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

NBC.com had an article about the repeated problems at Englewood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center that puts the well-being of residents at risk.  The inspectors paid an unannounced visit to the after getting a complaint from a worker.  The courageous whistle-blower is a former employee at the center for years who tried to get the mold problems there addressed.  The former employee says her concerns about mold and structural issues at Englewood Health Care fell on deaf ears.  She says management was not doing enough to permanently fix the problem. That's when she called AHCA.   "I actually took the surveyor through and they saw what I was talking about and they substantiated my complaints," she said.

She recently took her complaints to the Agency for Health Care Administration, or AHCA.  Now, the agency says it has cited the nursing home for failing to keep the building sanitary for its patients.  Following that inspection, the agency has cited the nursing home for:

Mold and water intrusion.  Finding peeling paint, soft walls, and deteriorating windowsills in two residents' rooms.  AHCA says Englewood Health Care's "failure to repair water damage, prevent mold, and repair and maintain the building" equates to a substandard level of care.

She says she believes it was a call that cost her that job.  "AHCA came in on Friday, they terminated me on Tuesday," she said. But, she says, it was a small price to pay for the dignity and the well being of the patients who call the building home.

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Tulsa World had an article about a nursing home employee who reported neglect and abuse at a nursing home, and was subsequently fired from her job despite her affirmative duty to report such incidents.  This is outrageous.  This employee did exactly what she was supposed to do and the nursing home fired her for it.  She is now suing Cimarron Pointe Care Center and one of its contractors for wrongful termination.  Is it any wonder why many nurses look the other way when residents are abused and neglected?

In the lawsuit, Harris said she worked as a housekeeper at the facility. She was paid by Health Care Services Group, a Tulsa company contracted by the home to provide cleaning services, and supervised by nursing home staff.   During her employment, she observed numerous instances of improper care of the home's residents.

"Mrs. Harris observed a male resident who had been left in his own waste for so many hours that he had feces caked on to his leg from his hip to below his knee, and had wet himself at least one time."   She saw the man sitting in his waste and reported it to her supervisor, the head nurse and two nurse's aides. Her supervisor sprayed deodorant in the man's room to cover the smell. The aides said they would leave him for the next shift.

"Two and a half hours later, he was still sitting in his own waste," Harris said. "He couldn't say nothing. I would always talk to him. He would just light up when I went to clean his room. It's heartbreaking when you see a resident not being taken care of."

Also, an elderly woman paralyzed from the waist down was left in her own waste, Harris said. She rolled out of the bed and into the hallway to get someone to change her soiled garments and the nurses "just laughed at her," Harris said.

"On another occasion, Ms. Harris brought the needs of another female resident to the attention of the nursing staff. The resident's needs were ignored, prompting the resident to write a letter to her family saying goodbye, in anticipation of death from neglect," the petition states.

Another female resident, who was unable to sit up alone, was left on a bench in the shower. She fell and hurt herself, the petition said.

Harris reported each instance of neglect or abuse to the facility's staff.  The home's administrator and a supervisor from Health Care Services Group of Tulsa, the contractor that paid Harris, fired her.   Of course, Cimarron Pointe Care Center denies any improper care of its residents. It also states that Harris was employed by Health Care Services Group, so the nursing home isn't responsible for her termination.   However, Ms. Harris was told that the only basis for her termination was her reporting of the abuse.  Ms. Harris had not done anything else to merit termination, and no other basis for termination were discussed or even suggested."

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The L.A. Times has an incredible story that is far too common in today's nursing home industry.  

 Rita Kittower buried her husband last month.  She had bade a tearful goodbye to her mate of 49 years, who had passed away in an exclusive assisted living facility in Calabasas. "He just stopped breathing," Kittower said she was told by a staff member.

Then came the anonymous phone call the day after the funeral. A female employee of the nursing home told Rita that her 80-year-old husband's death had been anything but peaceful. She said Elmore Kittower had been beaten to death by someone on the staff. 

Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department asked if they could exhume her husband's body to determine what actually happened.

Mr. Kittower had a stroke which necessitated a stay at a nursing home for rehabilitation. Through a recommendation, Mrs. kittower found a place called Silverado Senior Living in Calabasas. The place specialized in taking care of residents like Mr. Kittower.  The price for such service wasn't cheap. Rita said she paid nearly $75,000 a year for her husband to share a room with another patient.

On Sunday, Oct. 28, the Kittower family gathered at Silverado to celebrate Elmore's 80th birthday. The following Sunday, Rita and Elise came back for another visit.  It was the last time they would see Elmore alive.

Two days later, a sheriff's deputy told her that her husband had died at 8:30 that morning. When Rita called the nursing home she was told that Elmore had "just stopped breathing."

On Nov. 10, the day after her husband was buried, Rita received the mysterious call from a woman who identified herself only as Maria. The woman said she hadn't slept in three days.

The woman said a staff member had punched Elmore in the eye and wrapped a towel around his head in an apparent attempt to suffocate him.

She hung up the phone, but not before getting the woman's number. Rita asked her son to call the woman back. He elicited more details from the caller. When Rita asked about it, he said, "You don't want to know."

Rita asked her nephew, Paul Zwerdling, to call the Sheriff's Department.   As it turned out, sheriff's officials already had their suspicions about Elmore Kittower's death. The woman who called Rita Kittower also made an anonymous call to the Lost Hills sheriff's station and mailed an anonymous letter to a nearby fire station.

Lt. Al Grotefend said detectives gathered sufficient evidence to warrant an exhumation.  After consulting with family members, she agreed to the exhumation in order to "find out the truth" and protect any other potential victims. 

Sources confirm some trauma to Kittower's remains that was consistent with an assault.

Grotefend said detectives developed a prime suspect in the case -- a caregiver who no longer works at the facility.  The suspect was arrested shortly after Kittower's death on suspicion of elder abuse, but the case was rejected by the district attorney's office.

Grotefend said that the arrest was made before the exhumation and that detectives have since gathered additional information and plan to resubmit the case to prosecutors.

Not surprisingly, Mark Mostow, a paid spokesman for Silverado Senior Living, said the company had completed its own "investigation" and "found nothing to substantiate any wrongdoing."   However,  Mostow admitted that the employee accused of assaulting Kittower had been terminated for violating an undisclosed policy.

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