South Carolina Nursing Home Blog : South Carolina Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Poliakoff & Associates Law Firm : Elderly Care, Senior Care

There are some great people working at nursing homes, below are not stories about them:

WCAK.com had a story about Rhonda Skiver who pled guilty to grand larceny after embezzling more than $163,000 from an upstate New York nursing home where she worked as chief financial officer.  She was struggling to pay off gambling debts and costs from a failed marriage has admitted to stealing the funds for resident care from Absolut Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Orchard Park, where she had worked for 10 years.   Rhonda Skiver could face up to 15 years in prison at sentencing on May 17. Buffalo News also had an article on the arrest.

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SheboyganPress.com had a story about Ross H. Hoblitzell who was a nursing home activities director .  He was charged  after being captured on surveillance video stealing cash from the Plymouth Senior Center.  Hoblitzell could face up to seven and a half years in prison, if convicted on the count of felony burglary.

The manager of the senior center contacted police Monday morning after discovering money was missing from parking meter proceeds left in the senior center office. The manager also noticed a camera installed after a prior burglary had been moved.  The video showed Hoblitzell starting to remove the money, then noticing the camera and attempting to reposition it so he is not recorded. He then appears to try removing it, but fails, after which he picks up change from the floor and places it back in its container.  Hoblitzell admitted taking money for gas for his vehicle because he was having financial difficulties. He admitted taking money from the senior center in the past as well.  _______________________________________________________________________

St. Joe News had a story about Janet Sue Tinker who pled guilty to stealing prescription drugs from a nursing home for her son to sell. Tinker started working as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) for Carriage Square Health Care Center in November 2008. Around August of last year, she began pocketing medications.

Ms. Tinker took drugs home and left them on a table for her son Ryan O. Tinker, 20, according to her testimony.  The stealing went on for at least two months and included Ativan, Xanax, Lortab and morphine. A Crimestoppers tip led police to look into the family’s activities in September.

Ms. Tinker told Circuit Court Judge Pat Robb she never explicitly told her son to sell the drugs but left them for Mr. Tinker to find, knowing that would be the result. In a convoluted explanation, she said to the court, “There is a very unhealthy relationship between my son and I,” and added she hoped providing the drugs to her son would lead him to move out of her house on Safari Drive.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me,” Mr. Robb told her when she maintained she never instructed her son to sell the drugs but it was an understanding.

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Greenville News reported the story of a nursing home employee arrested for stealing money from a nursing home resident.  I wonder how many times employees have done this to incompetent and demented residents who can't speak up or no one will liten to or believe? 

The victim is an 88-year-old woman who lives at Oakmont Nursing home in Union.  She repeatedly noticed cash missing from her room. Only the woman and employees of the facility have keys to where she keeps her money.   The woman said she recently left money in a bank envelope inside a purse that she put in a drawer while she was out her room.   The next morning, she noticed $40 missing. The woman reported the incident to the supervisor, and then experimented by leaving two $5 bills in her purse in a drawer. Both bills ended up stolen during two different times when the woman was out of her room.  Police arrested Brenda Rochester on two counts each of second-degree burglary and petit larceny after comparing the times of the thefts with the work schedules of those who had access to the room.

There are approximately 17,000 residents in 174 nursing homes in South Carolina.  There are too few surveyors, ombudsman, and investigators to protect these residents from sexual predators, theiving nurses, and greedy corporate owners.  Something needs to be done.

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Atlanticville.com had an article about a piece of crap nursing home owner/operator who pleaded guilty to stealing $39,000 from one of his elderly residents.   Michael D. Berg pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree theft by deception.  The charge is the result of an investigation, conducted by the Prosecutor's Office following a referral from the New Jersey Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly.

Berg was the owner and operator of Wayside Retirement Center Inc., a nursing home located in the Wayside section of the township. From Jan. 1, 2005, through March 31, 2008, Berg received funds that belonged to a resident of the retirement center.  The funds came from the resident's pension and from other benefits. 

Berg ended up retaining more than $39,000 from the resident's funds that he wasn't entitled to for his own personal purposes.  Pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office will recommend Berg get probation.  Incredible.  The guy steals from one of his residents and only he gets is probation.  That isn't much of a deterrent.

