Nursing homes fined for allegedly endangering residents
Posted: Sunday, April 06, 2008
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Two Iowa nursing homes have been fined a combined $18,000 after a resident died following a fall and another resident was treated for hypothermia.
The Osage Rehabilitation and Health Care Center is appealing a $10,000 fine for allegedly failing to prevent an 88-year-old resident from wandering outside in frigid conditions.
The woman was hospitalized after a teenager found the woman standing barefoot in a snow-covered street about 1:45 a.m. on Jan. 20, according to police reports and state records. The woman left the center unnoticed about 30 minutes earlier, dressed only in thin bed-clothes.
At the time, there was seven inches of snow, and the wind chill was 27 degrees below zero.
The police officer who retrieved the woman told state inspectors that she was so stiff he struggled get her into the police car. She was taken to a hospital, where she was admitted in critical condition and treated for hypothermia and frostbite.
According to state inspection reports, the woman left the center unnoticed because the door alarms at the center were switched off. Staff members were not aware she was missing until police told them she was in the hospital.
One worker told state officials that after the alarms sounded earlier in the day he turned them off and did not reset the system. The alarms were off for about nine hours. The worker was fired.
The day after the incident in Osage, a 103-year- resident of the Friendship Haven care facility in Fort Dodge died after falling. The resident had a history of falls, the last of which resulted in a broken hip. The resident was admitted to the hospital and died of cardiac arrest.
The official cause of death was listed as complications stemming from the fall.
The home is appealing an $8,000 fine.
The Osage Rehabilitation and Health Care Center is appealing a $10,000 fine for allegedly failing to prevent an 88-year-old resident from wandering outside in frigid conditions.
The woman was hospitalized after a teenager found the woman standing barefoot in a snow-covered street about 1:45 a.m. on Jan. 20, according to police reports and state records. The woman left the center unnoticed about 30 minutes earlier, dressed only in thin bed-clothes.
At the time, there was seven inches of snow, and the wind chill was 27 degrees below zero.
The police officer who retrieved the woman told state inspectors that she was so stiff he struggled get her into the police car. She was taken to a hospital, where she was admitted in critical condition and treated for hypothermia and frostbite.
According to state inspection reports, the woman left the center unnoticed because the door alarms at the center were switched off. Staff members were not aware she was missing until police told them she was in the hospital.
One worker told state officials that after the alarms sounded earlier in the day he turned them off and did not reset the system. The alarms were off for about nine hours. The worker was fired.
The day after the incident in Osage, a 103-year- resident of the Friendship Haven care facility in Fort Dodge died after falling. The resident had a history of falls, the last of which resulted in a broken hip. The resident was admitted to the hospital and died of cardiac arrest.
The official cause of death was listed as complications stemming from the fall.
The home is appealing an $8,000 fine.
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