Investigation uncovers guardianship concerns at Saint Francis in Tulsa; Hospital issues response

An Oklahoma Watch investigation reveals troubling practices at some hospitals, including Saint Francis, where families face unwarranted separation from loved ones amid vague guardianship claims, raising urgent questions about the integrity of elder care in the state. 

Friday, August 8th 2025, 10:43 am
By: David Prock, Jonathan Cooper 

TULSA, Okla. - 

UPDATE 8/8/2025:

The Saint Francis Health System released the following statement:

"The premise of the Oklahoma Watch story regarding Saint Francis is false. Saint Francis does not ever take guardianship over a patient and legally cannot do so. Saint Francis has no financial interest in guardianships. Our role is solely to ensure patient safety and to follow legal requirements—not to benefit in any way from guardianship proceedings. Any suggestion that Saint Francis “places” people in Laureate Psychiatric Hospital and Clinic to "hide” them is entirely false and without basis. Such a notion is not only incorrect but preposterous. Our mission is to provide care, not concealment.

Oklahoma Watch’s statement that Saint Francis would not respond is inaccurate. Saint Francis was given insufficient information as to what the story was about and did not have a fair chance to determine whether or how to respond.

Saint Francis Health System is in a financially sound position and is not instituting cost-saving measures beyond what any other health system is doing right now as we anticipate federal revenue changes."

Clarifying the Role Regarding Guardianships and Protection of Vulnerable Adults

Saint Francis Health System is committed to protecting the health, safety and dignity of all patients, including vulnerable adults who may be at risk of abuse or neglect.

Recent public discussion has raised questions about the role of Saint Francis in the guardianship process. It is important for the public to understand the facts:

1. Hospitals do not take guardianship over individuals. Hospitals have no legal authority to seek or obtain guardianship over a patient for the hospital or for any member of its staff.
2. Adult Protective Services (APS)—an Oklahoma government agency—may seek guardianship if there is evidence of elder abuse, neglect, exploitation, or other situations in which a vulnerable adult cannot safely make decisions for themselves.
3. Hospitals are legally obligated to report concerns of abuse or neglect involving vulnerable adults to APS. This is required by state law and is part of our ethical responsibility to protect patients.

Our focus is and always has been on the safety, well-being and dignity of every patient we serve. Saint Francis works closely with families, caregivers and government agencies to ensure that vulnerable adults are protected and receive the care they need.

For more information about Adult Protective Services or to report suspected abuse, call 800-522-3511.

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Interview transcript below...

An Oklahoma Watch investigation is raising concerns over how some hospitals and state agencies handle power of attorney and guardianship, potentially separating families from loved ones without clear justification.

Reporter Jaycee Hallman joined News On 6’s Jonathan Cooper to break down what she uncovered.

Cooper: What is Oklahoma Watch?

Hallman: "So, Oklahoma Watch is an independent news source based in Oklahoma City. Our pieces get picked up by papers all across the state. And it's one of those rare outlets that focuses on deep dive investigative journalism.

Cooper: Give us some background on this story?

Hallman: Yeah. So it started when I got a tip a couple of months ago about a man named Leroy Theodore, who had had a couple of strokes. He was a quadriplegic. He was in his family's care. They were trained to care for him. By Saint Francis Hospital here in Tulsa. And then he needed medical attention. And he was sent to Saint Francis. And at that point, the hospital sort of seized possession of him and sort of resisted the family having access to him. And there wound up being this prolonged standoff in terms of guardianship orders from courts in a couple of different counties.

Mr. Theodore was eventually sent to a nursing home a couple of hours away in Midwest City. That story ended pretty tragically because Mr. Theodore died when he was still in the state guardianship, and his family wasn't notified of his death until a week after he passed, when the Department of Human Services sent a hard letter to their home rather than. And just hand delivering it, which would have been much faster.

Cooper: Through that story, another family reached out to you as well, right? So tell us about that.

Hallman: Yeah, and more since then, you know that the second one. Well, the first story resulted in several different tips and and and this was a man named Ken Donnelly. And was actually chronologically before Leroy Theodore was back in 2021, a family had taken their father to the same hospital, Saint Francis, and they had attempted to take possession of him.