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 13Wham.com had a story about a nursing home employee charged with rape of a mentally disabled resident.   The man was a nurse in charge of caring for residents at a local nursing home. Kipper Allen Stevens, an LPN (licensed practical nurse) at Shore Winds Nursing Home, was arrested for rape and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person after a six-month investigation by Rochester, N.Y police.

In his statement to police, Stevens gave a different account of what happened; he claims he had a "relationship" with the woman.   “Our relationship started out as friends, but…I know that I should not have been involved romantically with a patient, but it just happened. We were two consenting adults having a relationship, and at no time was it forcible." Stevens goes on to say, “I want people to know although this was improper, it was nothing malicious.”

Prosecutors said another worker witnessed the alleged abuse and reported it to management. Shore Winds president, Robert Hurlbut, Jr., said they began an internal investigation immediately, and suspended two workers, including Stevens.

The story does not mention how long the "relationship" lasted or if her family was aware of it.

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The Herald Tribune has another tragic story about a nursing home employee assaulting an elderly woman in a nursing home.  How can the other staff not know what is going on?  What kind of background check do they actually do? Do they ask for references? Do they check references?

A former nursing assistant at Punta Gorda Elderly Care Center was arrested today and charged with felony elder abuse.   The woman, Letitia Calderwood kicked a 76-year-old woman in the back and slapped her in the face, according to a press release from the Punta Gorda Police Department.

On May 19, Calderwood and two other employees were helping the elderly woman get up from a fall in the bathroom, police reported. Struggling to help the woman, Calderwood kicked her in the lower back while she was still down and then slapped her in the face when she was lifted to her feet, according to the report.

Calderwood and the two other facility employees had difficulty helping the resident to her feet and Calderwood subsequently kicked in her lower back while using a profanity. Once the resident was helped to her feet, Calderwood struck her in the face with an open hand.

Both employees were interviewed by detectives and provided statements describing the incident and the alleged battery and abuse.  Calderwood was interviewed by detectives and admitted to kicking and striking the resident as originally reported. She stated that her actions were done out of frustration although she knew the patient was disabled and had limited ability to stand on her own.

Calderwood is being held without bond at Charlotte County Jail. She faces one charge of battery on the elderly and one charge of abuse of the elderly, both third-degree felonies.

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John Ette, a certified nurse assistant is charged with abusing an 88-year-old bed-ridden resident at Adirondack Medical Center's Mercy Nursing Home. He is accused of hitting, grabbing and punching the visually and dementia-impaired woman last October, leaving her with a broken collarbone and facial bruising.  Officials say John Ette hit and pushed an 88-year-old bedridden woman while working at the Adirondack Medical Center and Mercy Nursing Home in Tupper Lake. The woman had multiple bruises and a fractured clavicle in October 2008.

Shortly after midnight on Oct. 20, 2008, Ette struck the bedridden patient in the face, grabbed her arm and pushed her down into her wheelchair, according to the court complaint filed against him.  The patient suffered a broken collarbone and some facial bruising. Her condition is now stable, and she still lives at the nursing home, said David Doyle, spokesman for the state Office of the Attorney General.

Ette admitted the act to state investigators on Nov. 12, 2008.  Nursing Home staff noticed the woman's severe injuries the next morning and notified administrators and her family. Ette was fired following an internal investigation last October.  Ette was charged Wednesday by the Attorney General's Office with second-degree endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person, endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person and willful violation of health laws.

"Nursing-home care must be administered with the respect and professionalism that New York's seniors deserve," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a news release. "It is appalling when our dependent and vulnerable loved ones are victimized by the very people who are entrusted with their care."

AMC goes through an extensive screening and background check process before it makes a hire.

Ette's estranged wife, Jodi Ette, told the Enterprise John Ette had displayed violent tendencies in the past. She said he had never been violent toward her but had lashed out at inanimate objects.  She said that when the incident happened, it took John Ette several days to divulge the details of the alleged abuse. "He wouldn't tell me the full story for quite some time," she said.

"We want to reassure families that we are taking the proper steps to protect the safety and well-being of our residents, patients and staff," AMC's Chief Financial Officer Patrick Facteau said.

 He had worked at Mercy since Feb. 21, 2006.

