A skilled nursing facility that failed to send a 92-year-old resident to the hospital for fall treatment has been hit with a nearly $357,000 settlement by an arbitrator.
The resident of Manor Pines Convalescent Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL, struck his head just two weeks after moving into the skilled nursing unit. He received an X-ray on-site but was not transported for emergency care and died days later. The facility must now pay his family for funeral costs — and $350,000 for pain and suffering.
“The facility is committed to providing excellent care to the community,” Manor Pines attorney Leonard Blumenthal said at the time. “Manor Pines made a business decision to move forward through the arbitration process. While we are disappointed in the decision, we respect the arbitration panel and the process.”
The family filed a lawsuit against the facility in 2018 before the case was taken over by the arbitration panel, according to the report. The family argued that the facility should have provided more supervision because the Alzheimer’s patient had a known history of falls.
Last year, professional service firm Aon estimated that liability claims would cost the average 100-bed facility $241,000 in expenses this year.
The analysis of more than 18,000 claims, a joint project with the American Health Care Association, found that both the number of claims and claim amounts were rising at about 3% annually.
Fall-related injuries accounted for 42% of claims, and were the third most expensive at an estimated $165,000 per incident.
In the case at Manor Pines, the plaintiffs’ attorney argued that the fatal fall was the resident’s fifth and that more supervision should have been provided.
From the January 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