They sent him to the attached psychiatric facility, Laureate. And eventually, you know, we learned from a source inside the hospital that Laureate might be a receptacle for a number of different people who have been had, have been subjected to guardianship, abuse, or guardianship fraud and are being sent to Laureate in order to hide them.

That's what this source from within the hospital, is is saying. In Mr. Donnelly's case. He was only there for a few days, cause the family fought back and the hospital seemed to give up. They kicked him back out to the emergency room, but he then had a stroke. He was sent to a nursing home, that well, it didn't take particularly good care of him. An investigation was none of that nursing home and and then he was finally sent home.

But he died a few months later, and the family was left feeling that once again, Saint Francis had more or less killed their patriarch. Their father.

Cooper: What is guardianship fraud?

Hallman: So what seems to be happening, and this is like a plague across the country. Big, big cases involving hundreds of people have happened in New York, in Virginia, in Nevada, and in Florida. And there are financial incentives for hospitals and for nursing homes. To take legal control of people who have a lot of resources, they mainly target, you know, individuals who don't have a lot of family or who have a lot of resources and and they can, you know, either take control of the family money or they can wind up getting Medicare or Medicaid money, which means that.

Taxpayers are paying for these seizures, and so what seems to be happening is that this is maybe just getting off the ground here in Oklahoma. It's not widely understood and and so I've come across, you know, you know, attorneys who work in elder care law who've never heard of this and so it's it seems possible that this is only now getting to Oklahoma. But there are hints that there are other investigations.

Q: Did Saint Francis or state agencies respond to the investigation?

Hallman: I reached out to them many times and and when I did finally speak with a public information Officer, I explained I wanted to talk about guardianship issues and and I mentioned the individual Leroy Theater that I wanted to talk about. And I wanted to get to someone who could speak with authority on those subjects, rather than just the public information officer, and I asked for them to get back to me with someone who could speak on those things and and they just never responded.

And we made, you know, multiple outreaches for that first story and multiple outreaches for the second story as well. And not only Saint Francis, but also Adult Protective Services and the Department of Human Services. We're just kind of stonewalled. They did not want to.

Full Article & Source:
Investigation uncovers guardianship concerns at Saint Francis in Tulsa; Hospital issues response

See Also:
Eldercare Nightmare: A Tragic Family Story Raises the Specter of Widespread Guardianship Fraud 

Eldercare Nightmare: A Tragic Family Story Raises the Specter of Widespread Guardianship Fraud

by JC Hallman

In 2021, Vietnam veteran Leroy Theodore, Sr., of New Orleans, suffered two catastrophic strokes that left him quadriplegic, unable to communicate apart from answering questions with eye movements.

Theodore’s life became a nightmarish tour through health systems in Louisiana and Oklahoma, bouncing from hospital to hospital for several years, until 2024 when one of his daughters, Valerie Parks, having completed training in order to care for her father, was able to provide a bedroom in her Sapulpa home that had been transformed into a fully outfitted hospital room.

In early April, the trach tube that Theodore needed in order to breathe properly became blocked and his breathing became strained; Parks called an ambulance to take him to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa.

The nightmare got worse.

Without warning, St. Francis seized control of Theodore, 76, initiating an effort to obtain legal guardianship over his finances and health decisions, a legally murky practice that in the last decade has come to be associated with fraud.

Parks said she and her siblings were denied access to Theodore, even though Parks had been granted power of attorney over her father. The family called the police, but no report was made because Adult Protective Services had been called. The family was told they had to leave the hospital property.

They would not set eyes on Theodore again for one and a half months.

In that time, a saga would unspool involving St. Francis, the judicial system, APS and the Oklahoma Department of Human Services that would raise the specter of a horrifying proposition.

In recent years, elder guardianship scams have become common across the country. Hospitals and nursing homes have sought and obtained legal guardianship over thousands of poor and elderly adults for financial gain. A survey of recent literature on the subject reveals that millions of dollars are at stake, in what may be bilked of patients and the government in Medicaid fraud and what may be awarded when fraud is exposed and punished.

