Read your hypothetical and create an outline. You have been assigned to represent the Hospital
Hypothetical: Mrs. Patient was a patient at the Hospital. She was admitted for a right knee arthroplasty. At the time of her admission, she was 91 years old, had recently undergone a left knee arthroplasty and a hip replacement. During the admission, she was administered Ambien for sleep assistance. She was evaluated to be at high risk for falls. All fall precautions were in place other than the utilization of a bed alarm and a sitter. Her bed rails were up. She was in a room close to the nurse’s station. She was provided slip resistant footwear. She was educated on the risks of getting out of her bed unassisted and her room was marked so all staff could readily identify her as a fall risk. Nevertheless, three days into her admission, the patient was seen out of bed by the attending nurse. The nurse attempted to assist her in returning to bed. Before the nurse could reach her, she fell, causing a laceration to her head and a displaced spiral fracture of the right distal femur. The fall occurred in the overnight hours and the patient had a history of falls, including the one necessitating the prior hip replacement. The injuries delayed her discharge and required surgical repair. Subsequently, she underwent several weeks of therapy, had a delayed union of the fracture, and has contemplated but not yet undergone corrective surgery.
A Root Cause Analysis was performed following the incident and found that despite fall precautions and 30-minute rounding, Mrs. Patient exited the bed without seeking or calling for assistance and fell. The Root Cause Analysis determined that Mrs. Patient’ use of Ambien contributed to her confused state causing her to get out of bed without calling for assistance.
You represent the Hospital. You will need to create an outline to present to a mediator in support of your client’s position. You will need to raise one legal argument in support of your client and one ethical argument in support of your client.
• You should identify your top three to four talking points.
• Put them in an outline format and include facts that support your main points.
• Focus on the necessary elements of the claim: Duty, Breach, Causation, Damages
1. Duty: Focus is on the relationship of the parties
2. Breach: Focus is on the conduct of the Parties
3. Causation: Focus is on the connectivity between the conduct and the result/injury.
4. Damages: Focus is on the nature of the result
