Franklin Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing received 26 citations for violations of public health laws between 2015 and 2019, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on December 12, 2019. The Flushing nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of three inspections by state authorities. The deficiencies they describe include the following:
1. The facility did not adequately implement measures to prevent and heal pressure ulcers. Section 483.25 of the Federal Code states that nursing homes must prevent residents with “care, consistent with professional standards of practice, to prevent pressure ulcers.” A November 2017 citation found that Franklin Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing did not ensure the provision of professional standards of care to a resident suffering from a Stage 4 pressure ulcer. The citation states specifically that a nurse applied to the wound “a dressing appliance that was too small,” and employed an “improper technique” to dry the resident’s pressure wound. According to the citation, the nurse applied gauze that only partially covered the wound, leaving its border as well as some “excoriated redness” exposed. The citation states that this deficiency had the “potential to cause more than minimal harm.”
2. The nursing home did not adequately protect residents from abuse and neglect. Section 483.12 of the Federal Code ensures nursing home residents “the right to be free from abuse, neglect, misappropriation of resident property, and exploitation.” A July 2019 found that the nursing home did not protect this right in an instance in which residents sustained an injury during a “resident-to-resident altercation.” According to the citation, the altercation specifically resulted in one resident experienced “a laceration to her right leg that required sutures,” and another “was punched in the head by another resident and suffered a headache and poor vision.” The facility undertook a plan of correction relating to this incident that included the education of licensed nurses on the facility’s Resident to Resident Abuse policy, as well as the adoption of a Behavior Monitoring policy.
3. The nursing home did not adequately protect residents from accident hazards. Section 483.25 of the Federal Code states that nursing home facilities must provide residents with an environment “as free of accident hazards as is possible.” A November 2017 citation found that the nursing home did not adequately protect residents from accident hazards in two capacities. A state inspector observed specifically that handrails on the facility’s eighth floor “were loose and not firmly affixed to the wall,” and that there were “torn skid mats and splintered [and] chipped wood” on a stair climbing aide. In an interview, the facility’s Director of Rehabilitation told an inspector that she recognized how the splintered wood “can appear unsafe.”
The attorneys at the Law Offices of Thomas L. Gallivan, PLLC work diligently to protect the rights of nursing home residents. Please contact us to discuss in the event you have a potential case involving neglect or abuse.
