PRATT — Several phone calls were made to residents in Pratt on Wednesday from a man claiming to be with the city of Pratt.

Officials said the caller told the intended victims they owed money and, if they don’t send money immediately, their electricity will be cut off.

Officials say so far, no callers have sent money. Officials said neither the city nor county will call in regards to billing and advised residents that if they receive such a call, hang up.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A northeast Kansas attorney facing disciplinary action for how he represented a man in a capital murder case says he is being punished for using a trial tragedy developed and advocated by his client.

Dennis Hawver of Ozawkie represented Phillip Cheatham Jr. during a jury trial in 2005 in which the defendant was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. The Kansas Supreme court reversed Cheatham’s convictions and ordered a new trial, ruling he had received ineffective counsel from Hawver.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Hawver on Tuesday filed a brief with the Kansas Supreme Court contesting the findings of a three-member disciplinary panel that recommended disbarment or indefinite suspension.

Regardless of the outcome, Hawver says his lawyering days are probably over.

JENNIFER PELTZ
NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama and Sept. 11 survivors, rescuers and victims’ relatives will open the 9/11 museum at ground zero today.

This is a time-lapse video of the building of the memorial courtesy Earth-Cam.

The National September 11 Memorial Museum will be open initially to victims’ families, survivors and first responders, then it will open to the public May 21.

It honors the nearly 3,000 people killed in New York, Washington and the Pennsylvania countryside.

The museum extends 70 feet underground to the twin towers’ foundations.

There are scenes of horror, including videos of the skyscrapers collapsing and people falling from them.

But there also are symbols of heroism. They range from damaged fire trucks to the wristwatch of one of the airline passengers who confronted the hijackers.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services today announced that an Andover nursing home has been fined at least $155,800 for failing to protect its residents from abusive workers.

“This agency does not tolerate abuse or neglect of our nursing home residents,” KDADS Secretary Shawn Sullivan said in a prepared statement that accompanied the announcement.

The fine, imposed by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, represents an $8,200-per-day penalty for each day– March 26 through April 13 – that the facility, Victoria Falls, was found to be out of compliance with state and federal safety standards. An additional $1,000 fine is being levied for each day the facility remains out of compliance after April 13.

Sullivan accused the facility’s operators of covering up allegations of abuse and neglect by residents’ family members.

“We believe that in this case there was willful intent not to report allegations of abuse to KDADS,” he said.
Victoria Falls, which has about 60 residents, is owned and operated by Watercrest Communities and DB Consulting, Andover-based companies owned by Dennis and Debbie Bush.

In a statement faxed to KHI News Service, Dennis Bush said the company was cooperating with KDADS and law enforcement officials “…in regards to an allegation of abuse that occurred in 2013. Victoria Falls has taken appropriate measures to ensure the safety of residents, including termination and suspension of involved staff. Unfortunately we are not at liberty to say any more due to
federal disclosure laws.”
According to the Watercrest Communities website, the company also owns Victoria Falls Assisted Living in Andover, Carrington at Cherry Creek an assisted living facility in Wichita, and Carrington Health Center, a residential health care facility in Wichita.

KDADS inspectors filed a 150-page report after visiting the facility April 28.

The report stated that a portion of the findings stemmed from a clandestine video from an unidentified “outside source” that showed a night-shift nurse dragging a resident from a wheelchair, dropping the resident to the floor “in the middle of the room directly onto the resident’s bottom,” and leaving the resident alone in the dark.

The resident, who is described as having “disorganized thinking” and a “severe cognitive impairment,” can be heard pleading for help on the video.

According to the time on the video, the incident occurred at 2:44 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2013. The video was not made public by state officials.

An aide helped the resident back into bed after the resident had been on the floor for almost 45 minutes.

In the video, the aide can be heard “sternly” telling the resident, “You are not the only person here. You have taken away from other people needing care. You have been in here acting a fool.”

The nurse later can be seen throwing “a neck pillow at the resident, hitting the resident in the face,” and telling the resident to shut up.

The report does not identify the resident, aide, or nurse by name or by gender.

The aide in the video told KDADS last month that Victoria Falls was “always short-staffed” and that aides would hide residents’ call lights because their co-workers would “go missing for hours…”

Another aide said that “the entire night shift was aware” of the abuse but chose not to report it to the nursing home’s administrators because previous experience had shown that “nothing would be done.”

The surveyors also cited Victoria Falls for poor care, poor recordkeeping, being understaffed, not performing background checks on prospective employees, not doing enough to investigate reports of suspected abuse and neglect, not doing enough to ensure residents’ dignity, not doing enough to keep track of residents’ personal funds, and not doing enough to prevent cuts and bruises.

Linda Farrar, a semi-retired consultant who’s both a nurse and a licensed nursing home administrator, has studied the report.

“The abuse issues are the ones that stick out the most, but I have to say the saddest, most disappointing thing is how long this was allowed to go on,” Farrar said. “I mean, there’s a direct care staff (cited in the report) who says the first time she heard about these people abusing residents was back in July of 2013. That is unacceptable, that is unconscionable. We cannot let our elders be treated this way.”

Mitzi McFatrich, executive director at Kansas Advocates for Better Care, a group that represents the interests of nursing residents and their families, called the survey “very disturbing.”

State records, she said, show that Victoria Falls failed several inspections since 2012.

“We appreciate the harsher-than-usual fine and we commend the secretary for that,” McFatrich said. “Now the question becomes whether the fine will actually be paid or will it be reduced? Will the Attorney General’s Office pursue criminal or applicable civil charges? What are the steps being taken to hold the administrator and the director of nursing accountable for failing to report?”

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office was not immediately available for comment.

The facility’s operators have the right to appeal the CMS findings and fines.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A retiring professor and administrator at Pittsburg State University has been honored by the Kansas Board of Regents.

The board on Wednesday approved the title of president emeritus for Tom Bryant, who served as Pittsburg State’s president from 1999 to 2009.

Bryant is currently a professor of health, human performance and recreation. He will retire at the end of the spring semester after more than 40 years at the university. His career also includes a brief time serving as interim president and CEO of the regents.

Pittsburg State President Steve Scott was a student of Bryant in the early 1970s and calls him a friend and a mentor. A student health center on the campus was previously named in Bryant’s honor.

 

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The executive director of a zoo in upstate New York has been named to lead the Hutchinson Zoo.

The Hutchinson News reports  that City Manager John Deardoff announced the appointment of John Wright on Tuesday.

Wright is currently executive director of the New York State Zoo at Thompson Park in Watertown, New York. In Hutchinson, he will replace Jana Durham, who resigned Feb. 7.

Deardoff says Wright started his career as a volunteer at the Kansas City Zoo and was interested in the job at the Hutchinson Zoo because he has family in the area.

He says Wright was also attracted to the zoo’s mostly Kansas native collection of animals. The New York State Zoo also features wildlife native to that state.