San Jose Nursing Home Wandering and Elopement Attorneys

When you place a loved one in a San Jose skilled nursing facility or an assisted living facility in Silicon Valley, you are trusting them with the most basic human need: safety. For residents suffering from Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other forms of memory impairment, that safety depends entirely on supervision. When a resident wanders away from a facility - a clinical term known as elopement - it is not an "unfortunate accident." In the eyes of the law, and according to the standards of the Nursing Home Law Group, it is a profound act of nursing home neglect.

San Jose is a bustling urban environment. A memory-impaired resident who exits a facility unnoticed faces immediate, life-threatening hazards. From the heavy traffic on the I-280 and Highway 101 corridors to the light rail tracks and the complex urban sprawl of downtown, the "silver alert" scenarios in Santa Clara County often end in tragedy. Exposure to the elements, dehydration, falls, and pedestrian-vehicle accidents are the common, devastating results of a facility failing to do its job.

Under California Code of Regulations Title 22 and the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (EADACPA), nursing homes have a non-delegable duty to protect residents from foreseeable harm. For residents with cognitive impairments, wandering is entirely foreseeable.

Facilities are legally required to:

• Conduct Comprehensive Assessments: Upon admission, and following any change in condition, staff must use standardized tools to determine if a resident is a "flight risk."
• Implement Individualized Care Plans: If a resident is prone to "exit-seeking" behavior (pacing near doors, trying to find their car, or expressing a desire to "go home"), the facility must implement specific interventions.
• Maintain Physical Security: This includes functional "WanderGuard" or "RoamAlert" electronic systems, delayed-egress magnetic locks, and alarmed exits that notify staff immediately when a perimeter is breached.

In our 20 years of experience suing nursing homes, the Nursing Home Law Group has found that elopement is rarely the fault of a single distracted nurse. Instead, it is usually a systemic failure. Common causes include:

• Chronic Understaffing: When a facility operates with a "skeleton crew" to maximize profits, there aren't enough eyes on the floor to notice a resident slipping out behind a visitor.
• Alarm Fatigue: Staff may become desensitized to the sound of door alarms, or worse, management may turn them down or off because they are "annoying."
• Failure to Train: Staff may not be trained to recognize the signs of "sundowning," a period of increased agitation in the evening when residents are most likely to attempt to leave.

California courts have consistently held facilities accountable for elopement. In the landmark framework of elder abuse litigation, cases often center on "conscious disregard." For example, in cases where a facility knew a resident had attempted to leave three times in a week but failed to move them to a secure unit or provide one-on-one supervision, the failure is categorized as "reckless neglect," allowing for the recovery of enhanced damages and attorney's fees.

If your loved one wandered from a San Jose facility and suffered an injury or death, you need an advocate who understands the complexities of Santa Clara County's legal system. The Nursing Home Law Group features award-winning San Jose nursing home wandering lawyers who have spent two decades holding negligent corporations accountable. We have a long history of success in suing nursing homes throughout California, ensuring that "profits over people" is a losing strategy for these facilities.