Falls In Shower Need to Be Prevented
Nursing homes are required by federal law to provide each resident with care and services based on their individual needs. Nursing homes must provide assistance with toileting, bathing, hygiene routines such as bathing or showering as needed.
According to 42 CFR 483.24, quality of life is a fundamental principle that applies to all care and services provided to facility residents. Each resident must receive and the facility must provide the necessary care and services to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being, consistent with the resident’s comprehensive assessment and plan of care.
(b) Activities of daily living. The facility must provide care and services in accordance with paragraph (a) of this section for the following activities of daily living:
(1) Hygiene—bathing, dressing, grooming, and oral care,
(2) Mobility—transfer and ambulation, including walking,
(3) Elimination—toileting,
(4) Dining—eating, including meals and snacks,
(5) Communication, including
(i) Speech,
(ii) Language,
(iii) Other functional communication systems.
Injuries From Falls In Shower
There are many common ways that falls happen related to showering and bathing in an elder care facility. Often the resident has some form of physical or cognitive disability and needs assistance of staff and perhaps of patient lift injuries or support such as a shower chair. Many of the injuries are serious and result in lacerations and cuts, head injuries, fractured bones such as femurs, hip joints and pelvis, and other injuries that result in disability or death to the resident.
Information about Falls in Shower
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2008, approximately 21.8 million persons aged ≥15 years sustained nonfatal, unintentional injuries, resulting in approximately $67.3 billion in lifetime medical costs. Information about where injuries occur is limited, but bathrooms commonly are believed to be a particularly hazardous location. To investigate this assumption, CDC analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of emergency departments (EDs) to describe the incidence and circumstances of nonfatal injuries in bathrooms (in any setting) among persons aged ≥15 years in the United States. This report describes the results of that investigation, which found that, based on 3,339 cases documented in the 2008 National Electronic Surveillance System All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) database, an estimated 234,094 nonfatal bathroom injuries were treated in U.S. EDs. Injury rates increased with age, and most injuries (81.1%) were caused by falls. All persons, but especially older adults, should be aware of bathroom activities that are associated with a high risk for injury and of environmental modifications that might reduce that risk.
The highest rates were for injuries that occurred in or around the tub or shower (65.8 per 100,000) and injuries that happened on or near the toilet (22.5 per 100,000). The precipitating events in 37.3% of injuries were bathing (excluding slipping while bathing), showering, or getting out of the tub or shower; only 2.2% occurred while getting into the tub or shower. The precipitating event for 17.3% of injuries was slipping, which included slipping while bathing; 14.1% occurred when standing up from, sitting down on, or using the toilet; and 5.5% were attributed to an antecedent loss of consciousness.
The CDC article on bathroom fall injuries continues, injury rates increased with age, especially those that occurred on or near the toilet, which increased from 4.1 per 100,000 among persons aged 15–24 years to 266.6 among persons aged ≥85 years. Injuries occurring in or around the tub or shower also increased markedly, from 49.7 per 100,000 among persons aged 15–24 years to 200.2 among persons aged ≥85 years. Within each 10-year age category, the relative proportion of injuries differed by location within the bathroom. The proportion of injuries in or around the tub or shower was highest among persons aged 15–24 years (84.5%) and lowest among persons aged ≥85 years (38.9%), whereas the proportion of injuries that happened on or near the toilet was lowest among persons aged 15–24 years (7.0%) and highest among persons aged ≥85 years (51.7%).
In addition to falls in shower there are also other serious injuries which can occur in the bathroom including scalding burns from hot water in the shower or at the sink.
Falls in Shower Neglect Attorney
If you have questions about nursing home abuse and neglect and fractures or other fall related injuries contact Kenneth LaBore for a free consultation. There is no fee unless there is a verdict or settlement offer from the wrongdoer. Mr. LaBore can be reached directly at 612-743-9048 or toll free at 1-888-452-6589 or by email at KLaBore@MNnursinghomeneglect.com.
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