Care Center Can’t Admit New Patients Serious Deficiencies Found At Valley Nursing Home

A Spokane Valley nursing home is barred from admitting new residents after state inspectors found serious deficiencies that endangered the elderly people who lived there.

It’s the second time in a year Valleycrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center was ordered to close its doors to new residents.

The center, at 12715 E. Mission, also faces a $10,000 fine - its seventh fine in four years.

“They had quite a number of serious violations,” said Edith Coleman, who managed the inspection for the state Department of Social and Health Services.

“There was a pattern of deficiencies that constituted actual harm to the residents.”

Valleycrest provided inadequate supervision to residents and was responsible for related medical problems, including bed sores and urinary tract infections, Coleman said.

Mike Mervis, spokesman for Unicare Homes, the Milwaukee-based company that owns Valleycrest, said the nursing home is fixing the problems.

“We’re continuing to provide virtually unlimited resources to the company (Valleycrest),” Mervis said.

The nursing home has some disagreements with state inspectors, however, and is appealing the $10,000 fine, Mervis said. He refused to elaborate on the disagreements.

Valleycrest administrator Gail Brown didn’t return a call for comment.

Coleman said she hopes new federal procedures will stop repeat violations like those at Valleycrest, which has 107 residents.

“We have a little more muscle behind us,” Coleman said. “Before, the process just went on and on and on.”

The rules, adopted in July 1995, require deficient nursing homes to make immediate remedies, Coleman said. “We’re not going to give them 90 days or 120 days.”

Among the violations listed in the 64-page report from the Feb. 6 inspection:

The nursing home was short-staffed.

Shower stalls were dirty and a bathroom had loose tile. Wallpaper was peeling and one wall had several holes in it.

A resident was left at a dinner table with mucus dripping from the resident’s nose into the food.

A resident who needed help eating was left alone during eight meals and ate less than a quarter of the food. Once the resident fell asleep in a plate of scrambled eggs.

Employees failed to clean feces from residents’ hands.

Nursing assistants didn’t wash their own hands after checking residents for incontinence.

Residents weren’t assured privacy when making telephone calls.

Valleycrest’s plans to correct the problems include more training for workers, including classes on “dignity issues.” A coding system is being set up to remind workers which residents need help with meals.

Inspectors completed a follow-up visit last week, but Coleman said she hasn’t reviewed the findings.

If the nursing home hasn’t corrected the problems, the federal Health Care Financing Administration could stop payments on all new admissions, Coleman said.

Unicare also owns three other Spokane nursing homes: Southcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Westcliff, The Gardens on University, and Franklin Hills Nursing Center on Lidgerwood.

Mervis said those nursing homes weren’t having the same problems as Valleycrest.

Unicare owns 183 care facilities in 13 states. Company officials were in Spokane on Wednesday to talk about finding a permanent fix for the violations, he said.

“They’re really under pressure to get things corrected,” Coleman said. “It’s all to the betterment of the residents.”

, DataTimes