AZ Assisted Living Facilities On Probation
Posted by Patti on June 6th, 2006 / Print This Post
TUCSON - Two assisted living homes here have been placed on probation after state investigators found they neglected elderly residents, records show.Carestone at River Centre staff failed to react to a resident’s seriously deteriorating medical condition from Nov. 24 to Dec. 6, and did not notify the woman’s nurse practitioner until Dec. 7, the state health department found.
The woman - who is not named in the state’s report because of confidentiality rules - was sent by ambulance to El Dorado Hospital on Dec. 8. She was found to be dehydrated, with a severe urinary tract infection and other problems.
Many AL facilities don’t have nurses in house, 25 hours a day. So this can be the result.
She subsequently died, but the health department could not say that her death was caused by lack of care at Carestone, said Lisa Wynn, deputy assistant director of the state health department.Carestone officials in Tucson and at the company’s headquarters near Houston said Friday that they would not comment.
Casa Linda Home Care also was placed on probation after a Feb. 24 investigation documented numerous instances of neglect.
State surveyors found no certified caregivers on site at the time of the investigation. One resident was found to have a large, infected bedsore on her left heel, and a physician’s orders to refer the same resident to hospice had been ignored.
Three residents’ rooms were found to have “very strong odors of urine and feces,” and at least two residents were found lying in their feces.
There was no evidence that a diabetic resident was getting blood-sugar checks, and other residents were not getting prescribed medications. The home was generally filthy and unsanitary, according to the health department’s report.
A follow-up investigation on May 3 “showed tremendous improvement,” said Alan Oppenheim, manager of the health department’s office of assisted-living licensure.
Caregivers in ALF don’t have to be certified by law. That’s only for actual nursing homes. Many folks don’t know the difference between a nursing home, a retirement home, assisted living.