Patient’s Fall: Court Finds No Liability.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
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If the bed alarm was on it would not have made any difference under the facts of this case. And it was only speculation that the nurse easing the patient to the floor would have prevented him from breaking his hip.
COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO May 5, 2017The seventy-seven year-old patient was hospitalized for coronary care and also had memory issues. On admission his Morse Fall Risk Scale assessment pointed to a high fall risk. At this hospital his score mandated assigning a room near the nurses station, keeping his room door open, instructing the patient to call for assistance, providing assistance with ambulation and transfers and, at the nurse’s discretion, activating the bed alarm.
His nurse came into his room while he happened to be walking to the bathroom. She asked if he needed help. He said he did not. Then he suddenly dropped to the floor and broke his hip. He had surgery on his hip, went to rehab, then went home.
The Court of Appeals of Ohio declined to find the hospital liable. The patient’s family’s case was based on a nursing expert’s review of the chart. The Court ruled the bed alarm being off was irrelevant. The patient’s nurse happened to be in the room when he fell and a bed alarm does not necessarily give a nurse or an aide time after it sounds to come to the room and intervene before a fall. The nurse was not negligent for not stepping forward to assist the patient with ambulation. It was not clear the patient appeared to the nurse to need help. It was only speculation that easing him to the floor when he suddenly dropped would have prevented his hip fracture.
Miller v. Hospital, 2017 WL 1788716 (Ohio App., May 5, 2017).More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-standard-of-care.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-wheelchair.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-nurses-charting.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-care-plan.htm