Elopement and Wandering: Nursing Home Elopement and Wandering Lawyer / Elopement and Wandering From Care Facilities 

Elopement and Wandering From Care Facilities

When a resident with dementia leaves a facility unnoticed, a nursing home elopement lawyer asks what the facility knew about the risk and what supervision it provided.

A resident with dementia who has tried to leave once will try again. Facilities assess for elopement risk on admission and must respond with secured doors, alarms, supervision, and a care plan that matches the risk. When a resident is found outside in the heat, in traffic, or hours later in a stairwell, the question is what the facility knew and what it did. Elopement can end in exposure, traffic injuries, or death.

What We Investigate

• The admission assessment of wandering risk

• Door alarms and whether they were working

• Supervision levels on the shift

• Prior elopement incidents at the facility

• How long the resident was missing before staff noticed

What Families Can Do

• Ask what wandering precautions are in the care plan

• Ask whether exit doors are alarmed and monitored

• Report any time your loved one was found outside an assigned area