Operating a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE) means accepting some measure of risk. In fact, risk management is an inherent part of running an RCFE. Elderly residents are more likely to slip and fall than younger individuals, for example.
To make matters more complicated, residents or their families could hold you liable for any incidents that occur. If your facility doesn’t have a plan in place to manage its risk, you need to develop one now.
A comprehensive risk mitigation plan gets even more important when you take on higher-risk residents. Maybe you’re considering a resident with a history of behavioral problems or a medical condition that requires continual maintenance. Before this person moves into your facility, it’s important for you to have a strategy — and in insurance policy — in place to protect your business.
Understanding the Risk(s)
Managing any risk starts with first fully understanding the potential fallout. Before you accept any high-risk resident, take the time with them and their family to fully understand their needs and preferences.
The information you gather during intake goes a long way toward creating an effective risk management plan. You may learn details that wouldn’t come out until later otherwise. Understanding the specifications of this unique resident — and planning for them upfront — helps you prevent unwelcome scenarios.
As you work to learn about the risk(s) any resident presents, consider if it’s prudent for your facility to take that on. In some cases, high-risk patients are better served elsewhere. By turning them away, you might protect them by guiding them toward a facility with the appropriate level of staffing, training, or technology to provide the care they need. At the same time, you’re protecting your business.
Tailoring Care
Once you have a solid understanding of the risk each individual resident is likely to present, you can take steps to manage that risk by creating a personalized care plan for them. The Committee on the Quality of Care in Nursing Homes published a document that can help you think through areas to consider here, including:
- Medication safety
- Fall prevention
- Monitoring for elder abuse
- Treating infections
It can help to loop the resident’s family into the initial planning phase. They can inform you of the resident’s preferences in ways that help you better personalize their care. They may be able to share habits that have encouraged that resident to take their medication in a timely manner, for example.
As you create a care plan for each resident, ensure that you extend that planning to your staff. If the resident has an infectious condition, for example, it’s key that your staff both has access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and knows how to use it.
Planning to Manage the Resulting Liability
The more risk your residents represent, the more important it becomes to have a good insurance policy in place.
Solid RCFE liability coverage steps in if things go sideways despite your risk mitigation efforts. If you find yourself embroiled in legal action brought by a resident or their family, this policy can help to cover the legal fees — and even the settlement (up to your policy limits) if the court decides in the resident’s favor.
Our team can help you assess the risk at your RCFE to determine the right level of liability coverage for you. To get started, contact us at (805) 413-5668.
