Pennsylvania nursing home's license may be revoked

Taking care of an elderly person can be hard so a lot of families entrust the care of their loved one to a nursing home facility. It’s scary to turn the care over to someone else, but it’s worse when the facility has problems with reporting and its staff.

This week two Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, women were arrested after abusing an 83-year-old patient. The nursing home, which is owned by Capital Health Group, was recently placed on a provisional operating license, which is essentially a warning, when inspectors found problems in regards to reporting of medication errors.

The danger in errors in recordkeeping is that medical providers do not have all of the information they need if they need to prescribe new medication for their patient. Combinations of some medications could result in serious consequences or an overdose for the patient.

The State Department of Public Welfare revoked the nursing home license and banned new admissions citing gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct. The nursing home was also fined approximately $7,000.

The women arrested were caught abusing the patient by hidden cameras. This particular nursing home has had other problems in the past. The requirement of reporting medication errors resulted in a February warning to get their records and systems in order. In April the nursing home received another provisional license, after it was found that the original problems with medication errors were still not corrected. However, the nursing home did get everything in order by May and received its regular license back.

With the latest abuse arrest, the nursing home now has 30 days to file an appeal of the revocation of their license, but can continue to operate during the appeal. The nursing home will be monitored closely and will have several inspections during this time. If there is no appeal filed, the state agency will help residents relocate to other nursing homes.

Source: Phillyburbs.com, “Philadelphia women charged with abusing assisted living center resident,” Jo Ciavaglia and Christian Menno, Dec. 12, 2012