An 81-year-old man apparently managed
to escape from a nursing home hours before being
found dead along a road.
The coroner’s office says the man was found unresponsive
early Tuesday along a road after he shimmied through a
window at the nursing home where he’d been living
the past two weeks. The man later died at a hospital. He had a history of Alzheimer’s
disease, dementia and heart disease. For more, read the story.
A mobile,
dependent, cognitively impaired patient should never be permitted to
wander or elope undetected and unsupervised. A nursing home or assisted
living facility must recognize the risk of wandering or eloping and
take immediate steps to ensure the patient’s safety. Staff should be
educated and warned about the patient’s risk of wandering or eloping.
The nursing home or assisted living facility should also use electronic
alarms that will notify staff immediately when the patient leaves the
facility or a safe area in or around the facility.
Elopement occurs when a patient who lacks safety awareness leaves a
nursing home or assisted living facility or a safe area within or
outside the facility without the knowledge of the facility’s staff and
without proper supervision. A patient who elopes is at risk of heat or
cold exposure, dehydration, drowning, getting struck by a motor
vehicle, and falling. Facility policies should clearly define the
procedures for monitoring and managing patients at risk for elopement
and otherwise minimize the risk that a patient will leave the facility
or a safe area without authorization or appropriate supervision. In
addition, the patient’s care plan should address the potential for
elopement. A nursing home or assisted living facility’s disaster and
emergency preparedness plan should include a plan to locate a missing
patient who has eloped.
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Robert W. Carter, Jr. is a Virginia attorney whose law practice is
dedicated to protecting the rights of the victims of nursing
home and assisted living neglect and abuse in Richmond, Roanoke,
Norfolk, Lynchburg, Danville, Charlottesville, and across Virginia.
