Iowa Nursing Home Fined More than Half a Million Dollars for Violations

In October of this year, the Garden View Care Center in Shenandoah was been cited for 23 violations and fined $300,000 for a plethora of violations. Not only that, they were added to Medicare's list of the nation's worst senior living facilities. One of our very own, Brain from KHAK in Cedar Rapids, covered the story.

There's been another added to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Special-Focus Facility List in our home state. The QHC Fort Dodge Villa in Webster County received 18 federal regulatory violations along with four state violations in the same month, receiving the worst possible grade from CMS.

The Iowa Capital Dispatch elaborates on the issues at hand:

In August, state inspectors visited the Fort Dodge home and subsequently issued a 199-page inspection report listing all of the regulatory violations found at the facility. Among the violations: failure to respect residents’ rights; failure to provide a safe, clean environment; failure to provide quality care; failure to prevent or treat pressure sores, and failure to ensure residents are free of medication errors.

 

Also, failure to employ sufficient nursing staff; failure to adequately prevent and control infections; failure to provide adequate COVID-19 testing and screening; failure to keep the home free of accident hazards; and failure to employ competent nursing staff.

 

The inspection was triggered by 10 complaints to the state inspections agency, all of which were substantiated.

It was also reported that a resident fell and struck his head in June, and five days later died. The Capital Dispatch reported that "According to an aide who witnessed the fall, a nurse was nearby, on her phone, and did nothing to assist the resident and continued to talk on her phone even after the fall."

Due to the status of the Fort Dodge facility, daily fines are being handed out until the issues are resolved. At one point in time, the fines were reaching $9,000 a day, and they've now exceeded $685,000. The site adds this in reference to the final cost: "State officials said Friday the final fine won’t be determined until the facility comes into substantial compliance with all government regulations."