Elderly Woman Dies After Twice Falling from Bed

Wednesday, 21st October 2020

A daughter’s complaint against a care home group has been upheld by the Ombudsman after her mother fell out of bed twice during a week-long respite stay.

The victim (Mrs X), who was in her eighties and has since died, suffered two falls at the care home in Oxfordshire before her daughter removed her a day early from the service.

Admitted to the care home in March 2019, the victim had Parkinson’s disease and associated dementia, as well as limited mobility and a history of falls.

In his decision, the Ombudsman found Mrs X and her daughter had “suffered injustice” due to a failure to carry out a risk assessment for falls when Mrs X was admitted to the care home.

Staff were found to have not completed a risk assessment, Care Plan review or put in place measures to mitigate the risk of further falls after Mrs X suffered her first fall. She suffered extensive bruising following a further fall. The Ombudsman also found Mrs A’s complaint had not been considered in accordance with the care home group's complaints procedure.

A spokesperson for the group said that numerous changes had been made within the service since the incidents, including the appointment of an experienced Head of Care, recruitment of new permanent staff, improvements to pre-admission assessments, additional training in record-keeping and reinforcing its escalation process for complaints.

Read the story in full: https://www.carehomeprofessional.com/woman-who-fell-out-of-bed-twice-at-care-home-suffered-injustice/