By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — Butler County Attorney Brian Divinney said today that his office is considering filing criminal charges against at least one nursing home employee suspected of abusing an elderly resident at an Andover care facility.
“We’ve been working with the Andover Police Department on this case for some months now,” Divinney said. “We’re considering charges. We’re close, but at the same we have to make sure the responsible parties are charged responsibly. I suspect it’ll be fairly soon, we just need to tamp a few things down.”
Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services on Wednesday announced that Victoria Falls nursing home in Andover had been fined at least $155,800 for failing to protect its residence from abusive workers.
KDADS inspectors filed a 150-page report after spending days at the facility last month.
The report stated that at least four employees – three aides and a nurse – had been verbally or physically abusive toward a resident who was described as having “disorganized thinking” and a “severe cognitive impairment.”
A portion of the findings in the report were linked to a clandestine video from an unidentified “outside source” that showed a night-shift nurse dragging the 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 can be heard pleading for help on the video.
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.”
Later, 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.
Though the report does not identify the resident, aide, or nurse by name or by gender, Andover Police Department Lt. Brandon Stewart on Thursday said the resident and employees are women.
The video, he said, was taken by family members who “had reason to believe their mother was being abused.”
Family members, Stewart said, shared the video with police on Nov. 3, 2013. The incident involving the resident being dropped on floor occurred between 2 .a.m. and 3 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2013.
Divinney said that if charges are filed, the video “would be among the exhibits that would be used against a defendant in trial.”
The KDADS 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.
The $155,800 fine is thought to be the largest levied against a Kansas nursing home.
“I’ve been at this for some 15 years now, and I don’t recall a fine of that size,” said Debra Zehr, chief executive of LeadingAge Kansas, a trade association that represents many of the state’s non-profit, long-term-care facilities.
“The findings at Victoria Falls are horrifying and indicate not just an instance in which a single worker committed abuse, but rather a top-down culture that permitted verbal and physical abuse,” Zehr wrote in an email to KHI News Service.
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 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.
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.
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.
The Bushes have the right to appeal the findings and the fines.