When a family makes the difficult decision to place a loved one in an Oklahoma nursing home, they do so with the promise that the facility will provide a safe, monitored environment. Yet, falls remain the number one cause of injuries in nursing homes nationwide.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between half and three-quarters of all nursing home residents suffer a fall every single year. That is double the rate of older adults who live independently in the community. Even more alarming, roughly 35% of these injuries occur among residents who cannot safely walk at all—meaning they should never have been left unassisted or transferred improperly in the first place.

A fall is rarely “just an accident.” In a managed care setting, repeated or severe falls are frequently a direct symptom of understaffing, lack of supervision, or a failure to implement a basic, personalized fall-prevention protocol.

Why Nursing Home Falls Occur (and How They Are Prevented)

When a serious fall occurs, nursing home administrators almost always deploy the same excuse: “Falls are an inevitable part of aging and cannot be entirely prevented.”

This is a deceptive defense. While it is true that age introduces physical vulnerabilities, federal and state regulations explicitly require nursing homes to assess every resident’s fall risk upon admission and continuously update their care plan to minimize those risks.

Preventing falls isn’t a medical mystery; it requires practical, proactive safety measures: 

• Comprehensive Fall-Risk Assessments: Identifying medication side effects (like dizziness), muscle weakness, or cognitive impairments that compromise balance.

• Adequate Supervision and Mobility Assistance: Ensuring a sufficient number of trained staff members are available to answer call lights promptly and assist residents with routine movements, such as getting out of bed or using the restroom.

• Safe Transfer Protocols: Utilizing two-person transfers or mechanical lifts for residents who cannot safely stand or pivot on their own.

• Environmental Safety Sweeps: Keeping hallways clear of debris, maintaining bright lighting, fixing broken bed rails, and ensuring that essential items—and the resident’s walker or wheelchair—are always within arm’s reach.

The Corporate Reality Behind the Neglect

If fall-prevention measures are basic common sense, why do they fail so often? In our experience, it almost always comes down to corporate profit margins over patient welfare.

Staffing costs represent the single largest expense in a nursing home’s operating budget. To maximize profits, many corporate owners intentionally understaff facilities, leaving overextended nurses and aides to look after far too many residents at once. When a call light goes unanswered for thirty minutes, a confused or desperate resident will try to get up on their own—and that is exactly when catastrophic falls happen.

Protect Your Loved One’s Rights

If your parent or relative has been injured in a nursing home fall, you do not have to accept the facility’s excuses. You have a right to see their complete clinical records, internal incident reports, and fall-risk care plans.

At Lloyd & Lloyd, we have decades of experience representing Sand Springs, Tulsa, and regional Oklahoma families in nursing home abuse and neglect cases. We know how to audit a facility’s staffing logs, review their safety records, and expose the corner-cutting that leads to severe resident injuries.

Let us help you uncover the truth and hold negligent facilities accountable. Contact our team today at 918-246-0200 to schedule your free, no-obligation case evaluation.