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Chilling report from an Iowa nursing home.....

torbee

HR King
Gold Member
FYI if you aren’t following/reading Capital Dispatch, you should be, especially if you do not care for the Register. It’s a newish non-profit digital publication staffed by excellent investigative reporters including Pulitzer winner Clark Kaufman and former Register Statehouse reporter Kathie Obradovich:


Something’s wrong:’ Inspectors watch as COVID-19 spreads in Iowa nursing home
By
Clark Kauffman
-
July 2, 2020
cdc-photo-seniors-covid19.jpg

The state has cited a third Iowa nursing home where residents have died of COVID-19 for failing to observe basic health care protocols. (Photo by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
A third Iowa nursing home where residents have died of COVID-19 has been cited by the state for failing to observe basic health care protocols in the midst of the pandemic.

According to state records, the Mitchell Village Care Center has at times been staffed by only one low-level nurse aide to look after 40 or more residents; a man known to be infected with the virus wandered the home without a mask; a nurse complained the situation was “free-for-all, with no leadership from management”; and the director of nursing told inspectors the home was “falling apart” with “bed-ridden, weakened residents with no one to help them.”

There have been at least 22 infections reported at the Mitchellville home, with eight residents hospitalized and two deaths. The facility, also known as the QHC Mitchellville care facility, is home to roughly 45 older Iowans.

Last week, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported 51 residents and staff at a Dubuque nursing home tested positive for COVID, and 11 residents died, after inspectors said three workers with symptoms of COVID-19 were allowed to work in the home. The three workers later tested positive for the virus.

This week, the Associated Press reported that 79 residents and staff members at an Oskaloosa nursing home tested positive for COVID-19, and 15 residents died. One worker at the home, who later tested positive for the virus, had been allowed to “self screen” before working shifts in the building, inspectors reported.

State records indicate that even the most basic infection-control protocols were ignored at the Mitchellville home when inspectors visited in early May, several weeks into the pandemic.

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals alleges that on May 7, as the agency’s inspectors watched, one of the male residents who had tested positive just 10 days before wandered into a hallway and commons area of the home, huffing and puffing, saying, “Something’s wrong.”

The resident, insectors said, was not wearing a face mask. An hour later, the same resident was seen again in the hallway, huffing and puffing, and short of breath. A few hours later, inspectors saw the man out of his room again, near the dining room, with labored breathing. According to state records, the man was touching the top of the nurses’ station, struggling for breath, yet the three staffers nearby, including the director of nursing, failed to intervene and redirect him to his room. They also didn’t sanitize the nurses’ station.

The next day, the same man was reportedly seen again in a hallway of the home, struggling for breath and leaning against a cart that stored clean linens to be used in other residents’ rooms. A staffer directed the man back to his room, but didn’t clean the cart that, according to inspectors, the man had “breathed on, directly, within less than a foot (arm’s length) for several minutes.”

Later that same evening, the man emerged from his room and stood near a row of clean face shields that were lined up for use by the staff. Inspectors said they watched as the man “huffed and puffed against the face shields … and he touched the face shields with his bare hands.” A worker asked the man to go back to his room but didn’t move or clean the face shields.

Another resident of the home told inspectors he was aware some of his fellow residents died after they tested positive for COVID-19, and said he felt the home was putting his life in danger.

That same day, inspectors watched as staffers made their rounds and failed to sanitize equipment or don the protective gowns intended to limit transmission of the virus.

Inspectors also reported overflowing trash bins and “clean” personal protective equipment, or PPE, being stored in a utility room alongside soiled equipment and biohazardous waste.

The director of nursing — who also served as the home’s infection control specialist — told inspectors she had been in the job for a month and that after 20 or so residents tested positive for the virus, she “tried to move residents” to minimize the spread, “but still had no idea what to do.”

She said the previous director of nursing was supposed to train her but “walked out” before doing so. She told the inspectors she did not know where the home’s infection-control program policies were located and she could not say what the specifics of the program were.

According to the inspectors, the director of nursing also said the staff had not received training and the home was “falling apart.” She spoke of “bed-ridden, weakened residents with no one to help them.”

The inspectors reported the director of nursing informed the home’s administrator she “could no longer be considered” director of nursing as she could not perform all of the tasks assigned to her, had received no training to do the job, and “did not know the ins and outs of it.”

