Fines & Sanctions

Nursing Homes Fined After Resident’s Death, Injuries, Medication Error

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The state has fined six nursing homes for violations that jeopardized residents’ safety, including an incident in which resident with Alzheimer’s was found dead outside a facility in Wallingford. The facilities were fined by the state Department of Public Health (DPH) for violations that occurred between September 2019 and February 2020. Skyview Rehab and Nursing of Wallingford was fined $10,000 after a resident with Alzheimer’s disease left the facility in January and was found dead about 50 feet from the facility, DPH said. Staff noticed the resident was missing at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 26, and the resident was found at 8:46 a.m., DPH reported.

Fines & Sanctions

Nursing Homes Fined Following Lapses In Care

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Four nursing homes were recently fined by the state in connection with incidents in which residents were hospitalized, fell, broke a bone or were burned. On May 6, Sharon Health Care Center was fined $2,320 in connection with two residents who were burned when they were served hot food, the citation from the state Department of Public Health said. On Sept. 19, one resident was burned on the hand by hot pureed egg, the citation said. The resident was eating without help even though the care plan called for assistance during meals.

Fines & Sanctions

Nursing Homes Fined Following Lapses In Care

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Five Connecticut nursing homes have been fined by the state Department of Public Health in connection with incidents of inadequate staffing and injuries to patients that included cuts and a broken leg. On Oct. 29, Sheriden Woods Health Care Center of Bristol was fined $1,580 when records show a resident with a venous ulcer on a toe did not get follow-up care with a vascular surgeon in September.  A doctor’s visit had been cancelled and records show a lack of follow-up care for a few weeks until a doctor saw the wound on Sept. 26. Aurora Senior Living of Norwalk was fined $1,280 on Oct.

I-Team In-Depth

State Nursing Homes Pilot Alarm-Free Initiative — Carefully

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When Florence Bolella, director of nursing at Kimberly Hall South nursing home in Windsor, told her staff to remove all the alarms from patients, fear and panic set in. Not among the residents, who were relieved to be free of the annoying beeps and squawks that sounded every time someone with mobility problems moved, but among the nurses’ aides. “The CNAs were so afraid they were going to get in trouble if a patient fell,” Bolella recalled. “It took us almost a year to remove 33 alarms. I eventually had to lock up the alarms, so the staff would stop using them.”

In the two years that the nursing home has stopped using both alarms and restraints, it has seen a decline in the number of falls. Bolella isn’t surprised: “I never felt the alarms were effective.”

Kimberly Hall South is among a handful of nursing homes in Connecticut that have gone “alarm-free,” meaning residents at risk of injury, usually from falls, are no longer outfitted with detectors on their mattresses, chair pads and clothing that emit a warning signal when they try to get up and move around.