Nursing Homes Added to Federal Watch List for ‘Grotesque’ Abuse

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Families for Better Care today announced that two Florida nursing homes were recently added to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Special Focus Facility list—a federal watch list for nursing homes with a “history of serious quality issues.”

The nursing homes are Palm Garden of Winter Haven and University City East in Deland.

“Past inspection reports for each facility reveal grotesque and chronic abuse and neglect of residents,” said Brian Lee, Executive Director of Families for Better Care.  “Families should be aware of the multiple infractions and associated penalties at these watch list nursing homes so they can take appropriate precautions to keep their loved ones safe from harm.”

A summary of state inspection reports for Palm Garden of Winter Haven read:

“A resident with Alzheimer’s Disease was physically abused by six staff members on seven different occasions.”  The resident was hospitalized with “skin tears and bruising up and down his arms, from his knuckles to his elbows.”  The concerned resident’s family installed a hidden camera in the resident’s room and recorded several abusive incidents by a number of caregivers. 

During one event, two caregivers entered the resident’s room.  One employee “put her hand over the resident’s face swiping down over his nose in a provoking manner and then striking his left upper arm . . . [the employee] then made two quick jabbing punches toward his face.”

The family shared this recording and nearly 12 hours of other video with a local advocacy group and also used it to confront facility representatives.  State officials found that Palm Garden of Winter Haven failed to “take steps to detect, prevent and report abuse.”

Surveyors who inspected University of City East documented:

Widespread medication errors, sloppy medication records, and numerous “medication variances.”  These divergences were associated with a licensed practical nurse who allegedly stole residents’ “controlled drugs” and, on one occasion, was found “staggering, stumbling, and slurring her words” after she returned to her shift following her break.

Residents alerted facility personnel that they had not received prescribed medications as many as “six or seven times” over a three-month period, but the facility failed to properly document the residents’ complaints.  One employee told state inspectors that she was uncertain if 22 residents received their “evening Insulins or medications” during one of the shifts the nurse worked. 

The facility later terminated the nurse’s employment for “not documenting” because the administrator “could not prove she took the medications” from the nursing home.

“Vulnerable nursing home residents deserve better respect and treatment than what’s reflected in these reports,” Lee stated. “This additional public scrutiny by federal regulators will keep the pressure on these nursing homes to perform better, hopefully preventing similar abuse and neglect from happening to other residents.”

Fourteen other nursing homes were newly added to the Special Focus Facility list this month in addition to the two Florida nursing homes.  The list is updated monthly.

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Nursing Homes Added to Federal Watch List for ‘Grotesque’ Abuse