Patient Fall Injury Attorneys in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Patients enter hospitals, nursing homes, and rehabilitation facilities expecting to be protected—especially when they are sick, injured, elderly, medicated, or unable to move safely on their own. When a patient suffers a fall in a medical setting, it is often a sign that the facility failed to follow basic safety rules.
Patient falls that result in serious injury or death are considered "never events." The term never event references medical errors like wrong-site surgeries, that should never occur. In fact, In fact, Medicare will not reimburse a healthcare facility for additional care associated with a never event. Nevertheless, according to the Joint Commission, every year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people fall in the hospital, with many of these falls resulting in injury and prolonged hospital stays. Some common factors that contribute to patient falls include inadequate assessment, communication failures, lack of adherence to protocols and inadequate training.
At Hoffer & Sheremet, our attorneys represent Michigan patients and families harmed by preventable patient falls caused by medical negligence. Hoffer & Sheremet's medical malpractice lawyers have tremendous experience in patient falls in hospital lawsuits and have represented clients in Grand Rapids and throughout Michigan.
Falls in Medical Facilities Are Often Preventable
Healthcare providers know that patient falls are a well-recognized and foreseeable risk. Because of that, Michigan hospitals and long-term care facilities are required to:
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Assess patients for fall risk
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Communicate fall risk to all members of the care team
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Implement fall-prevention measures
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Monitor and reassess patients as their condition changes
When these steps are ignored or poorly carried out, patients can suffer devastating injuries.
Common Causes of Patient Fall Negligence
Patient falls often result from systemic failures, not patient behavior. Common examples of negligence include:
Failure to Assess Fall Risk
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No fall-risk screening on admission
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Ignoring known risk factors such as age, confusion, medications, or prior falls
Failure to Implement Safety Precautions
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Not using bed alarms or chair alarms
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Failure to provide non-slip socks or footwear
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Leaving bed rails down when required
Inadequate Supervision or Staffing
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Ignoring call lights
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Delayed assistance to the bathroom
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Understaffing leading to unattended patients
Medication-Related Negligence
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Sedatives, narcotics, blood pressure medications, or antipsychotics causing dizziness or confusion
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Failure to monitor patients after medication changes
Poor Communication
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Failure to notify nurses that a patient is a high fall risk
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Inadequate handoff between shifts
Injuries Caused by Patient Falls
Falls in medical settings are especially dangerous because patients are often fragile. Injuries may include:
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Hip fractures
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Traumatic brain injuries
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Spinal cord injuries
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Internal bleeding
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Shoulder and wrist fractures
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Permanent loss of mobility
For elderly patients, a fall can trigger a rapid and irreversible decline in health.
When a Patient Fall Becomes Medical Malpractice
Not every fall is malpractice—but many are. A patient fall may constitute medical negligence when the healthcare provider failed to meet the standard of care, meaning they did not take reasonable steps that other providers would have taken under similar circumstances.
Key questions in these cases include:
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Was the patient properly assessed for fall risk?
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Were fall-prevention protocols followed?
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Were staff adequately trained and staffed?
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Were warning signs ignored?
One of the reasons falls in hospitals are almost always the result of medical malpractice or negligence is because they are foreseeable and preventable. To prevent falls, nurses need to accurately assess fall risk, put a reasonable plan in place to minimize the risk of falling, and follow that plan.
Simply checking on the patient every hour can be the difference between an unsteady patient with a full bladder climbing out of bed on her own, or with the assistance of a nurse’s aide. In addition to hourly rounding, implementation and utilization of fall prevention protocol is essential. Here are some other ways in which hospital falls can be prevented:
- Implement universal fall precautions. These are precautions for all patients, all the time, and include familiarizing the patient with the environment, showing the patient how to use the call light, and placing the patient’s items within easy reach.
- Assess the individual patient’s fall risk factors. Some factors include fall history, mobility, medications and mental status. It is important that these factors are reassessed if there is an event such as change in the patient’s mental status or medications.
- Create an action plan to address the patient’s needs. The action plan is based upon the risk assessment. For example, implementing a sitter for patients with altered mental status, using assistive devices like a wheelchair or walker for patients with gait problems, taking patients to the toilet frequently, and placing a patient’s eye glasses within easy reach of their bed.
- Educate. The patient and his or her family should understand the need for fall prevention protocol as well as the ways the patient can help prevent falls.
- Document. The patient’s risk factors and interventions should be documented in the medical record and communicated at shift change.
For more information, visit the Agency for Healthcare and Resource Quality.
Who May Be Responsible?
Depending on the facts, responsible parties may include:
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Hospitals
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Nursing homes or assisted living facilities
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Rehabilitation centers
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Individual nurses or physicians
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Corporate healthcare systems
Hoffer & Sheremet, PLC investigates both individual and institutional responsibility, because patient safety is a shared obligation.
How long do I have to file a patient fall malpractice claim in Michigan?
Michigan has strict deadlines for medical malpractice claims. Generally, in Michigan, the medical malpractice statute of limitations is 2 years from the date of the negligence or 6 months from the time the patient discovers (or should have discovered) the alleged negligence, whichever is later.
Exceptions to this statute can occur in wrongful death claims or in the case that the patient was a minor. If the patient was a child when the negligence occurred, you only have until your child's tenth birthday or if the injury is to the reproductive system, the child's thirteenth birthday.
If filing a wrongful death claim, it must be commenced within 2 years of the date the personal representative is appointed and within 3 years after the limitations period has run on the underlying cause of action. In theory, then, this means there is a maximum period under certain circumstances of 5 years.
Note that serving the Notice of Intent tolls the limitations period as explained in our article, Medical Malpractice 101. However, the NOI does not toll the limitations period in a wrongful death case.
What compensation may be available in a Michigan patient fall case?
Depending on the circumstances, compensation may include:
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Past and future medical expenses
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Rehabilitation and long-term care costs
- Lost wages and loss of future earning capacity
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Non-economic damages for pain and suffering, disability or loss of mobility, loss of independence and quality of life
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Wrongful death damages for surviving family members
To learn more about what compensation may be available to you and your family, read our blog Recoverable Damages in Medical Malpractice Cases.
Patient Falls FAQs
Related Pages (Helpful Next Reads)
Why Choose Hoffer & Sheremet?
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Focused on complex medical cases, including obstetric, neonatal, ER, and medication safety matters.
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Trial-ready: we build every case as if it will be tried.
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Systems approach: we look beyond the chart to find the upstream failure.
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Personal, transparent communication: you’ll always know where your case stands.
Free consultation: (616) 278-0888 • Message us through our secure form.
If you, or a loved one, fell during a hospital, nursing home, or rehabilitation stay and suffered a serious injury as a result, the facility or its staff may have been negligent in preventing the fall and a medical malpractice claim may be appropriate. To learn more, contact our medical malpractice lawyers for a free case review: 616.278.0888, info@hoffersheremet.com.