On a freezing cold Winter day in 2005, an elderly man wandered away from a nursing home in which he was a resident. Four days later, following an intensive search by the local sheriff’s department, his body was found frozen in a nearby field. The gentleman had attempted to elope from the facility on two previous occasions. The facility in question was not equipped to provide dementia patients with the added levels of security required by the state. As dementia patients are considered “high risk” for elopement, it is essential to have the necessary safeguards in place to ensure safety. The facility was ultimately fined $12,000 by the state and placed on probation. In addition, the family of the deceased has retained the services of an attorney who has filed a negligence lawsuit.
Elopement issues are ranked in the top 10 on the Joint Commission’s list of Sentinel Events. The prevalence of elopement issues in care facilities in the United States is so pervasive that approximately 10% of all litigation cases have related concerns. Many of these long term care facilities and assisted living houses are being fined and literally being regulated out of business. For example, in Delaware a jury awarded a family $13 million in compensatory damages against a long term care facility. The average out of court settlement for 2009 was $393,650.
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