After a fall, the clock starts—not just for medical care, but for legal documentation. While you should follow the facility’s medical instructions, these actions can help preserve a strong record:
- Ask for the incident report immediately (and request any supplements/updates).
- Request the resident’s fall risk assessment and care plan for the day of the fall and the prior week.
- Get the medication administration record (MAR) around the time of the incident.
- Ask whether alarms were triggered and what staff were assigned at that time.
- If video may exist, ask the facility to preserve it right away.
- Write down what you observe: new pain, bruising, mobility changes, fear of walking, and any confusion.
These steps matter because in California, nursing home negligence claims often turn on whether the facility responded to known risk factors—not on what happened “in hindsight.”