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I have seen several article recently that show the poor choices many nursing home corporations have made in staffing their facilities.  Where is the supervision?  Where is the accountability?

A CNA stealing jewelry from residents.  Click here.

The head of a local nursing home was arrested this week after police said they found 26 grams in her possession of cocaine.  She was with her 4 year old son.  Click here.

The former controller of two western Pennsylvania nursing homes has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $628,000 from the businesses and not paying federal income taxes on the money.  Click here.

These are the people that they hire to run the nursing home and to take care of our elderly citizens.  This is a disgrace.  Inadequate staff is one thing, incompetent thieving drug-addled staff is another.

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The Franklin News-Post had a story about a nursing home employee--the assistant director of nursing-- getting only three years for the distribution of prescription drugs she took from residents at her facility.  Linda Sloan Quick was also sentenced to three years probation, following her prison sentence, and she was ordered to be on good behavior for 25 years.  There was no mention if she would lose her license to practice nursing or if she was reported to the Board of Nursing.

Court records show that the drugs taken from the nursing home by Quick had either expired or had been prescribed for patients who had died or had been transferred to another health facility.  The sheriff's department received anonymous information that a nursing home employee was selling prescription drugs, and investigators got Quick's name from a confidential informant.

Quick was sentenced to 10 years for distribution of Fentanyl, but seven years of the sentence were suspended.  Quick was also sentenced to three years on each of the three counts of distribution of Hydrocodone. All nine years were suspended.

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The Chattanooga Free Times Press had an article about the arrest of a nursing home employee who neglected and caused the death of a nursing home resident.   Walter Small is charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Robert A. Young on Nov. 12, 2007.  The nursing home was almost successful covering this crime up.  The arrest was made in connection with the 2007 homicide of a cerebral palsy patient, a case that almost ended with no investigation into the victim’s unexpected death and his burial just days later in a pauper’s grave.

 A timeline of the case reveals it was Mr. Young’s family members who initially questioned the circumstances of his death, which took place while he was living at the Health Center at Standifer Place.  Authorities eventually exhumed Mr. Young’s body last summer, and the autopsy performed one year after his death indicated Mr. Young died of blunt force trauma to the head.

County Medical Examiner Frank King said he did not initially perform an autopsy because of representations made to him that the victim had fallen and fractured his skull as the result of a seizure. But medical records didn’t support that theory, Dr. King said, and Mr. Young’s sister, Rana Reynolds, would end up suing Standifer Place as well as the Tennessee Department of Human Services in November 2008, alleging that both were in “collusion” to “hide the death and burial” of Mr. Young.

According to the two lawsuits filed in Hamilton County Circuit Court, not only did a Standifer Place employee kill Mr. Young, but when family members called to check up on him, employees didn’t even tell the family he was dead for more than a month.  After Mr. Young’s death, “Standifer Place told each person, on each call, that (Mr. Young) was OK, and to come see him,” court documents state.

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David Krough wrote, for Portland's kgw.com, an article stating that a nurse assistant at a nursing home was arrested for stealing narcotics from residents in other nursing homes.  Nursing assistants provide about 85-90 percent of all the care to residents.

The article is informative but does not provide key information such as prior arrests, employment history, knowledge of the mangement of the nursing homes regarding the missing narcotics or her conduct.  How could she get hired?  Was she a user or a pusher?  What safeguards do they hav ein place to make sure this doesn't happen?  Below is a summary of the article.

Surveillance cameras caught a woman on camera, posing as a resident's granddaughter, then as an employee. Administrators there said the woman snuck in and spent at least three evenings with one of their residents.

Theresa Smith was a nursing assistant who worked at nursing homes in the Portland Metro area.  Police listed Smith as a person of interest after a report of theft of Fentanyl patches at the Laurelhurst Village Nursing Home on SW Stark Street.  She was accused of stealing Fentanyl pain patches from nursing home residents while the residents were wearing the patches. Detectives said she stole from several patients at area nursing homes.

Detectives arrested Smith Wednesday while she was working at the Care Center East Nursing Home on NE Wielder Street.  Smith was charged with burglary, criminal mistreatment, possession of a controlled substance and theft. Police said she may face more charges.
 

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