The case of Leroy Theodore suggests that a nationwide plague of guardianship abuse may have arrived in Oklahoma.

Charges of Neglect Were Unsubstantiated

St. Francis Health System has refused all requests for comment on this story.

St. Francis had a history with Theodore; he had been in and out of St. Francis facilities, most recently in January.

At that time, St. Francis initiated an investigation with APS based on a claim of caretaker neglect; Parks was incapable of caring for her father, it was said.

On March 10, APS Specialist Abby Walden issued a report after visiting Parks and Theodore in Sapulpa: the allegations of neglect were unsubstantiated, Walden’s report concluded.

After that, Parks and her siblings said, St. Francis began to quash the flow of supplies that Parks needed to properly care for her father, including products intended to keep his trach tube clean.

In April, the trach tube began to crust over, resulting in difficulty breathing; trained in trach tube care, Parks removed Theodore’s tube before calling an ambulance.

Since then, family members said, the hospital and APS have offered conflicting explanations for the effort to seize guardianship of Theodore: the removal of the trach tube and long-standing bedsore problems.

It wouldn’t be that easy to win guardianship.

On April 25, Parks and her siblings initiated their own action; Creek County District Court Judge Pam Hammons awarded a 30-day guardianship to Parks and a sister and brother, Larissa Dudkiewicz and Leroy Theodore, Jr.

Four days later, on April 29, Tulsa County District Court Judge Loretta Radford awarded a 30-day guardianship to the APS division of DHS.

It was a standoff.

By that point, Theodore’s family didn’t even know where he was.

Down to the Bone

Leroy Theodore served in Vietnam when he was very young, so long ago that his family wasn’t sure what he’d done during the war. It had to do with supplies, and it was sometimes dangerous.

“He made it through Agent Orange and all that,” Parks said.

He returned home to New Orleans and fathered three girls and a boy; a marriage didn’t survive, but the family did, even as a move first took all of them to New York. Eventually, Theodore returned to Louisiana and the children spread out across the country.

One daughter, now deceased, settled in Moore.

After Theodore’s first stroke in 2021, a stent surgery at Tulane Hospital intended to prevent future strokes caused his second stroke by mistake, which resulted in his entire body locking up, his family said.

His children descended on New Orleans to care for him.

“Every day I would teach him the word,” Parks said.

Theodore was moved to a nursing home, but it was a disaster; within weeks, he developed bedsores that cut down to the bone.

The family decided to take him to Oklahoma, inventing a makeshift ambulance for the 10-hour drive.

As each of the surviving children arranged to relocate to Oklahoma, St. Francis performed a surgery on Theodore for his bedsores; Parks lived in a hotel while she was searching for a home and training in trach care.

Theodore bounced from St. Francis to swing beds and long-term acute care hospitals, known as LTACHs.

At one of the LTACHs,  the family said, they found maggots in Theodore’s bed.

The family was left with the sense that the hospitals wanted to put Theodore on hospice care and let him die; that’s not what their father wanted.

“He’s fighting to live,” Parks said.

When Parks was seeking power of attorney, a lawyer was brought in to bear witness to Theodore’s wishes; Theodore signaled yes by looking up, no by looking down.

When Theodore was asked if he wanted Parks to make his decisions for him, his eyes went up; when he was asked if he wanted to be on hospice, his eyes went down.

“Oh, yeah, that’s clear as day,” the family recalled the lawyer saying.

This is Probably New to Oklahoma

In May, the family said, the Tulsa judge, Radford, called them on the phone with an APS lawyer on the line to ask them to drop their guardianship status.

They refused.

Radford told the family she would call the Creek County judge, Hammons. A short time later, Hammons vacated the family’s guardianship, and Radford awarded temporary guardianship to APS, pending a hearing scheduled for July 1.

Radford, Hammons, the APS, DHS, and a public defender assigned to Theodore in Tulsa all refused comment for this story.

In recent years, guardianship schemes ranging from defrauding Medicaid to the outright looting of individual estates in New York, Nevada, and Virginia have received extensive coverage from ProPublica, The New Yorker and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. A common refrain in the coverage is the scarcity of reliable data on the breadth of the problem.

