Not all assisted living places have those cords though. The one I work at don't have any help core, not even in the bathrooms. Those poor resident really do need those help cords.

Except this isn't a matter of 'fell and broke her hip, still requires EMTs', it's 'misuse of an emergency number, therefore taking emergency services away from potential real emergencies'. I get bothered by the same thing at work, when nurses scan down orders as a STAT just because the patient wants to go home right then. They fail to realize that if I'm running up their non-STAT 'STAT', there's no one to run up a REAL STAT when it happens. They are risking someone else's life.

Not necessarily. Some seniors are in assisted living for physical or financial reasons, not all are in AL for mental capacity reasons. But if that's the case, then it's the facility's responsibility to make sure the residents can't abuse the phone system (by making room phones incapable of dialing outside lines, etc). I doubt people are blaming someone who is likely senile for this situation, but rather her caretakers for not taking appropriate steps to prevent the misuse of emergency services.

I agree with you in principle, but elder care is often like watching a toddler only worse. You can literally turn around for 45 seconds and who knows what they will do. Usually homes are understaffed and the nurses are mostly focused on preventing people from falling or wandering that I can't really blame them for things like this.