Yes, Joliet nursing homes can be held liable for elopement or wandering incidents when they fail to implement proper supervision and safety measures for residents with known cognitive impairments.
Facilities have a legal duty to protect vulnerable residents from foreseeable harm, including the danger of wandering away and becoming injured or lost. If your loved one was harmed after leaving a nursing home unsupervised, a nursing home abuse lawyer in Joliet can explain your family’s legal options.
What Are Elopement and Wandering in Nursing Homes?
Elopement refers to when a resident leaves a nursing home or assisted living facility without staff knowledge or permission. Wandering describes residents moving aimlessly through the facility or attempting to leave without a clear destination in mind.
Both behaviors are common among residents with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or other cognitive impairments. The person may be searching for something familiar from their past, trying to go to work, or simply confused about their surroundings. They don’t recognize the danger of leaving the facility alone or getting lost.
Elopement becomes a serious safety issue when residents exit the building and enter parking lots, roadways, or unfamiliar areas. Residents have been found miles from facilities, suffering from exposure to extreme temperatures, dehydration, or injuries from falls. Some cases result in residents being struck by vehicles or drowning in nearby bodies of water.
Legal Duty to Prevent Elopement
Illinois nursing homes have a legal obligation to assess each resident’s risk of wandering or attempting to leave. This assessment should occur during admission and be updated regularly as the resident’s condition changes. Facilities must document cognitive impairments, history of wandering, and any behaviors suggesting the resident might try to leave.
Once a facility identifies a resident as an elopement risk, they must implement an appropriate care plan. This plan should include specific interventions to prevent unsupervised exits. The level of supervision and security measures must match the resident’s cognitive status and wandering risk.
State and federal regulations require nursing homes to maintain safe environments for all residents. The Illinois Nursing Home Care Act establishes minimum standards for resident care and safety. Federal regulations under the Nursing Home Reform Act also mandate that facilities prevent accidents and provide adequate supervision.
Common Negligence That Leads to Elopement
Here are some of the reasons we’ve seen for elopement:
Understaffing
Understaffing is one of the most common factors in elopement cases. When facilities don’t have enough nurses and aides to properly supervise residents, at-risk individuals can slip away unnoticed. Staff members who are stretched too thin cannot monitor residents effectively or respond quickly when someone attempts to leave.
Broken Alarms
Broken or disabled alarm systems allow residents to exit without triggering alerts. Some facilities fail to maintain door alarms or disable them because staff find the alerts annoying. Others have alarms that don’t connect to a monitoring system where someone will actually respond.
Poor Training
Inadequate staff training means employees don’t recognize wandering behaviors or know how to redirect confused residents. Staff who don’t understand dementia might view wandering as willful disobedience rather than a symptom requiring intervention. Untrained employees may also fail to follow care plan instructions for high-risk residents.
Poor communication between shifts results in staff not knowing which residents require extra supervision. When incoming staff don’t receive proper reports about residents who’ve attempted to elope earlier in the day, they can’t provide appropriate monitoring. Documentation failures also prevent facilities from tracking patterns that indicate increasing elopement risk.
Unsecured Exits
Unlocked or unsecured exits make it easy for confused residents to leave. While facilities cannot operate as locked units without special licensing, they must secure exits appropriately for residents with cognitive impairments. Simple measures like delayed-release door locks or covered exit signs can prevent elopement without restricting other residents’ freedom.
What Facilities Should Do to Prevent Wandering
Individual care plans for at-risk residents should specify supervision levels, monitoring frequency, and specific interventions. Plans might include one-on-one supervision during high-risk periods, placement near nursing stations, or enrollment in structured activities to reduce restlessness. The plan must be followed consistently by all staff members.
Environmental modifications help prevent unsupervised exits without restraining residents. Facilities can use:
- Door alarms that alert staff when exits are accessed
- Delayed-release locks that allow emergency exit but slow wandering residents
- Camouflaged exits or covered door handles that confused residents don’t recognize
- Secure outdoor areas where residents can walk safely with supervision
- Identification systems like wristbands with contact information
Staff training should cover recognizing wandering risk factors, implementing care plans, and responding appropriately when residents attempt to leave. All employees need to understand that wandering is a medical symptom requiring intervention, not a behavior problem requiring punishment.
Proving Nursing Home Liability for Wandering or Elopement
Establishing liability against a Joliet nursing home for wandering or elopement requires showing that the facility knew or should have known about the risk and failed to take reasonable precautions.
Witness statements from staff members, other residents, and family members provide evidence about supervision levels and safety measures in place. Former employees sometimes reveal that facilities prioritized cost-cutting over safety by understaffing units with high-risk residents.
Regulatory violations discovered during state inspections support negligence claims. Facilities cited for inadequate supervision, broken alarm systems, or failure to follow care plans have documented proof of substandard care. Previous elopement incidents at the same facility can demonstrate a pattern of negligence.
Contact Charlie Therman Injury & Accident Lawyers, P.C.
Joliet nursing homes have a duty to protect vulnerable residents from the dangers of elopement and wandering. If your loved one was injured or died after leaving a Joliet nursing home unsupervised, contact Charlie Therman Injury & Accident Lawyers, P.C. for a free consultation.
We understand the devastating impact of nursing home negligence and will fight to hold facilities accountable for preventable harm. Choose Charlie for compassionate representation that treats your family’s case with the attention and dedication it deserves.
