Foxes in the Hen House- State has to fire Two Kentucky Nursing Home Inspectors...

According to the Courier-Journal, the Kentucky has fired a second state employee arsing out of allegations of misconduct.  On May 21, the state fired a nursing home inspection official with the Department of Public Health.  The State determined that Moses Young had been living rent free in a Lexington townhouse owned by a company operated by a Covington nursing home president, Ralph L. Stacey, Jr. Now, it turns out that Young had a roomate, Sharon Harris, a former nurse administrator with the Department of Public Health.  Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Young has been unable to provide any proof that he paid his own rent and Harris has refused to provide any information bout the townhouse in which she currently lives.  According to the Courier, this is not the first time Harris has been fired for a potential conflict with Stacey's nursing homes.  In 2002, while working as a nurse consultant for the state Medicaid Department, she was fired for having a second job working at one of Stacey's nursing homes.  Although she was fired, she one an appeal and was reinstated.  Harris claims she has been singled out by the office of the Inspector General.

 

Bullitt County Nursing Home to Lose Federal Funding

According to the Courier Journal, Green Meadows Nursing Home in Bullitt, County Kentucky (one county south of Louisville, Kentucky) is losing its federal funding.  Although the notice from the federal government did not state the specific reason funding was being terminated, it comes right on the heels of an August 11, 2008 Type A citation from the state of Kentucky (the most serious type).  In order to issue a Type A citation, the state must determine that a resident's life or safety is endangered. The citation, issued as a result of a standard survey conducted Aug. 5-8, found that residents were injured by other residents.  The citation said some residents were "slapped, choked, bitten, hit, kicked, and pinned against a wall" by other residents. "The facility was aware of these residents' combative behaviors but failed to provide supervision as needed to prevent further incidents, creating an atmosphere where residents were fearful for their safety," it said.  
We handled a similar type of nursing home negligence case involving resident-on-resident abuse  last year.  Patients that demonstrate aggressive behavior have to be re-directed or given opportunities to engage in activities that distract them and focus their energies elsewhere.  Often, this behavior is the result of some underlying medical issue that is not being addressed.  The resident is scared or doesn't feel well or is lonely.  The key is recognizing the issue and then formulating a patient specific care plan to address the resident's behavior.  Sometimes medication is necessary (although it is often abused by nursing homes as a form of chemical restraint).  If the nursing home is unable to control the resident's behavior while maintaining the resident's rights to personal dignity and self determination, then the facility has to transfer the resident to a facility that can provide a higher level of care and, perhaps, one on one care.
Often we see that facilities that have problems with resident on resident abuse simply don't have enough staff to handle the number of residents in the facility.  Currently, Kentucky does not have any minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes, but it is something that we at the Poppe Law Firm strongly advocate and we are joined by many others, including Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform.
The cabinet's directory of licensed facilities on its Web site shows Green Meadows is owned by Mount Washington Health Care LLC.   Earlier this year the federal government released its "bad list" of Kentucky nursing homes, Green Meadows was not on the list at that time.
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