A nurse aide told inspectors she was not instructed by the home’s administrators what to do with PPE, where it was stored, how to get it, or how to disinfect it. She said she was given no training on the virus, and felt “everything in the facility is a mess.” A registered nurse described the situation for inspectors as a “free-for-all, with no leadership from management.”

Staffing was a major problem, with the director of nursing telling inspectors she called everyone she could, including the United Way, looking for help, and was relying on eight different temp agencies to find workers. She said one of her colleagues had called the local fire and rescue squad for help, but they were short-staffed, too.

The inspectors’ review of personnel records allegedly showed entire eight-hour shifts with only person on duty to care for 40 or more residents. One registered nurse reportedly worked 28 hours straight at the home.

An aide who was alleged to be the only staffer working in the building from 11 p.m. one evening until 1:30 the next morning, told inspectors she tried to answer residents’ call lights while also working the phones in an effort to find someone to come in and help. She couldn’t reach anyone in management, she told the inspectors.

The home is run by QHC Management, which owns and operates at least seven Iowa care facilities. The limited liability corporation is owned by Jerry and Nancy Voyna of West Des Moines. Since 2011, the Voynas have contributed $36,000 to the Iowa nursing home industry’s primary political action committee, which in turn provides money for the campaigns of statehouse and gubernatorial candidates.

Jerry Vonya could not be reached Thursday by the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

There have been 56 COVID-19 outbreaks in Iowa nursing homes, and 380 COVID-19 deaths in those facilities.
 
Gov. Kim Reynolds was asked about the problems at the Dubuque nursing homes last week and said, “it’s just something that shouldn’t happen … I do want to reiterate, though, in the context of this, that there are a lot of long-term care facilities that are doing a phenomenal job.”

On April 6, Reynolds commended the state’s nursing homes, saying she had met with industry lobbyists about the need to protect older Iowans in care facilities. “I want Iowans to know that we knew that this would be an extremely vulnerable population,” Reynolds said at the time, “and that’s why we took very significant measures early on to start to really limit access to protect and to make sure that we were doing everything we can to mitigate the effect of COVID-19 on our vulnerable Iowans.”

On June 18, Reynolds signed legislation granting Iowa nursing homes and other care providers immunity from COVID-19 lawsuits. She has saidthe bill includes “appropriate exemptions that still permits some lawsuits for reckless or willful misconduct,” but the bill itself has exemptions only for acts “intended to cause harm,” those that involve “actual malice,” and those that involve in-patient hospitalizations or deaths.

Even before the pandemic struck, the Mitchellville home was cited by state inspectors for serious violations. In January, the home was fined $23,000, with inspectors alleging 19 regulatory violations, including inadequate nursing services and failure to provide a safe environment. In 2019, the home was cited for 16 regulatory violations.

As a result of the May inspection, the Vonyas’ Mitchellville facility was fined $30,500 by the state — but only symbolically. In keeping with new federal guidelines, all of the state fines imposed against nursing homes during the pandemic are being held in suspension. The $23,000 in state fines stemming from the January inspection have also been suspended, allowing federal officials to impose a fine of their own.

A total of 21 Iowa care facilities have been cited for regulatory violations since the beginning of the pandemic, but their fines, totaling $108,250, have all been suspended.

The homes, and the fines, include:

  • Thomas Rest Haven, Coon Rapids: $8,750 and $500
  • Garden View Care Center, Shenandoah: $9,000
  • Glenwood Resource Center, Glenwood: $1,500, $500, $4,000
  • GHC Winterset North, Winterset: $4,000
  • Good Samaritan Society, Algona: $8,250
  • Neuro Restorative, Ankeny: $5,250
  • Neuro Restorative, Iowa City: $6,000
  • Behavioral Technologies, Des Moines: $9,500
  • Behavioral Technologies, Marion: $500
  • Carriage Hill, Dubuque: $6,750
  • Carlisle Center for Wellness & Rehab, Carlisle: $3,500
  • Village Northwest Unlimited, Sheldon: $500
  • Pearl Valley Nursing & Rehabilitation, Muscatine: $10,000
  • ManorCare Utica Ridge, Davenport: $8,500
  • Oakview Nursing & Rehabilitation, Burlington: $6,750
  • Good Samaritan Society, West Union: $8,500
  • QHC, Mitchellville: $10,000; $10,000; $10,000; $500
  • The Suites at Western Home, Cedar Rapids: $3,000
  • Dubuque Specialty Care, Dubuque: $10,000
  • Crystal Heights, Oskaloosa: $8,750
  • Friendship Haven, Fort Dodge: $7,500
 
Nursing homes are huge contributors to Iowa Republican politics. Branstad called off the DHS dogs that Vilsack and Culver budgeted for to oversee their operations. These folks have carte blanche in Iowa and it would take a major catastrophe for “the state” to crack down on these guys.
 
