Tennessee Nursing Home Cannot Admit New Patients Due to Multiple Violations
In a dramatic step taken by the state health commissioner, the John M. Reed Health and Rehabilitation facility in Limestone, TN was ordered not to admit new residents as of December 3rd, 2015. The facility was also fined $4,000 due to its negligence in caring for its current residents. Dr. John Dreyzehner, the health commissioner, is the one who issued the suspension on admitting new patients, citing multiple, varied violations in treatment that resulted in “immediate jeopardy” for the residents of the 63-bed nursing home.
The charges against the nursing home have been under investigation since October 14thof this year, and the state followed up with the annual Recertification and Licensure survey in early November. Once the investigation concluded on December 3rd, the facility was cited for violating basic nursing, administration, and medical records rules.
According to the investigation, the main issue at John M. Reed is a staffing shortage so severe that residents were unattended to for hours at a time, did not receive proper medication to treat infections, were not cleaned promptly when incontinent, and were not properly monitored even if they tended to wander due to dementia. At least one time, a housekeeper was instructed to help care for patients when there weren’t enough licensed nurses on hand. In addition, the nursing home failed to notify residents’ doctors and families of pertinent information about their ongoing care and health situations, even as those situations changed. One man with a urinary catheter ended up developing pressure wounds on his penis because of staff neglect in caring for the catheter and then in administering the antibiotics his doctor prescribed to treat the initial infection. This led to a worsening infection and the eventual removal of four centimeters of destroyed tissue. Sadly, at this facility this horrifying story is more the rule than the exception.
The nursing home hasn’t yet issued a statement about the investigation’s results or their suspended ability to take new patients. But it’s difficult to imagine any explanation that could account for the pain and suffering they have inflicted on their residents and the residents’ families. Now that the state has intervened, hopefully these people will get the justice they deserve and no one else will be harmed by neglect at this facility.
