Golden Age Nursing Home could lose its Medicare and Medicaid eligibility on Aug. 30 following a series of health violations.
Two nurses were caught stealing residents’ pain pills in separate incidents in January and March, and a resident who requested to be resuscitated wasn’t when nurses found her dead body.
Further, Golden Age had 24 health deficiencies on its most recent state inspection, the most of any nursing home in Mississippi that’s been inspected in the current 15-month cycle.
A public notice ran in the Commonwealth Friday announcing upcoming termination of the Medicare/Medicaid agreement with Golden Age.
Payment for existing residents at the 180-bed facility will continue for 30 days and then stop on Sept. 29, the ad said. Medicare or Medicaid won’t pay for new residents admitted after Aug. 30.
But an unannounced follow-up inspection will be held, and nursing home and government officials expressed hope that the problems can be worked out before Aug. 30.
“We’re going to work together with the facility as well as the state because we realize the importance of the facilities for providing health care as well as the importance to the community,” said Lee Millman, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Nay Reed, who took over as Golden Age’s administrator after Ed Hill retired earlier this month, released a prepared statement this morning saying corrective action has been taken “and hopefully the ad will be retracted within the next few days.”
“On behalf of Golden Age, Inc., it is our desire to continue meeting the long-term care needs of the citizens of Leflore County and the surrounding counties in the same professional manner as we have provided for the past 57 years,” the statement said. “We wish to thank the community for their continued support, and apologize for the concern that has been created by the publication of this ad and the penalties imposed by CMS.
“Please know that everything is being done to insure that the needs of residents are being met, and the future of Golden Age remains strong.”
Inspection reports by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid revealed widespread issues regarding resident care at Golden Age. That included seven areas deemed to pose an “immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety.”
An inspection conducted Feb. 10 found 24 health deficiencies. The state average is 5.9. The two other Greenwood nursing homes, Crystal Health and Rehab and Riverview Nursing and Rehabilitation, both had four health deficiencies on their most recent inspections.
Some of the violations seem minor: a roommate overhearing a nurse’s conversation over an intercom with a resident about getting a Tylenol or instructions posted on a bed to leave a resident’s socks on when she’s in bed.
But others are more serious: Blinds left open while giving incontinent care and not changing cloths or using a different side of a cloth while bathing residents.
Other problems included:
nNot keeping clinical records on each resident. A resident didn’t have her diet monitored, and another resident had an allergic reaction after being given a medicine.
nInfection-control problems because nurses failed to wash their hands between removing one pair of gloves and putting on a second pair while giving care to patients.
nElectronic keypads on medication carts not working. Nurses bypassed the lock by pulling a lever on the side.
And then there’s the prescription drug scandal.
Three licensed practical nurses have been fired for their roles.
The state Attorney General’s Office investigated, but it’s not known if charges were filed. An attorney general’s spokeswoman could not be reached by email Monday.
The nurses’ names are redacted from investigative reports, which are posted online.
One nurse, referred to as LPN No. 1, failed a drug test on Jan. 3 and was suspended pending an investigation. She had checked out pain pills for at least three residents, but the residents said they had not asked for the medication or taken anything stronger than Tylenol.
LPN No. 1 had signed out narcotics on the sedative record but not on the Medication Administration Record. She denied stealing the drugs and said she didn’t know that the prescriptions needed to be signed out in two different places.
She was fired on Feb. 1.
The Attorney General’s Office came to Golden Age to investigate the thefts in March. Another nurse identified as LPN #2 confessed to stealing pain medication from four residents and was fired.
She said she took some of the pills because of pain in her legs, feet and lower back, especially when she worked more than one shift. She said she’d ask patients daily if they were hurting. If they were, she’d give them their pill; if not, she’d take it herself.
She then signed the pills out on the computer and narcotics sheets, sometimes going back later to make the computer entries if she forgot initially.
LPN No. 2 said she took between 20 and 50 pills from residents, all over the previous couple of months.
A third LPN was terminated March 15 for entering computer records regarding pain pills for LPN No. 2 after being given LPN No. 2’s password. LPN No. 3 said she wasn’t aware that LPN No. 2 was falsifying the records but admitted she shouldn’t have entered the information for someone else.
Golden Age was cited for not reporting the incidents within 24 hours to the state Department of Health
A subsequent review by nursing home staff, as directed by the Department of Health, found no additional discrepancies in residents’ sedative records.
The staff received training and all passwords were changed, among other corrective measures. The state conducted an audit in March to make sure the changes had been implemented. No discrepancies were found during that follow-up.
No date is given in a separate investigative report related to the resident who died and wasn’t resuscitated. She had orders to be resuscitated if her vital signs failed, but an LPN chose not to do so because the woman’s body was already cold by the time it was discovered. That LPN was fired, and Golden Age was fined $30,713 for the incident.
• Contact Charlie Smith at 581-7235 or csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