FYI if you aren’t following/reading Capital Dispatch, you should be, especially if you do not care for the Register. It’s a newish non-profit digital publication staffed by excellent investigative reporters including Pulitzer winner Clark Kaufman and former Register Statehouse reporter Kathie Obradovich:


Something’s wrong:’ Inspectors watch as COVID-19 spreads in Iowa nursing home
By
Clark Kauffman
-
July 2, 2020
cdc-photo-seniors-covid19.jpg

The state has cited a third Iowa nursing home where residents have died of COVID-19 for failing to observe basic health care protocols. (Photo by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
A third Iowa nursing home where residents have died of COVID-19 has been cited by the state for failing to observe basic health care protocols in the midst of the pandemic.

According to state records, the Mitchell Village Care Center has at times been staffed by only one low-level nurse aide to look after 40 or more residents; a man known to be infected with the virus wandered the home without a mask; a nurse complained the situation was “free-for-all, with no leadership from management”; and the director of nursing told inspectors the home was “falling apart” with “bed-ridden, weakened residents with no one to help them.”

There have been at least 22 infections reported at the Mitchellville home, with eight residents hospitalized and two deaths. The facility, also known as the QHC Mitchellville care facility, is home to roughly 45 older Iowans.

Last week, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported 51 residents and staff at a Dubuque nursing home tested positive for COVID, and 11 residents died, after inspectors said three workers with symptoms of COVID-19 were allowed to work in the home. The three workers later tested positive for the virus.

This week, the Associated Press reported that 79 residents and staff members at an Oskaloosa nursing home tested positive for COVID-19, and 15 residents died. One worker at the home, who later tested positive for the virus, had been allowed to “self screen” before working shifts in the building, inspectors reported.

State records indicate that even the most basic infection-control protocols were ignored at the Mitchellville home when inspectors visited in early May, several weeks into the pandemic.

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals alleges that on May 7, as the agency’s inspectors watched, one of the male residents who had tested positive just 10 days before wandered into a hallway and commons area of the home, huffing and puffing, saying, “Something’s wrong.”

The resident, insectors said, was not wearing a face mask. An hour later, the same resident was seen again in the hallway, huffing and puffing, and short of breath. A few hours later, inspectors saw the man out of his room again, near the dining room, with labored breathing. According to state records, the man was touching the top of the nurses’ station, struggling for breath, yet the three staffers nearby, including the director of nursing, failed to intervene and redirect him to his room. They also didn’t sanitize the nurses’ station.

The next day, the same man was reportedly seen again in a hallway of the home, struggling for breath and leaning against a cart that stored clean linens to be used in other residents’ rooms. A staffer directed the man back to his room, but didn’t clean the cart that, according to inspectors, the man had “breathed on, directly, within less than a foot (arm’s length) for several minutes.”

Later that same evening, the man emerged from his room and stood near a row of clean face shields that were lined up for use by the staff. Inspectors said they watched as the man “huffed and puffed against the face shields … and he touched the face shields with his bare hands.” A worker asked the man to go back to his room but didn’t move or clean the face shields.

Another resident of the home told inspectors he was aware some of his fellow residents died after they tested positive for COVID-19, and said he felt the home was putting his life in danger.

That same day, inspectors watched as staffers made their rounds and failed to sanitize equipment or don the protective gowns intended to limit transmission of the virus.

Inspectors also reported overflowing trash bins and “clean” personal protective equipment, or PPE, being stored in a utility room alongside soiled equipment and biohazardous waste.

The director of nursing — who also served as the home’s infection control specialist — told inspectors she had been in the job for a month and that after 20 or so residents tested positive for the virus, she “tried to move residents” to minimize the spread, “but still had no idea what to do.”

