January 18, 2012
After it was discovered that staff in numerous nursing homes across Indiana were not properly calling for help in emergency situations concerning patients, WTHR 13 News reports that state lawmakers are creating new regulations that will work to ensure patients get the care that they need in a timely manner.
The push was sparked by the death of a woman last March. She was suffering from cardiac arrest when caregivers at Wildwood Healthcare found her. The LPN on-duty called CARE ambulance to take the woman to the hospital, but the company did not have an ambulance available. Instead of passing the call to the Volunteer Fire Department five minutes away, CARE called in an off-duty crew nearly 20 minutes away. The woman died waiting for the ambulance.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the state health department found that the facility was negligent cited Wildwood healthcare for “failure to ensure appropriate care” to patients for failing to call 911 at two key moments.
In response, lawmakers created State Senate Bill 224, which would require state officials to create a new report on response times and practices for responding to 911 calls. Also, it would create equipment requirements on ambulances, and transportation procedures for nursing home emergency and non-emergency transport.
The Indiana nursing home abuse lawyers with Stewart and Stewart say that it could be considered neglect on the caregiver’s part to not call 911 during an emergency. If you have been hurt or lost a loved one because of a caregiver’s negligence, get in touch with us today to discus your case.