West Des Moines home is now a federally designated Special-Focus Facility
By: Clark Kauffman
After being accused in a lawsuit of wrongful death and cited for
violations that led to two residents having their legs amputated, a West
Des Moines nursing home has been added to the federal list of the worst
care facilities in the nation.
Pine Acres Rehabilitation and Care Center is one of the two Iowa
nursing homes that are now considered by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services to be Special-Focus Facilities that are experiencing a serious recurrence of major regulatory violations related to quality of care.
Late last year, state inspectors cited Pine Acres for failing to
ensure a male resident of the home received special shoes for diabetic
patients, as ordered by a physician, and then failed to treat the
resident’s worsening foot ulcers.
In October 2024, the man was seen at a hospital and diagnosed with an
inflammation of the bone and pseudomonas, a bacterial infection. Days
later, the resident’s left leg was amputated between the ankle and the
knee.
Six weeks later, inspectors spoke to the man, who, according to the
inspectors’ written report, “stated he had to have his leg amputated and
he was upset about it. He stated he did not know how this happened.”
The federal government subsequently fined Pine Acres $177,240. That
was in addition to a federal fine of $71,169 that was imposed eight
weeks earlier for other quality-of-care violations.
In late 2023, Pine Acres was cited for 62 violations, one of which was tied to a resident who contracted gangrene in the home and had to have a leg amputated.
The home’s most recent inspection was in June 2025, when state
inspectors cited the home for 10 additional regulatory violations
related to patient assessments, accident hazards, the competency of the
nursing staff, and infection controls. No fines were imposed as a result
of those violations.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Pine Acres’ administrator, Michael Ewalt, for comment.
Rating suspended, wrongful death lawsuit filed
Earlier this year, CMS gave Pine Acres one-star ratings
for quality measures and inspection results on the government’s
five-star quality scale. The ratings for Pine Acres are currently
suspended due to what CMS calls “serious quality issues” at the home.
Pine Acres is being sued by the family of the late Richard M. Cox,
which alleges that on Oct. 21, 2024, Cox was able to exit the Pine
Acres building unattended and without detection. He then sustained
severe injuries in a fall about two blocks from Pine Acres and he died
on Nov. 4, 2024, allegedly as a result of those injuries.
Pine Acres has denied any wrongdoing, and a trial is scheduled for May 17, 2027.
According to federal records, Pine Acres is owned and managed by a
New York-based group of investors that includes Akiko Ike, who has a 60%
ownership stake in the facility. Other investors include Yisroel
Kaplan, who has operational control of Pine Acres and a stake in another
Iowa care facility, the Prestige Care Center in Fairfield.
One of Kaplan’s partners is Ephram Lahasky, who is the husband of Ike, Pine Acres’ primary owner.
In Vermont last year, regulators raised concerns about who was behind
the proposed purchase of care facilities in that state — Lahasky or his
wife. Ike was the officially designated buyer, but it was Lahasky’s
name that appeared on the loan documents.
Lahasky has been sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has accused Lahasky
and others of defrauding the government of more than $18 million while
understaffing and neglecting residents at The Villages, a 120-bed
facility in northwestern New York.
Ten Iowa homes ‘eligible’ for special-focus status
At any given time, no more than two nursing homes per state appear on
the list of federally designated Special-Focus Facilities, although the
list also includes hundreds of other nursing homes — typically, 10 per
state — where ongoing quality-of-care violations have made them eligible
for that status.
Once a home is designated a Special-Focus Facility, it receives
additional oversight and assistance from the government that’s intended
to improve resident care. The other homes that are merely deemed
eligible do not receive that assistance. They appear on the list, some
for as long as 10 years, and then drop off without ever receiving the
federal help.
The two Iowa care facilities currently designated Special-Focus
Facilities are the newly added Pine Acres home and Aspire of Gowrie,
which has been in the program for 22 months.
Pine Acres replaced Arbor Court of Mount Pleasant on the federal
list. Arbor Court had been in the Special-Focus Facilities program for
more than two full years before “graduating” from the program, opening
up the slot now taken by Pine Acres.
As for the 10 Iowa facilities whose quality-of-care issues make them
eligible for special-focus status, two of them are new to the latest
version of the list, which was published by CMS on July 30. The two
newly added homes are The Ivy at Davenport, located in Scott County, and
Parkview Manor in Reinbeck.
Although the list from CMS indicates The Ivy at Davenport has been on
the list for only one month, that’s because the home was dropped from
the list for one month, in June. In May, the home had logged its 20th straight month on the eligibility list.
The eight other eight Iowa homes on the eligibility list, and the
number of consecutive months they’ve appeared on the list, are:
— Greater Southside Health and Rehabilitation Center in Des Moines, 36 months.
— Harmony West Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in West Des Moines, 21 months.
— Garden View Care Center in Shenandoah, eight months.
— Harvest Acres Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Keota, six months.
— Clarion Wellness and Rehabilitation Center, five months.
— Caring Acres Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Anita, three months.
— Pioneer Valley Living and Rehabilitation Center, Sergeant Bluff, two months.
— Aspire of Washington, two months.
Full Article & Source:
After two amputations and a death, Iowa nursing home is added to watch list
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