She said the previous director of nursing was supposed to train her but “walked out” before doing so. She told the inspectors she did not know where the home’s infection-control program policies were located and she could not say what the specifics of the program were.

According to the inspectors, the director of nursing also said the staff had not received training and the home was “falling apart.” She spoke of “bed-ridden, weakened residents with no one to help them.”

The inspectors reported the director of nursing informed the home’s administrator she “could no longer be considered” director of nursing as she could not perform all of the tasks assigned to her, had received no training to do the job, and “did not know the ins and outs of it.”

A nurse aide told inspectors she was not instructed by the home’s administrators what to do with PPE, where it was stored, how to get it, or how to disinfect it. She said she was given no training on the virus, and felt “everything in the facility is a mess.” A registered nurse described the situation for inspectors as a “free-for-all, with no leadership from management.”

Staffing was a major problem, with the director of nursing telling inspectors she called everyone she could, including the United Way, looking for help, and was relying on eight different temp agencies to find workers. She said one of her colleagues had called the local fire and rescue squad for help, but they were short-staffed, too.

The inspectors’ review of personnel records allegedly showed entire eight-hour shifts with only person on duty to care for 40 or more residents. One registered nurse reportedly worked 28 hours straight at the home.

An aide who was alleged to be the only staffer working in the building from 11 p.m. one evening until 1:30 the next morning, told inspectors she tried to answer residents’ call lights while also working the phones in an effort to find someone to come in and help. She couldn’t reach anyone in management, she told the inspectors.

The home is run by QHC Management, which owns and operates at least seven Iowa care facilities. The limited liability corporation is owned by Jerry and Nancy Voyna of West Des Moines. Since 2011, the Voynas have contributed $36,000 to the Iowa nursing home industry’s primary political action committee, which in turn provides money for the campaigns of statehouse and gubernatorial candidates.

Jerry Vonya could not be reached Thursday by the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

There have been 56 COVID-19 outbreaks in Iowa nursing homes, and 380 COVID-19 deaths in those facilities.
Yeah, but she signed that abortion bill. She's good.
 
Low paying job. Workers don't like the job. None of this is surprising at a nursing home.
The part which makes zero sense to me is the numer of nursing homes that just like packing plants offered bonuses if an employee worked all their shifts during a period of time (month or week).

Seriously???? Offer an incentive for that person to come to work even if they aren't feeling well or have been exposed? Taking the employees temp only goes so far. What if they aren't feverish yet?

Guessing if an employee were on the last shift of the period and inline for a bonus and felt a little under the weather he would be more inclined to come in than play it safe and stay home.
 
I have worked in nursing homes in multiple states under D and R governments.

It’s not about the State the nursing home is in, it is the state of our healthcare, employment, and business environment in this country.
 
In Iowa, nursing homes must be
licensed by the state. It would help
if every 6 months a state inspector
from the State Board of Health made
a visit and gave a graded report.

It all starts with the Head Administrator
at a Nursing Home. This person must
hire good staff and pay decent salaries.
The working environment needs to be
a place you can be proud of.
 
In Iowa, nursing homes must be
licensed by the state. It would help
if every 6 months a state inspector
from the State Board of Health made
a visit and gave a graded report.

It all starts with the Head Administrator
at a Nursing Home. This person must
hire good staff and pay decent salaries.
The working environment needs to be
a place you can be proud of.
This is not a viable working model, Lute. It is easier for the homes to pay off politicians, get favorable legislation rules and fewer regulations allowing these folks to remain profitable.
At the bottom of the nursing home mess is the fact this is the best way society can deal with old people...Institutionalize them, take their money, keep them out of public sight and scrutiny, allowing the young to live....and age, gracefully. Make no mistake about it....society can deal with old folks/ old parents....as long as there is money to be made....and the local churches can preach “Christian duty” to their less educated, poorer populations so the work can get done.
 
There is a Lutheran Nursing Home
in Davenport on 53rd St. It is under
the sponsorship of the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod and will
welcome anyone as a resident.

The Lutheran Home is not operated
by a corporation trying to make money.
Instead, it is looked upon as ministry
of caring for the elderly among us.
The Lord has blessed their efforts.
 
