulder.  Several hours later he pushed the call button again, waited forty-five minutes without any response, got up again on his own, fell again and was injured further.  He then sued the hospital alleging negligence by his nursing caregivers.

    The Court of Appeals of Michigan dismissed the case.  Nursing judgment is involved in prioritizing responses to call bells. On that point the Court credited the testimony of one of the nurses who was on duty.  A delayed response to a call bell, in and of itself, cannot be ruled negligent without taking the circumstances into consideration.    The Court ruled the patient’s case had to be dismissed because he had no expert testimony as to the nursing standard of care for prioritizing responses to the call bells that were actually being rung by other patients on the unit when he fell in his room.