Elopement and Wandering

Elderly person with walker

The law requires nursing home residents to receive adequate supervision to prevent elopement or wandering. When a resident enters a nursing home, a plan of care must be developed. The resident’s risk of elopement and/or wandering must be assessed within this plan of care.

Elopement

"Elopement" refers to the ability of a resident – who is not capable of protecting himself from harm – to successfully leave the nursing home unsupervised and unnoticed and enter into harm’s way.

Wandering

On the other hand, "wandering" refers to a cognitively-impaired resident’s ability to move about inside the nursing home aimlessly and without an appreciation of personal safety needs and enter into a dangerous situation. A nursing home resident’s risk of wandering must also be assessed within the plan of care.

Negligence Related to Elopement and/or Wandering

When a nursing home resident who is not capable of protecting himself or herself from harm or who is cognitively impaired, elopes or wanders and gets hurt, the nursing home may be negligent because it:

Failed to hire enough staff to properly supervise the resident
Failed to properly train staff on how to supervise residents
Failed to employ alarms or other devices to prevent elopement and/or wandering
Employed staff members who failed to properly respond to an alarm

Oftentimes, there are devices which cost only a few dollars that could be employed to prevent elopement or wandering. For example, a simple hardware-store chime or buzzer could be installed on a rear door that would alert an attendant when door has been opened.

Elopement Abuse Prevention Tips

Tips to prevent elopement and wandering injuries:

Selecting the right nursing home is a very important decision. Refer to our list of factors you should consider when choosing a nursing home. If elopement or wandering concerns you, you should get detailed information from any nursing home you are considering as to all devices (such as alarms and bracelets worn by patients) that the nursing home uses to prevent elopement and wandering.
You should also get detailed information on the staff to patient ratio. Although this information should always be considered when choosing a nursing home, it is even more important when the potential resident is an elopement or wandering risk.
If you find out a resident eloped or wandered at any time from a nursing home, do not consider that nursing home for yourself or a loved one.

Legal evaluation of elopement or wandering claims

Many residents in nursing homes are confused and disoriented and must be protected from walking out of the home and becoming lost or injured. When evaluating these claims, our firm will check to see if the following steps were taken:

The nursing home should assess each resident when they are admitted for the following:

Risks for elopment and wandering such as dementia, Alzheimer disease, and medications that cause confusion
Prior history of elopment, wandering, and forgetting whereabouts
If the resident was in a prior nursing home or hospital setting, were restraints used

If the resident is at risk for elopment or wandering, the nursing home should take the following precautionary measures:

Preventive devices such as alarms or electronic devices on the patient, alarms on the bed, or alarms on the exit doors
Monitor the exit doors of the home
Move an at-risk resident to a room that allows for closer observation by the nurses

Nursing homes are required to provide a safe and secure environment with adequate supervision and assistance devices to prevent accidents.