Wandering nursing home resident killed in hit and run accident

A nursing home resident was killed last month in a hit-and-run accident after she wandered from a nursing home where she was residing.  The nursing home was equipped with a door alarm to alert staff that a resident was leaving the facility, but apparently no one responded to the noise made by the alarm.  The nursing home resident wandered onto a nearby busy street where she was hit by a motorist who fled the scene.

One of the common reasons that families decide to admit loved ones to nursing homes is a tendency of the senior citizen to become confused, exercise poor judgment, and to wander.  Wandering is a serious risk for some senior citizens due to confusion, poor judgment, and physical frailties that out them at risk for falls, pedestrian accident, and becoming crime victims while they wander. 

Nursing homes a required to make regular assessments of the residents risk of wandering and to put interventions into place to eliminate wandering.  The most common intervention is to put a sensor on the wrist band or elsewhere in the resident that sounds a door alarm when the resident goes out the door.  The alarm alerts the staff that a resident who is a wandering risk is outside the facility and needs to be brought back.  Of course, for that to work (and it is pretty simple), the staff has to respond to the alarm.