Experts estimate that 1.5 million individuals are under some form of guardianship in the United States, but that’s a guess. A 2015 New York Times piece, “To Collect Debts, Nursing Homes are Seizing Control Over Patients,” lamented the dearth of information.

“Throughout the country, data is lacking on the most basic facts about guardianships, even how many there are,” the Times said.

“The Use and Misuse of Guardianship by Hospitals and Nursing Homes,” by Michigan Elder Justice Initiative Director Alison Hirschel and National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care Executive Director Lori Smetanka, list numerous financial incentives for hospitals seeking dubious guardianships.

Ensuring hospital bill payment, avoiding penalties for excess readmissions and fear of negative media coverage for discharging incapacitated patients may motivate an institution to seize control of a patient, regardless of the wishes of the patient or the patient’s family.

“Petitions for guardianship filed by hospitals or nursing homes should be viewed cautiously—especially because of the extraordinary imbalance of power between the healthcare institution and the individual,” Hirschel and Smetanka wrote. “Great care should be taken to avoid conflicts of interest when health care facilities are involved in the litigation.”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch came to very similar conclusions after a year-long investigation of hundreds of guardianship cases involving low-income patients and the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System. Veronica Williams, a Newport News elder law attorney heavily consulted for the Times-Dispatch story, said that hospitals may pursue inappropriate guardianship petitions even when a suitable caregiver is available, either because a hospital wishes to move a patient out of an acute care bed or because of disagreement over the family’s treatment preferences.

The cases described in the Times-Dispatch’s comprehensive three-part series bear an uncanny similarity to the case of Leroy Theodore.

In a 2021 article for the Oklahoma Bar Journal, Edmond elder law attorney Sarah C. Stewart praised laws that were passed to protect vulnerable adults. Those measures may not have been enough.

“The circumstances surrounding guardianships have always been ripe for abuse,” Stewart said. “Those who wish to harm the vulnerable have used these laws to embezzle assets and take away the rights of those who cannot protect themselves.”

The State of Tulsa

Oklahoma Watch met with an individual who has intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the St. Francis Health Care System. The individual described a sudden and recent uptick in the number of instances in which the hospital has sought legal guardianship of low-income individuals.

The guardianships were a closely guarded secret, the person said. The individual said that as many as 15 people under guardianship were being hidden at the Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital, attached to the St. Francis campus in South Tulsa.

To repeat, St. Francis refused all comment for this story.

Esther Houser served as the Oklahoma Long-Term Care Ombudsman for many years before retiring a decade ago, though she has remained in close contact with her successor and with APS staff.

Houser recalled attending conferences and learning of bad practices that might make their way to Oklahoma; she attempted to install best practices to head off abuses, but said that times seem to have changed.

Provided with the details of Theodore’s predicament, Houser was incredulous.

“That’s the most bizarre story I think I’ve ever heard,” Houser said. “There are times when hospitals and families are in conflict about who is abusing who, but in a creepy way, it’s human trafficking.”

Houser offered praise for APS, but acknowledged that the service varied county to county; she recalled Tulsa as a wholly different breed of cat.

“We used to refer to Tulsa DHS as the State of Tulsa, because they would just do things their own way and say they were using a different model,” Houser said.

Models aside, there was no explanation for why Theodore’s family had been denied access to him.

“Even a guardian cannot restrict access unless there is special permission from a judge,” Houser said.

When Houser became aware of Theodore’s predicament, she contacted the head of APS and her successor at the ombudsman’s office, William Whited, triggering an inquiry into the case.

The ongoing investigation may take weeks to complete, Whited said in an email.

You Know Why

It’s unclear whether the July 1 hearing specified in Judge Radford’s order awarding guardianship to APS will be affected by the investigation from the ombudsman’s office.

Regardless, the order revealed Theodore’s location: Cross Timbers Nursing and Rehabilitation in Midwest City.

On June 4, Oklahoma Watch accompanied Parks, her sister Larissa Dudkiewicz, and Theodore’s former wife, Deborah Theodore-Hill, to Cross Timbers to visit Theodore for the first time in six weeks.

When the family indicated a desire to visit Theodore, the nursing home staff responded with hostility.

