A tragic house fire in Kansas drives home the importance of making sure caregivers are always on time.

Windsor Place At-Home Care in Lawrence, Kan. is being sued for unspecified damages by surviving relatives of a quadriplegic adult and three children who died in the fire.

The relatives’ argument: A caregiver from Windsor Place should have been in the home, but was an hour late for her shift, according to an Aug. 2 report in the El Dorado Times.

It’s unclear whether the agency will be liable; the outcome of the case depends at least partly on the question of whether the caregiver was actually employed by the agency, says Robert Markette, an attorney with Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff.

The El Dorado Times quotes Monte Coffman, the agency’s executive director, as saying that the disabled woman received care under a self-directed model reimbursed by Medicaid. As a result, the caregiver was employed by her and not by the agency, Coffman says.

If the agency can prove that this was the case, it’s likely to decrease the risk of liability, Markette believes.
 
But whether the caregiver was employed by the agency or by the client, the essential lesson is that caregivers must be accountable for their arrival times and call if they’re running late so other arrangements can be made, he says.

Watch for more details of this case in the next issue of HHL.