When I hear the word "elope", I usually think that star-crossed lovers have run off against their parents' wishes. Butin nursing home jargon, elopement is a situation in which a resident leaves a care facility without staff knowledge or supervision, potentially placing himself in danger. It's been a problem at Gracedale. Since Michelle Morton became administrator in March 2025, the home has been cited by the state Department of Health four times for elopement. (9/19/25, 9/23/25, 10/2/25 and 5/14/26). Despite NorCo Executive Tara Zrinski's assurances to county council that all kinds of preventive measures have been put in place to prevent cognitively impaired residents from wondering off, it may have happened again over the weekend.
I was first alerted to this based on an anonymous comment posted to this blog.* claiming there had been an elopement over the weekend. I nosed around, and this I am told that a confused resident attended a life enrichment activity with an activity aide. She apparently left and the activity aide assumed she got on an elevator with another activity aide. She instead went outside but returned with the family of another resident after telling them she was lost. She wasn't gone long, but she was gone. She apparently was still on the Gracedale campus.
Zrinski denied that any elopements occurred over the weekend, adding no one was off campus. "There was a resident who left an activity with life enrichment and went outside to the smoking area and then around to the front of the building for a few minutes. It counts as a near miss and is not reportable." She denied that the resident was brought back by the family of another resident, calling it a rumor. "She went out the side door and walked back to the front door, back inside.
According to state regulations, a nursing home must report the unexplained absence of any resident from a secured dementia care unit. Given that Gracedale is trying to upgrade its license, I could see why there'd be some reluctance to report this matter. But better safe than sorry. If it is a "near miss," as Zrinski said, let the state DOH make that determination. On the other hand, if there's a complaint and the DOH determines that it should have been notified, Gracedale is going to have a bigger problem.
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* Many of you complain about the anonymous comments, which can be pretty mean. But I've actually seen much more hateful comments on other social media platforms in which the poster is identified. I allow anonymous comments because it sometimes clues me in to a story about which I would otherwise know nothing.
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