My wife’s 89 y/o grandfather had Covid and was left for three days with no food and water and during this time he fell and broke his ribs further complicating his condition and causing serious pain when coughing at pricey nursing home. He somehow survived after being left to die twice.

I worked at a hospital and a large nursing home. The difference in nurses and nursing aides is night and day. Nursing homes are cutthroat and for the majority have bottom of the barrel staff. Facts.
 
The flu will wipe out 15% to 20% of a nursing home. Happens every, happens everywhere. At that age and physical distress, COVID does nothing worse to the elderly than the flu or even getting a cold. Being that old or infirmed, anything, anything will send you out. The ONLY travesty in this whole thing was NY sending COVID to the nursing homes.
 
One big difference between a
hospital and a nursing home:

Nurses are in the majority at a
hospital and much fewer at a
nursing home. "nurses aides"
is the loosely defined term in
nursing homes.. They are not
well-trained and are sometimes
called to do tasks for which they
are not qualified.
 
The flu will wipe out 15% to 20% of a nursing home. Happens every, happens everywhere. At that age and physical distress, COVID does nothing worse to the elderly than the flu or even getting a cold. Being that old or infirmed, anything, anything will send you out. The ONLY travesty in this whole thing was NY sending COVID to the nursing homes.
You are dumb.
 
I wanted to post this months ago, but I have a grandparent in a nursing home in a small town near Sioux City.

Thus far, no patients have been affected by Covid and the home continuously assures the families of its residents that they are taking every precaution to prevent any potential infection.

However, one incident a while back had people concerned. They were short-staffed and in need of help, so they recruited a nurse from Sioux Falls to work some shifts. However, the hospital she worked at had dealt directly with Covid patients.

Needless to say, the home got a lot of calls from concerned families. They told us that they made sure she was not infected (okay...), and that they took all the necessary cleaning precautions, but that was still a little nerve racking over the next several days hoping to avoid any bad news.

Fortunately, nothing has come of it, however, this is exactly why certain other places have not been so lucky. Because people were brought in and proper precautions were NOT taken, and not only did patients end up dying, but the staff would go on to infect others outside the nursing home as well, including their families........
 
I wanted to post this months ago, but I have a grandparent in a nursing home in a small town near Sioux City.

Thus far, no patients have been affected by Covid and the home continuously assures the families of its residents that they are taking every precaution to prevent any potential infection.

However, one incident a while back had people concerned. They were short-staffed and in need of help, so they recruited a nurse from Sioux Falls to work some shifts. However, the hospital she worked at had dealt directly with Covid patients.

Needless to say, the home got a lot of calls from concerned families. They told us that they made sure she was not infected (okay...), and that they took all the necessary cleaning precautions, but that was still a little nerve racking over the next several days hoping to avoid any bad news.

Fortunately, nothing has come of it, however, this is exactly why certain other places have not been so lucky. Because people were brought in and proper precautions were NOT taken, and not only did patients end up dying, but the staff would go on to infect others outside the nursing home as well, including their families........

Honestly, the only alternative would be to have the staff locked in with the residents and NO ONE comes in or out, but who the hell would do that? You'd have ZERO employees if you proposed that.
 
Honestly, the only alternative would be to have the staff locked in with the residents and NO ONE comes in or out, but who the hell would do that? You'd have ZERO employees if you proposed that.
And that's also why so many old folks have died at their nursing homes.......:)

It's not like the old people left and went to the local bar and brought it back to share with everyone..............:eek::eek::eek:
 
Those actually seem like pretty small fines. I think they should be larger.
Depends on what they have done.

My mother lives in one of those places on the list. We (her kids) as well as her think she has been provided an excellent place to live and the staff has done a great job of protecting the residents. Not a cheap place and one would expect it to be a great place that retirement home workers would seek for employment.

Little bit surprised but not disappointed they are on the list. We don't know what they have done plus there are always 2 sides to every story/situation.
 
Last edited:
In Iowa, nursing homes must be
licensed by the state. It would help
if every 6 months a state inspector
from the State Board of Health made
a visit and gave a graded report.

It all starts with the Head Administrator
at a Nursing Home. This person must
hire good staff and pay decent salaries.
The working environment needs to be
a place you can be proud of.

Lute:
why do your sentences so often
seem so short instead of run-on?
However the points you make
I like for goodness sake
But their style I find a strange phenomenon
 
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