“You must leave our property immediately,” a staff member who refused to identify herself said. “We’ll call the police.”

“Why?” Dudkiewicz said.

“You know why,” the staff member said.

The family didn’t know why; they refused to leave. Two police cruisers arrived.

After the two-hour drive from Tulsa, the family was compelled to endure a second standoff in the nursing home parking lot, a two-hour delay as police officers examined court documents on smartphones and communicated with staff, APS officials, and Whited from the ombudsman’s office.

A 2015 order from then-Attorney General Scott Pruitt tipped the scale: Title 30 does not provide a guardian with the power to restrict visitation with a nursing home resident without a court order.

APS had not been given a court order to deny visitation.

Despite the clear order from the AG’s office, the beleaguered police officers opted for compromise. Parks, the daughter who knew best how to communicate with Theodore, was denied access. Dudkiewicz and Theodore-Hill were granted a brief, supervised visit.

Theodore was heavily medicated, but he was very excited to see his family, Dudkiewicz said.

“He immediately opened his eyes, especially when he saw my momma,” Dudkiewicz said. “They were dating when she was 16, so he loves to see her.”

Theodore-Hill chuckled. She recounted reading various psalms and Bible passages to Theodore, including Jeremiah 30.

“Those who plunder you will be plundered; all who make spoil of you I will despoil. But I will restore you to health, and heal your wounds,” the verse reads. 

Full Article & Source:
Eldercare Nightmare: A Tragic Family Story Raises the Specter of Widespread Guardianship Fraud 

CBS12 News Investigates: Answering your questions about elder abuse and guardianship fraud

by Rachel Greggis

WEST PALM BEACH, Fl. (WPEC) — Elder abuse and the difficult matters that come along with aging can be frightening.

The idea that this could happen to you or someone you love is concerning.

CBS12 News wants to let you know how to protect you and your loved ones.

Candy Cohn of Oasis Senior Advisors took some questions on CBS12 News at 9.

She is also answering viewer questions on our Facebook page.

 

Full Article & Source:

CBS12 News Investigates: Answering your questions about elder abuse and guardianship fraud

Lee Clerk of Court: Help us uncover guardianship fraud

Lee County Clerk of Court Linda Doggett.

Each year, elderly Americans are defrauded an estimated $37 billion, according to various reports.

What’s even more alarming is almost 52 percent of the perpetrators are the victims’ family members. This disturbing statistic hits very close to home, where more than a quarter of Lee County’s aging population is over 65 years old.

At the Clerk’s office, we don’t take this lightly. For years, we’ve been focusing on ways to combat exploitation of our most vulnerable citizens.

Our Probate office audits more than 1,500 guardianship cases annually. If we suspect or detect fraud, waste or financial mismanagement, our Inspector General Department conducts enhanced guardianship audits and refers alleged criminal activities to the State Attorney’s Office for further investigation and possible prosecution.

Last September, we closed one of our investigations involving a guardian who exploited more than $1 million from a 70-year old woman over several years. Unfortunately, she passed away before her guardian pleaded guilty and was brought to justice.

While these incidents are hard to uncover, there are several red flags that may help us identify whether our family members, friends and neighbors are suffering from guardianship fraud. Suspected incidents of fraud and financial mismanagement include:

• Missing money or property
• Changes in bank accounts or credit lines, opening loans, or funds transfers
• Elderly ward is removed from their home
• Purchase/sale of property
• Violations of the law or local ordinances

Help us uncover guardianship fraud. If you suspect a guardian, family member, caregiver, attorney or others of committing guardianship fraud, please report it to our online Inspector General Hotline by visiting leeclerk.org. You can also email and submit tips to Info_InspectorGeneral@leeclerk.org or call 239-337-7799.

Linda Doggett is Lee County Clerk of Court. The Florida Constitution established the Clerk of the Circuit Court as a public trustee, responsible for safeguarding public records and public funds. In addition to the role of Clerk of the Circuit Court, the Clerk is the County Recorder and Clerk of the Board of County Commissioners, and the Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Auditor for Lee County.

Full Article & Source:
Lee Clerk of Court: Help us uncover guardianship fraud