Ruday v. Shore Mem’l Hosp. (Summary)

NEGLIGENCE

Ruday v. Shore Mem’l Hosp., No. A-2586-11T1 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. Jan. 30, 2013)

The New Jersey Superior Court reversed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment to a hospital, in a negligence case where a high-risk patient fell out of bed, while her bed alarm was not activated. The hospital assessed the patient, an 86-year old woman, to be at a high risk of falling.  Because of this, she was placed in a bed with a rail and a motion-detecting alarm to notify hospital personnel when she attempted to leave the bed. Because the alarm sounds when placing the person back in the bed, it is turned off during this process and must be turned back on by the staff member, before leaving the room. There was no evidence that the patient’s alarm malfunctioned.  The fact that the alarm is on is indicated by a light, which is visible from the hallway.  In addition, individuals who are assessed to be at a high risk of falling have their high-risk assessment indicated on the door to their room. Nevertheless, the patient climbed out of the bed, over the rail, when the alarm was turned off, and fell. She then sued the hospital for the injuries that she sustained in the fall. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the hospital on her claim.

The appellate court reversed. Negligence requires the breach of a duty. The appellate court found that a hospital can establish a duty for its employees through the implementation of a protocol. In this case, the appellate court found that the protocol for patients with a high risk of falling established a duty for hospital employees. If the staff failed to follow the precautions regarding the bed alarm, which were set forth in that protocol, then the staff would have breached its duty to the patient to prevent her from falling.

A breach of a duty can be established without direct knowledge of what the staff did or did not do, where the incident involved was the type of occurrence that would not normally occur in the absence of negligence on the part of hospital employees. The appellate court, applying this legal doctrine, found that it was not necessary that the patient point to any particular hospital employee to establish her case. Rather, a jury could infer from the fact that the patient fell, when her bed alarm was not on, and that the hospital was in control of the bed alarm at the time of the fall, that hospital staff had failed in ensuring that the alarm was on and in protecting the patient. Since the patient’s complaint tended to show that no one, other than hospital staff, could have turned off the patient’s bed alarm, the appellate court held that the hospital was not entitled to summary judgment and remanded the case back to the trial court for further proceedings.