Dad Fell Repeatedly in the Nursing Home—When Is It Negligence?
When families trust a nursing home to care for their loved ones, they expect safety, supervision, and dignity. Yet repeated falls in nursing homes remain one of the most common causes of preventable injury — often leading to fractures, head trauma, or even wrongful death.
For attorneys, these cases raise the question: When does a fall represent an unfortunate accident, and when does it constitute negligence?
The Importance of Fall Risk Assessments
Federal and state regulations require nursing homes to assess residents for fall risk upon admission and routinely thereafter. Risk factors include:
Advanced age and frailty
History of prior falls
Cognitive decline (dementia, Alzheimer’s)
Medication side effects (sedatives, blood pressure drugs)
Mobility issues (weakness, gait instability, need for assistive devices)
When a facility fails to conduct or update fall risk assessments, they leave residents vulnerable to predictable, preventable injuries.
Care Plans and Prevention Strategies
Once risk factors are identified, nursing homes must develop a personalized care plan. A well-structured plan may include:
Bed alarms or chair alarms to alert staff
Non-slip footwear and proper lighting
Regular toileting schedules to reduce wandering
Supervised transfers from bed to chair
Physical therapy for strength and balance
Frequent staff rounding and monitoring
When facilities ignore or fail to implement care plans, repeated falls may point directly to negligence.
Timelines of Preventable Injury
Attorneys often find that a single fall may not prove negligence — but a pattern of repeated falls demonstrates systemic failure.
Examples include:
A resident with dementia falls multiple times without changes to their care plan.
Staff fail to document falls properly, leaving families in the dark.
A resident fractures a hip, and only then is a fall prevention plan created.
These timelines reveal when a facility had ample opportunity to prevent harm but failed to act.
When Repeated Falls Become Negligence
Negligence may be established when:
No fall risk assessment was performed or updated.
Care plans were generic, incomplete, or not followed.
Staffing shortages or inattentive supervision contributed to the fall.
Documentation of prior falls was missing or inaccurate.
Interventions were not put in place after prior incidents.
In these cases, liability may extend to both the nursing home and its parent corporation for systemic neglect.
How Lexcura Summit Supports Fall Injury Cases
At Lexcura Summit Medical-Legal Consulting, we provide the expert clinical analysis attorneys need to prove or defend nursing home fall cases:
Medical Chronologies: Reconstructing the timeline of falls, interventions, and injuries.
Narrative Summaries: Explaining how missed risk assessments or ignored care plans led to harm.
Life Care Plans: For residents facing permanent disability from fractures or head injuries.
Expert Case Screening: Early evaluation of whether negligence can be proven.
Defense & Rebuttal Reports: Supporting legal teams on both sides of high-risk claims.
With a team of 200+ board-certified clinicians, we deliver litigation-ready reports in 7 days (rush in 2–3), fully HIPAA-compliant and nationwide.
Key Takeaways
Nursing homes must assess fall risk, update care plans, and implement prevention strategies.
Repeated falls are rarely accidental — they often signal systemic negligence.
Documentation gaps and ignored care plans are central in proving liability.
Lexcura Summit helps attorneys with chronologies, life care plans, and expert analysis to strengthen fall injury cases.
Partner With Lexcura Summit
If your client suffered repeated falls in a nursing home, partner with Lexcura Summit for the clinical insight and litigation-ready reports you need.
📞 (352) 703-0703
🌐 www.lexcura-summit.com
