Dementia wandering elopement from memory care facilities through tailgating during shift changes and delivery windows

Memory care facilities experience resident elopement (unauthorized exit) at rates of 5-8% annually, with the primary failure mode being tailgating through secured doors during staff shift changes, food deliveries, and family visits when doors are propped or held open, because magnetic lock systems release for any badge swipe without verifying the number of people passing through. So what? An eloped dementia patient who reaches a public road has a 50% chance of serious injury or death within 24 hours if not found, because they cannot reliably provide their name or address, they walk into traffic, they become hypothermic in cold weather, or they become dehydrated in heat. So what? Facilities that experience elopement events face $50,000-$500,000 in state fines, wrongful death lawsuits averaging $1.2 million, and loss of their Medicaid/Medicare certification — which effectively shuts them down — creating a perverse incentive to underreport elopement incidents. So what? Underreporting means families choosing a memory care facility cannot compare elopement safety records across facilities; the data simply doesn't exist in a reliable form. So what? Families end up choosing facilities based on aesthetics, location, and cost rather than the one metric that matters most for a wandering dementia patient: exit security effectiveness. So what? The 60% of dementia patients who wander repeatedly are cycling through facilities that all have the same fundamental door-security vulnerability, because the industry treats elopement as a staffing problem rather than a systems engineering problem. This persists because anti-tailgating technology (mantraps, weight-sensing mats, computer vision) costs $15,000-$50,000 per entrance and memory care facilities operate on 2-4% margins; because state regulations specify 'secured doors' without defining anti-tailgating requirements; and because the CNA earning $14/hour who props a door open during a delivery doesn't face personal consequences for the security breach.