Missing Nursing Home Residents
February 21st, 2012 tmccoy
Wandering refers to a cognitively-impaired nursing home resident’s ability to move about inside the nursing home freely and without an appreciation of personal safety needs. Elopement occurs when a resident leaves the nursing home without authorization or appropriate supervision. When elopement incidents do occur, this places the missing resident at risk for injury, exposure or death. A nursing home resident’s risk of wandering or elopement must be assessed within the plan of care, and if the resident is found to be at risk, appropriate interventions must be ordered to reduce the risk of such activities.
Factors that may increase the likelihood of a nursing home resident becoming injured as a result of wandering or elopement include:
- Failure to hire adequate staff to properly supervise the resident
- Failure to properly train staff on how to supervise residents
- Failure to install alarms or other safety devices to prevent wandering
Nursing homes should have a plan in place that includes policies and procedures to adequately address the prevention of and response to a resident elopement. They should implement appropriate interventions for residents who have been identified as being high risk. Once a resident has been identified as being at risk for elopement and preventive interventions have been implemented, this should be communicated to everyone involved in the resident’s care.
