Saturday, May 17, 2014

State fines West Melbourne nursing home for neglect



A Brevard County nursing home was fined $36,000 after committing numerous clerical and medical errors involving a patient who eventually died, a state agency recently reported.

The Agency for Health Care Administration fined West Melbourne Health & Rehabilitation Center after finding the infractions during an administrative complaint inspection on Dec. 27.

The home will be subjected to inspections every six months for two years, the report, filed April 29, said.

A phone call to the nursing home administrator, listed as Randall Blue on the AHCA website, was not returned to FLORIDA TODAY.

During the December inspection, AHCA reported staff from the 180-bed facility failed to follow physician orders, assess bruising from an unknown source and properly administer blood-thinning drugs given to the patient.

Staff members also did not consistently update the patient’s medical charts.

AHCA questioned the use of three blood-thinning medications prescribed to the patient at the same time.

“Physicians’ notes . . . did not indicate any documentation of the rationale for the three blood-thinning medications ordered with similar effects, which would increase risk of bleeding/hemorrhage,” the report stated.

“This noncompliance (among others),” the report stated, “caused or is likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment or death.”

Full Article & Source:
State fines West Melbourne nursing home for neglect

2 comments:

Thelma said...

That's real scary.

STandUp said...

$36K? Is that the price of neglect? Very sad.