Assisted living facility fined $64,500

Shallotte | Shallotte Assisted Living has been fined $64,500 by the state for failing to protect residents from mental and physical abuse, and for failing to maintain rules about controlled substances and personal care and supervision.

The N.C. Division of Health Service Regulations, after its second inspection, found the facility failed to protect residents from verbal and physical assaults of an aggressive resident, and that the facility did not follow proper procedures for controlled substances, personal care and supervision, and health care.

The facility was assessed $16,000 for five penalties in August, and the additional penalties result from the state's findings that two violations were not abated within the 60-day compliance period. That resulted in daily fines totaling $64,500 for the facility.

The total penalty, if upheld after appeals, would be the stiffest monetary penalty for an assisted living center in Southeastern North Carolina since 2006, when the state started logging records online. It exceeds the fines imposed on Waterbrooke Assisted Living in Columbus County, which was assessed $48,000 in fines earlier this year before the facility closed.

David Goldston III, executive director of Shallotte Assisted Living, said Monday that his organization will appeal the $64,500 penalty and that the process could take three or four years.

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Assisted living facility fined $64,500