Report Rips Cda Nursing Home Health Department Releases Specifics Behind $26,000 Fine, Admission Ban At Life Care

Inspectors of Life Care Center nursing home observed patients with bruises from falls, overheard nurses speaking harshly to patients and saw staff ignore patients when they were in need of help.

Those are a few of the findings in a report released Monday by the state Department of Health and Welfare.

The inspection was conducted in early January. As a result of the inspection team’s findings, Life Care was banned from admitting new patients or readmitting old patients until dozens of problems are corrected.

The nursing home chain also was fined $26,000.

In a prepared statement, Michelle Steizer-O’Neill, the executive director of Life Care’s Coeur d’Alene facility, said that the center is ready for a follow-up inspection.

“We anticipate state inspectors will find a level of service that meets the expectations of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, as well as our residents and their families,” she said.

The state has received the nursing home’s corrective plan of action, but has not reviewed it yet, said John Hathaway, the agency’s bureau chief of facility standards.

Life Care has to pass a surprise follow-up inspection before it’s allowed to admit patients, he said.

The ban has forced Kootenai Medical Center to find other nursing homes to take Life Care clients admitted to the hospital, said hospital spokesman Mike Regan.

Steizer-O’Neill said the nursing home had not lost business as a result of the violations. She would not comment on whether the nursing home disputed any of the state’s findings.

But she quoted a family member of a Life Care patient who described the nursing home staff as “loving and compassionate.”

Among the findings listed in the report were:

A bed-ridden patient, exposed from the waist down and covered in feces, who was ignored by staff walking by her room even as she called out, “help me, help me.”

Staff members who treated patients disrespectfully by either mimicking them or scolding them.

Patients who suffered multiple falls from their beds, chairs or wheelchairs, and an inadequate response from the staff to prevent falls.

Poor monitoring of medications to prevent patients from receiving drugs in the wrong combinations.

A patient on oxygen who was left alone to feed himself in the dining room without being given supplemental oxygen. He was found unresponsive by a nurse and his oxygen mask wasn’t replaced until he was wheeled to his room.

In her statement, Steizer-O’Neill said that Life Care has increased the financial resources to the Coeur d’Alene facility to help correct problems. Additional staff has been hired.

Since the inspection, training has been given in a number of areas, including medical monitoring, behavior management with nondrug alternatives, grooming and dignity, and using motion alarms for fall-prone clients.

The 120-bed facility has 89 residents and opened in August 1996. Life Care, a nationwide company based in Cleveland, Tenn., has more than 200 nursing homes, seven of them in Idaho.

A Life Care residential care facility in Pocatello recently was fined $50,000, and a facility in Boise was also found to be substandard. Both of those facilities are back in compliance with the state, officials said.

Life Care’s chief executive officer, Forrest L. Preston, met with Hathaway and other state officials last month.

“They tell us they’ve never had problems like this in any other state,” Hathaway said. “I haven’t had a chance to check with our associates in other states.”

Steizer-O’Neill said the problems are now cleared up.

“We invite anyone who may have a concern to come for a visit and see for themselves the kind of care that is being given here,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE COMPANY Life Care, based in Cleveland, Tenn., has more than 200 nursing homes, seven of them in Idaho. The 120-bed Coeur d’Alene facility has 89 residents and opened in August 1996.