Quality of staff continues to be a problem
There are many caring and wonderful nurses and CNAs that work in nursing homes. However, because of corporate decisions to cut staffing, decrease training, and pay minimum wage which causes burn-out, frustration, high turnover rates and stories such as the ones below.
Tulsa World had an article about Jason Lynn Pearl who was arrested in March on allegations that he abused patients in his role as certified nursing assistant at the Silver Lake Care Center, a 92-bed Bartlesville nursing home. Washington County District Judge Curtis DeLapp gave him a slap on the wrist by splitting five-year term with two years in prison and three years suspended and a $1,150 fine after he admitted guilt in abusing patients at a nursing home Thankfully, he will no longer be allowed to care for older people or children.
A police investigation began in February after family members of patients at the care center became concerned about allegations made by their loved ones. Investigators learned that situations involving three patients were recorded on Pearl's cell phone and had been seen by several witnesses before they were erased. The recordings showed Pearl yelling at one patient and violently jerking the shirt of another, an affidavit states. One count alleged that Pearl inappropriately touched a third patient and spit in his face.
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I saw another story on Channel 7 about a CNA accused of slapping a resident in Washington County. Snell is accused of slapping a 90-year-old woman in the face, while caring for her at the Signature Health Care Center in Jackson County. The nurse is facing elderly abuse charges filed by the State Attorney General's office. Certified Nursing Assistant Cigi Serrevera Snell, surrendered herself at the Jackson County jail. Snell is charged with one count of abuse of an elderly adult. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
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Tulsa World had another article about Franklin D. Hughes, Jr. charged with caretaker abuse after he allegedly sexually abused dementia patients at a Bartlesville nursing home. Two charges filed accused him of harming patients where he worked as a certified nurse's assistant. Hughes was arrested after police say he admitted to committing inappropriate sexual acts with patients.
One charge alleges that Hughes assaulted an 83-year-old man. The victim told his pastor and a nursing staff member that Hughes asked to get in his bed and "tried to have sex" with him, a court affidavit states. Another charge alleges that Hughes assaulted a 76-year-old dementia patient who has since died. The nursing center personnel told police that they no longer have records about the incident. The victim told his family that he hated Hughes, accusing Hughes of "hunching" him and kissing him on the cheek and mouth in a bathroom at the nursing center between July 1 and Aug. 8, 2008, the affidavit states.
Prior complaints against Hughes were filed with the Oklahoma State Department of Health in 2003 and 2007 regarding his work with dementia patients at the Nowata Nursing Center, a court affidavit states. Another complainant alleged that Hughes asked to have oral sex with him. The Nowata Nursing Center did not report either case to local law enforcement authorities, the court affidavit states.
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ABC 7 had a tragic article about Anthony Joseph Garcia, an employee at a Las Cruces nursing home, sentenced for beating an elderly man in his care. Frank Vallejas, now 80, was a 76-year-old nursing home resident beaten by his own caretaker. The family later found out his caretaker had a lengthy criminal record. He was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison. Garcia had three previous felony convictions and rape charges, all of which under New Mexico state law would prohibit him from working as a caregiver. By law, a background check must be conducted before someone is hired as a caretaker.
ABC-7 contacted District Attorney Susana Martinez, who said it appears either the Las Cruces Nursing Center did a background check, saw Garcia's record and let him work there anyway, or they failed to do a proper check altogether. The human resources department and the Nursing Center said they do in fact follow standard procedures when it comes to background checks.
The administrators in human resources say they have not been on the job long and do not remember anyone by the name of Anthony Garcia. The victim has been moved to a different facility and is improving.
WHNT had an article about sexual assault allegations at Windsor House. The Alabama Department of Public Health is investigating the facility following allegations of sexual abuse against one of the residents. An 83-page report documents eight deficiencies investigators found during an inspection in September. The state said the nursing home failed to identify and handle the sexual abuse of a female resident who is in her 80s with dementia by another resident in the home believed to be in his 40s. The report reveals the day before the incident, nurses documented that a mentally retarded, schizophrenic male was being admitted and that he would need to be watched.
On September 18th, the report stated that a Certified Nurses Assistant spotted the newly-admitted male resident in the room of the female resident and said "both of them were in the nude and he was on top of her."
Rick Harris, with the Alabama Department of Public Health, said steps following that startling discovery were mishandled. "There are residents in nursing homes who...can become sexually aggressive, and nursing homes are expected to notice that and to deal with it appropriately," he said. The report says an employee told a supervisor about the incident, but the supervisor said not to report it, because the female did not appear to be hurt. The report went on to say, "she has never had anything like this happen and really didn't know what she should do."
But in the report, the worker told her supervisor "that the proper protocol was to send the victim to the hospital for a rape kit examination." Harris said the victim has dementia and refused to go to the hospital. "The resident herself is not in a position to appreciate the importance of going to the hospital and getting a rape kit done," Harris told WHNT NEWS 19.
Harris said employees of Windsor House failed the patient even further by not reporting this to authorities and to the state immediately.
