Slip, Trip, & Fall Accidents

In fact, the danger of slipping, tripping, and falling is so great that nursing homes and assisted living facilities are required to maintain plans for their prevention and standards for their treatment if they do happen. If a nursing home fails to adequately address a slip, trip, and fall accident, or is negligent in attempting to prevent one, they may be held accountable.

The potential for falling, and the risk of injury that it presents are so great in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and group homes, that a wealth of reliable literature has been published.

• The average nursing home reports up to 200 falls every year.
• Elderly adults, those 65 and over, are four times as likely to die from injuries sustained in a fall.
• 1,800 patients in nursing homes die every year from injuries caused by slips, trips, and falls.
• Almost 75% of elder care facility residents fall every year.
• Nearly 20% of falls in nursing homes result in serious injury.

Nursing homes and other elder care facilities are tasked with doing all they can to prevent slip, trip, and fall accidents. Even so, negligent supervision, dangerous obstacles, and unfit living environments have been discovered in numerous nursing homes nation-wide. Common causes of slip, trip, and fall accidents in nursing facilities include:

• Weak or nonexistent lighting to properly illuminate obstacles
• Failure to institute proper “interventions,” precautions against falls, like bed and chair alarms and restraints
• Failure to assist residents in using bathrooms
• Under-staffed or lack of adequate supervision
• Wet floors
• Broken wheelchairs

Follow this link to learn more about the signs of nursing home neglect.