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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Coastal Courier had an article about another nursing home employee stealing from residents.  Demetria Denise Williams, an employee of Coastal Manor Long Term Care Facility, was arrested after Elise Stafford, the home’s chief long-term care officer, reported the center had information showing an employee had been stealing.   Williams was then taken to the police station where she was charged with theft by deception, theft by taking and exploitation of the elderly.
Williams has been charged with stealing more than $4,000 and that he anticipates as many as 25 more theft warrants.  Williams stole from residents by taking money for their families, but not depositing it into appropriate accounts.

Williams also stole from the facility by taking payment of services not provided to residents.
“The majority of the money that was stolen was from payment for services,” Stafford said. “There was a minimal amount taken from the residents.”
 

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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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WPTV.com had a story about another nursing home employee stealing from one of the residents under her care.  Natasha Petit-Homme has been arrested for stealing over $2,300 from an elderly victim under her care according to Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum. According to the attorney general the victim was an elderly resident of Woodlake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, in West Palm Beach. Petit-Homme was employed as an admissions clerk.

The news release says while working at the facility, Petit-Homme gained access to the victim’s checkbook, wrote herself a check totaling $2,341, and deposited the funds into her personal checking account without permission.

Petit-Homme is charged with one count of exploitation of an elderly person, a third-degree felony. She faces up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted.
 

Thefts and stolen identities seem to be increasing during the recession.  I hope residents' families keep track of checkbooks, and check credit reports of residents.

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The Middleton Journal had an article about two different employees of a nursing home, acting separately, stole narcotics from residents for years, and altered the residents' charts to make it look like residents actually received the need pain medication.  How could they not have been caught earlier?  didn't the residents complain that they were still in pain? 

Deborah Renee Richardson and Denise “Bells” Holtkamp are both accused of stealing Oxycodone from the Lebanon Country Manor nursing facility in Ohio.  Both nurses separately altered patient records so they could steal the addictive painkiller for their own use.

Both women were indicted by a Warren County Grand Jury on two counts of illegal processing of drug documents, a fourth-degree felony; two counts of theft of drugs, a fourth-degree felony; and two counts of aggravated possession of drugs, a fifth-degree felony.

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On this Memorial Day, I was going to mention and celebrate all the veterans now living in nursing homes.  Here is a link to information about veteran services and nursing home care.  I hope and pray that these brave men and women receive the best care, treatment, and services America offers.  Unfortunately, there are stories every day about how veterans are treated poorly in nursing homes and don't get the care necessary to live with dignity. 

The Denver Post had an article about the administrator of the State Veterans Nursing Home in Rifle, Colorado,  who was finally fired after an audit discovered he stole resident's money.  He has been indicted for paying an employee $7,290 in state funds for veteran care to an employee who helped him restore a 1951 Cadillac. 

The indictment alleges that Robert Leslie Shaw asked Rifle nursing home maintenance worker Michael Walker to help him restore the car at Shaw's residence.  The work on the car began in October 2007, and Walker spent numerous weekdays and weekends working on the car at Shaw's home.   In addition, Shaw asked Walker to travel out of state to pick up parts for the car, and Shaw paid Walker for the transportation costs and expenses.  Shaw later paid Walker for 3,645 hours of on-call service, even though his job status did not entitle him to on-call pay. Nursing home employees who remain on-call — willing to come in to work in case of emergencies — are compensated $2 per hour for their time.

The Denver grand jury returned the indictment  charging Shaw with two counts of felony theft and one count of first-degree official misconduct, which is a misdemeanor.

I hope this guy rots under the jail.

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The Star-Telegram had a story about nursing home employees who stole and embezzled money from the residents at a nursing home.  This is outrageous and it happens quite often.  Taxpayers are the ones who end up paying for these thefts.  The nursing homes should pay more attention to their finances and laws need to be passed that provide for transparency in nursing home financial transactions.

Terry Dean West and Elizandro Valdez Arana pleaded guilty this week to federal felony charges related to their embezzlement of about $42,000 from Medicaid, insurance carriers and a corporation that operated 10 Texas nursing homes including one in Fort Worth.  They pled to making false statements related to health care matters and aiding and abetting in the embezzlement scheme.   There is no reason mentioned why they weren't charged with embezzlement.

West was working as a financial analyst for the Georgia-based Sava Senior Care Corp. in 2006 when he devised a scheme to embezzle money from Medicaid, private insurance carriers and Sava, which operated 10 Texas nursing homes and dozens of others nationwide.

West’s duties including overseeing the business managers of the Pampa Nursing Center in Pampa and the Arlington Heights Health and Rehabilitation Center in Fort Worth. In that capacity, he was required to refund excess payments to Medicaid, insurance carriers or residents of the centers.  West hired Arana to provide his name and that of an alias to use to cash funds containing the embezzled funds.

West admitted altering patient records to show non-existent credit balances and to create false names and addresses of the parties to whom the refunds should be mailed. He then issued refund checks to those newly created parties and mailed them to a post office box the pair had rented. They cashed the checks for their own use.

The scheme involved altering patient records to show non-existent credit balances and to create false names and addresses where refunds were mailed.

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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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WKBW.com had an article about a nursing home employee caught in a drug bust.   This kind of incident seems to be happening more and more around the country's nursing homes.

Melanie Curry is a Licensed Practical Nurse who worked at the Fiddler's Green Manor nursing home.  The Wyoming county drug task force was monitoring Curry.  When Curry moved from Wyoming county to Springville the drug task force alerted the Erie County Sheriff's Office. "As a result of information they had provided to us we had her under surveillance," says Erie County Sheriff Timothy Howard.

Police say Curry was stealing hydrocodone pills from the nursing home residents.  The investigation came to a head when nursing home officials say an undercover officer made contact with Curry and made arrangements to meet for a drug buy right outside Fiddler's Green Manor. "(Officers) actually witnessed the drug sale of about 11 pills in front of the nursing home," says Howard.

Curry is now facing a felony sale of narcotics charge as well as misdemeanors of petit larceny and drug possession.   Fiddler's Green Manor says this is an isolated incident, and patient care is their first priority.

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