My 91 y o mom had been in LTC since mid June 2025 after falling 4 times in 6 days at her independent sr living apartment. She had bed alarm and wheel chair alarms on her most of the time but since last month no alarms on her. One if the nurses said the facility was doing away w chair and bed alarms. She is a fall risk in the last 3 years has fell and broken left wrist, collarbone, pelvis, left hip and right wrist. She's on blood thinners also so risk for brain bled if she falls. She has a DNR also and honestly tells me every visit she wishes she was dead. Is this normal for a facility to not use chair and bed alarms? To me that seems like huge liability to the facility. My mom was in a different facility for short term rehab and 2 hours after she arrived and I'd left the place she fell and had to go to ER and then 2 days later she fell and broke her hip and that facility didn't report it or chart it or contact me about it and I'm her medical and financial POA. I had demand them to do an xray on her 2 days after they didn't do anything about it. I was also there every day to check in her that week except the one day I think the incident occured. I did make a complaint to the IDPH , and investigation was done and the DON and 1 nurse aide was terminated and IDPH also fined the facility. So not having a chair and or bed alarm on her is a liability. I've have come to visit her and she in the bathroom on her own so she was getting out of the wheelchair on her own w the alarms on at the current location also. I was told once by some at the first place the resident has a "right to fall"! That a chair or bed alarm is a restraint? Is all this normal?
By the time the bed alarm goes off she is already on the floor.
Bed alarms are in no way preventative.
Moreover they don't work as they go off all the time for the slightest reason and the slightest shift.
Falls become the norm. There is no balance. There is no strength. There is no way to make it safe unless you have 24/7 care. You will recognize that isn't sustainable.
As to liability? No lawsuit on a facility for a senior having fallen will in any wise make any difference. That is a long story we can go into if you wish to, but as Igloo once said here, any lawsuit on someone over 60? Just won't happen. Lawyers cannot make money on such a suit because suits only compensate IF ongoing care for many years on someone who would have otherwise earned scads of money for many years is brought and won. The cost of expert witnesses to say that a facility did not take proper care and precaution would end with "seniors fall". As an 83 year old retired RN I can assure that they/we/I DO FALL. Can't be stopped.
You have mentioned age and fragility and the fact that a fall may result in her eventual death. You are absolutely correct. And in fact, falls are OFTEN the end for our seniors. Certain was the case for my own mom who went from UTI to fall to pneumonia to UTI to falls to heart failure to sepsis to death.
Sadly, not everything can be fixed. Continue with the nursing facility to try to be certain things are done that CAN be done. Some of the thinner but cushioned floor mats at the sides of the bed are preventing breakage they think, but this is an ongoing problem as long as we have had aging.
I am so sorry. Just not a lot of answers other than some care person joined at your hip; that's not affordable until you're a multi-millionaire. I wish the best of luck as you continue to attempt to work with the facility or try other facilities (where I doubt you will find anything a whole lot better. ) I do recognize the tragedy and helplessness and hopelessness of all of this; you aren't alone.
You cannot control this, my friend. If you don't like the SNF, move her. But don't expect the falls to stop. Old people fall. They lose their balance. They don't use their walkers. They forget they can't walk and try to get up from their wheelchair. They insist on toileting themselves and fall off the toilet. They refuse to pull the cord for help getting out of bed and fall out of bed. And the list goes on. And on.
Best of luck to you.
Just a suggestion that you might want to speak with her physician about taking her off blood thinners.