Upwards of 2,000 individuals in assisted living facilities have been left unattended and wandered away on their own since 2018, and 100 of those individuals later were found dead, according to a Dec. 17 report from The The Washington Post.
The true count of deaths is unknown and could be much higher, the outlet notes, because there is not a formal process to count these events.
In 61% of cases examined by the Post, assisted living patients who did wander off alone later to turn up dead, extremely hot or cold weather conditions ultimately led to their fatalities.
Assisted living facilities are regulated differently than traditional nursing homes — allowing many residents to come and go with minimal supervision. There's also no federal oversight for assisted living facilities.
While these incidents across the board are rare, it is a call to action for facilities to stay on top of their own security and staff protocols.
"Any incidents where a resident was injured or worse are truly tragic, and we encourage assisted-living communities to have policies and procedures in place to help prevent and address these rare occasions," LaShuan Bethea, executive director of the National Center for Assisted Living, told the Post. "If staff do not adhere to those policies and procedures, they should be held accountable."
Some experts say since assisted living facilities are so unique in the care they provide, that regulations at a state-level could prove to be more effective in time.
"Assisted living is the rock we don't want to look under," Catherine Hawes, PhD, professor emeritus at Texas A&M University in College Station who studied assisted-living quality for the federal government, told the Post. "Because each individual and each assisted-living community is unique, we believe regulation at the state level can better support person-centered care."