King Street Home received 32 citations for violations of public health laws between 2015 and 2019, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on November 26, 2019. The Port Chester nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of four inspections by state surveyors. The violations they describe include the following:
1. The nursing home did take adequate steps to protect residents from abuse. Under Section 483.12 of the Federal Code nursing homes must ensure residents’ “right to be free from abuse, neglect, misappropriation of resident property, and exploitation.” A July 2019 citation found that King Street Home did not ensure residents’ right to be free from abuse in an instance where a Certified Nursing Assistant was accused of being “rough” with a resident. After the resident reported the allegation, the assistant was removed from contact with that resident, but was not promptly removed from contact with other residents while the allegation was investigated. In an interview, the facility’s administrator told an inspector that the assistant “should have been removed from all resident contact” in addition to the resident in question.
2. The nursing home did not ensure its residents’ drug regimens were maintained free from unnecessary drugs. Section 483.45 of the Federal Code states that nursing home facilities shall keep “each resident’s drug regimen… free from unnecessary drugs.” A November 2018 citation describes a failure by King Street Home’s nursing staff to “promptly inform” a resident’s physician that the resident was experience adverse effects in connection with two medications, and as such did not promptly determine whether that resident should take a lower dosage or discontinue taking the medication altogether. According to the citation, this failure had the “potential to cause more than minimal harm.”
3. The nursing home did not ensure residents were kept free of medication error rates reaching or exceeding 5%. Section 483.45 of the Federal Code states nursing home facilities must maintain medication error rates below 5%. A November 2018 citation found that during a recertification survey, King Street Home in fact experienced a medication error rate of 7.4%, attributing this failure to two instances. In one, a resident self-administered an aerosol inhaler in a dosage that did not follow the physician’s orders; a Licensed Practical Nurse had provided the resident with the administration “without providing the resident on the number of inhalations (puffs) to be taken.” In a second instance, a resident was incorrectly administered a tablet of a certain medication. The citation stated that this deficiency had the “potential to cause more than minimal harm.”.
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.