My father has late-stage dementia and resides in an acute nursing facility. We have been told that he had a fall. Do you blame the facility?

Yes, please do bring in hospice. When my mom was in the NH there were a few people that had falls but the someone that I can't forget was one poor woman who was brought into the dining room despite being horribly bruised from head to toe and unable to eat, an admission that she was palliative would have saved her much pain and suffering.
Was the NH at fault for the falls? It's hard not to look for someone to blame after a horrible accident, although with hindsight we can often find the cause it isn't usually the result of negligence, sometimes in life bad things just happen.

If you don't want your father to suffer anymore, look into calling in Hospice. Has the doctor affiliated with the NH said that he is eligible for Hospice?

Sending a person with late stage dementia to an ER is beyond cruel, in my opinion.

Elders fall. They fall at home and they fall in Nursing Homes. My mom fell in AL with two aides in the room. Her final fall, in her NH, where she had resided for 4 1/2 years, happened while she was being taken to the toilet by an experienced aide. The aide asked my mom to hold the bar in front of her so her pants could be raised. This was their usual routine, only this time, my mother didn't grab the bar (she had been visibly declining during the previous month; something was "up", but we didn't know what). She didn't grab the bar and she fell against the tiled wall.

The NH called my brother, who had POA and he approved a trip to the ER. Her wrist was broken, which was stabilized. You will never convince me that it wasn't actually the ambulance trip that led to her death, not the fall itself.

No, I don't blame the NH. My daughter, an RN, says if they are going to fall, they are going to fall. It only takes an aide or a nurse to look away for a second and they fall. Facilities are not allowed to restrain and our LOs don't want to admit or because of Dementia they don't realize, that they can't do certain things anymore.

If Dad is on Hospice, they usually don't allow hospital visits. Not much they do about ribs but tape them anyway. Has he been taped to help with the pain? Could they bring in a portable Xray to make sure the rib isn't interferring with his lungs or something. The whole thjnk with Hospice is to be pain free.

The elderly fall. Whether in a nursing home or at home standing next to a loved one. Why blame the nursing home? In fact, if someone is intent on doing things that put them at fall risk, there's pretty much nothing the nursing home can do about it.

There's pretty much nothing that can be done about a cracked rib. In the old days, they would wrap it. That lead to pneumonia so they stopped. So now they don't do anything at all. So other than the knowledge of knowing it for certain, is there much point in going back to the ER.

Is the morphine for the ribs or something else? Grandma has cracked her ribs twice from falls. Each time, the doctors were really hesitant to put her on anything more than Tylenol. Which recent studies have shown is just as effective as opiates for pain relief. Opiates have unwanted side effects.

Dad does have hospice care now after the last trip to the ER for dehydration.