Preventing "accidents"

Case conferences today. I like this new system for determining manner of death, it allows for more discussion and consideration among the staff of all the cases and I think good quality decision making occurs based on that.

I am meeting with some other coroners and IDPH representatives tomorrow about the project to formalize reporting of nursing home deaths. It will be piloted in several counties (including Lake) and then go statewide.

It is interesting that one of the deaths that we discussed today was a nursing home resident (confluence) who died after a fall in the hall of his nursing home. The case presentation brought up the fact that he or his walker likely caught on a lift device that was parked in the hallway. It should not have been there for a number of reasons, so as part of our deliberations we felt strongly that the incident needed to be reported to the IDPH department that oversees nursing homes for corrective/preventative action (we don’t want to see another needless “accident”).

There were other cases today in which we discussed ensuring that proper agencies get reported to about certain deaths and the circumstances surrounding them. I think we really do all we can to prevent deaths in this manner and I look forward to this continued effort.