Westchester Meadows Nursing Home Cited for Failure to Prevent Resident Wandering in Valhalla, NY

Department of Health Citation for Wandering and Safety Failures

Westchester Meadows, a closed nursing home based in Valhalla, NY, drew a deficient rating from the Department of Health in a certification survey dated June of last year. The Department found that the facility failed to keep the resident environment as free of accident hazards as possible. Specifically, the report notes that Westchester Meadows failed to prevent a resident from wandering throughout the facility without staff supervision.

The resident discussed in the survey, an eighty-six year old woman, suffers from numerous conditions that would make her a wandering risk. Among these impairments are senile dementia, insomnia, and depressive disorder. In addition to being a wander risk, the patient also has physical impairments that would make her a risk for falls, including unsteady gait and poor vision.

On the night of the incident, the resident was found by a nurse on a separate floor. She had taken an elevator to an upstairs floor, where she had formerly resided, because she was expecting breakfast visitors. The elevator that the resident used is located next to a reception desk, however the desk is not staffed after 11:00 p.m. A nurse found the resident at approximately 2:00 a.m. When the nurse found the resident on the second floor, the patient did not have with her anything to assist with ambulation.

Federal Safety Standards for Preventing Resident Wandering

Under Section 483.25 of the Federal Code, nursing homes are required to:

• Conduct comprehensive assessments for residents with cognitive impairments or elopement risk;
• Develop personalized care plans that address wandering behaviors;
• Maintain secured environments and sufficient staffing, particularly overnight; and
• Document and implement preventive measures such as wander alarms or door monitoring systems.

Failure to follow these New York nursing home elopement law standards constitutes neglect and places residents at avoidable risk of harm.