Residents of nursing homes in Hollywood and Florida are meant to be safe. After all, families place elderly family members in order to keep them safe. These facilities are supposed to provide care from trained professionals and this care can extend to driving seniors to doctor’s appointments.
Unfortunately, car accidents remain a risk for elderly patients and even staff of nursing homes in Hollywood and Florida. Car accidents can impact staff and residents in a number of ways, and in most cases are preventable:
1) Fatigue can contribute to nursing home car accidents.
Staff work long hours in nursing homes and sometimes this can lead to job injuries in Hollywood and Florida. Staff who work late at night, who have frequent shift changes (forcing them to adjust sleep schedules often), or who work long hours may be fatigued to the point where fatigued driving is an issue, placing staff at a greater risk of collisions.
In many cases, this can be prevented by reducing understaffing, so each worker can have reasonable hours to rest. Good administrative practices can ensure staff members aren’t moved from one shift to another often, allowing them to get used to specific sleep hours.
2) Poor monitoring of patients can lead to nursing home car collisions in Hollywood and Florida.
Patients can wander off if nursing homes do not properly secure their premises and in cases where patients have some freedom to move off the premises, collisions can still occur if there is not enough supervision and support. For example, if elderly residents are permitted to leave the property, they may need a staff member to go with them, especially if traffic is heavy in the area. Residents also need to be monitored to ensure they can still safely leave the premises.
Wandering can be prevented with adequate staffing and supervision. Nursing homes can also install door alarms to alert staff when a resident leaves.
3) Poor design can contribute to traffic crashes.
Parking lot crashes can happen on nursing home grounds if design elements are not carefully considered. Shrubbery which reduces visibility or lack of signage for visitors or overcrowding can all lead to parking lot crashes.
4) Inadequate training and care can mean elderly residents are in accidents when being transported to or from nursing homes.
Nursing homes may need to transport residents to doctor’s appointments and for other reasons. When transporting residents, it is important nursing home staff used well-trained and qualified drivers who have been screened. The car transporting residents should be checked regularly to ensure its safety and may need to have adjustments—such as grab bars or wheelchair-accessible features—to ensure residents of all ability levels can ride safely.
If you or a loved one have been injured in a nursing home in Hollywood, Miami or anywhere in South Florida, contact Flaxman Law Group at 1-866-352-9626 (1-866-FLAXMAN) to speak to a Hollywood nursing home abuse and car accident attorney. Your first consultation with us is completely free of charge and comes with no obligation.