New York Medical Examiner Recently Declared the Death of a Nursing Home Resident a Homicide
The death of a 74-year-old New York nursing home resident who had been involved in a fight with his roommate over a pair of pants was recently ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner. According to the ruling, the assault exacerbated the resident’s pre-existing heart condition and led to his death.
News media printed differing accounts about the incident. Both reports indicate that staff intervened and separated the two residents, who they described as being in a “tug-of-war” over a pair of pants. Staff reported that they witnessed the deceased resident being struck on the head in the fight. The most recent article said staff noticed the resident’s head quickly swelling from the injury about an hour after the incident, and they immediately called 911. However, the earlier, initial article said that staff found the resident bleeding on the floor in an open area of the facility about an hour after the incident occurred and rushed him to the hospital, where he died three days later.
The nursing home reported that it notified the New York State Department of Health (NYDOH) the day the incident occurred. NYDOH investigated the incident and, according to the nursing home, did not issue any citations as a result of their investigation.
Although according to the police the investigation is ongoing, no one has been arrested.
Compliance Perspective
Failure by a nursing home to carefully assess residents after an altercation, and failure to adequately supervise them to prevent resident-to-resident assaults with potential life-threatening injuries may be considered abuse and neglect and deemed provision of substandard quality of care, in violation of state and federal regulations.
Discussion Points:
- Review policies and procedures to determine if protocols for assessing residents after an altercation include evaluating their condition for potential negative impact on existing medical conditions.
- Train staff to be alert to and take preventive measures regarding possible life-threatening effects that resident-to-resident altercations may have on serious medical conditions that one or both residents may have.
- Periodically audit reported resident-to-resident incidents to determine if staff took preventive measures to determine and intervene regarding possible negative medical outcomes from the altercation, even if there were no observable physical effects.
