Healthcare Compliance Perspective:
The Compliance and Ethics Committee must ensure that an effective elopement and emergency preparedness program is in place.
A wheelchair-bound, elderly nursing home resident wandered away from the facility and became trapped when she fell into a sinkhole that recently opened up behind the nursing home facility. The fire department was called in after someone called them late that night to report that the woman was trapped in a sinkhole.
The local Fire Department responded to a call asking for assistance around 10:30 p.m. regarding a woman trapped in a sinkhole near a major street.
Apparently, the woman had been missing for an undetermined amount of time when staff from the nursing home found her and called the EMS and fire department. After she was rescued from the sinkhole, she was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
