Fines & Sanctions

State’s Child Care Oversight: Minimal Monitoring, Lax Enforcement

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On its website, the Tumble Bugs Day School in Norwalk boasts a “highly experienced, nurturing” staff who serve infants and toddlers in a “stimulating setting.”

But a review of state Department of Public Health records shows the child care center has had numerous complaints and citations in recent years for lapses in supervision that have injured and traumatized young children. In 2010, the center failed to notify parents when a balancing board fell on a toddler. The same year, DPH cited the center for failing to take action against a staff member who restrained a toddler on a cot by “holding down his head and body” and then falsely reported that a scratch on the boy’s face was an accident. Then, in 2011, two children came forward to report that a preschool teacher had sexually abused them during naptime – an allegation that led to the April 2012 arrest of a 44-year-old Harold Meyers, who worked at the center in 2008 and 2009. DPH investigated the case last year, but determined that the center had made oversight changes and that no further action was needed.

Fines & Sanctions

Three Nursing Homes Fined

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Three Connecticut nursing homes have been fined more than $1,000 each in connection with incidents that left three residents suffering broken bones. The Fairview Healthcare Center of Greenwich was fined $1,300 on Aug. 8, according to a citation released by the state Department of Public Health. The citation states that a resident with multiple sclerosis fell out of a lift in June because nurses’ aides used a sling that was too large. The resident was treated at a hospital for a head injury, bruised hip and a broken collarbone, the citation states.

Fines & Sanctions

Medical Board Fines Psychiatrist, Suspends Doctor’s License For 20 Years

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The state Medical Examining Board on Tuesday fined a Milford psychiatrist $15,000 for sending personal texts to a patient and suspended a Watertown doctor’s medical license for 20 years for violating her probation. In addition to the fine, the psychiatrist, Dr. Ljudmil Kljusev, was reprimanded for inviting the female patient in 2007 to meet him at a restaurant, for sending her personal texts and for calling her “Sweety,” state records show. The board considered the behavior a violation of professional boundaries. The same patient claimed that Kljusev also made sexual advances to her, but the medical board dismissed that portion of the complaint as unfounded, Diane Wilan, a state Department of Public Health lawyer, said Tuesday. DPH had also investigated a complaint from another of Kljusev’s patients who said that in 2009, she went to see him at 7:30 p.m. and found his office filled with lit candles, and that he was holding a beer in one hand and then lit a cigar, records show.

Fines & Sanctions

Nursing Homes Penalized For Care Lapses Leading To Injuries

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The state Department of Public Health has penalized six nursing homes for lapses in care that contributed to residents’ injuries. In one case, a resident of Middlesex Health Care Center of Middletown who was cognitively impaired and known to have an “obsession” with shaving her legs was found with multiple lacerations on her legs. The resident obtained a razor from an unlocked room, a DPH inspection report says. After the incident, the facility changed its practice and locked up razors, while also adopting interventions to address the resident’s obsessive behavior. The home was fined $1,350 by the state.

Amos Lake

Unhealthy Mercury Levels Persist In Our Waterways And Fish

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Wethersfield resident Patrice Gilbert knew that compact fluorescent bulbs contained mercury, so as they burned out, she put them aside until she could find out where to properly dispose of them. One day, she accidently knocked one off the counter and it broke. “I scooped that broken one up, put the other three in a paper bag, put that in a plastic bag and put it in my recycling bin,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do with them.”

Gilbert’s action is typical.  Nationally, only an estimated 2 percent of household CFLs are recycled properly, the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers says.  In Connecticut, only 4 percent of households participate in hazardous waste collection days – where mercury-containing CFLs, thermostats and thermometers should be recycled. Instead, those items usually end up in one of the state’s trash-to-energy plants, where, through the disposal process, mercury gas is emitted into the air and eventually pollutes waterways and ends up in fish.   While 40 percent of mercury pollution in Connecticut comes from out-of-state sources such as Midwestern coal-fired plants, volcanoes and other sources of pollution, 60 percent comes from in-state sources – primarily the state’s six trash-to-energy plants and its one coal-fired plant.

Fines & Sanctions

Five Nursing Homes Fined For Care Lapses

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Five nursing homes were fined by the state Department of Public Health for lapses in care. A $1,020 fine was levied on the Golden Hill Health Care Center of Milford for failing to provide proper care to a resident who needed splints/braces on his or her lower extremities.  An inspection in January found that there was no record that the resident’s skin was monitored, as directed in the care plan.   The resident suffered skin wounds caused by pressure from the incorrect use of the splints/braces, according to a DPH inspection report. The Bishop Wicke Health & Rehabilitation Center, Inc., of Shelton was fined $1,090 for failing to properly supervise a resident who fell twice in August 2012. The patient sustained a hip fracture, as well as lacerations of the forehead and arm, after being found on the bathroom floor. Also, the nursing home was cited for loose bedrails during an inspection.

I-Team In-Depth

Hospitals Mobilize To Tackle Alarm Fatigue

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At Bridgeport Hospital, “talking bed rails” programmed to speak to patients in the geriatric psychiatric unit are helping to reduce the number of alarms that sound when a patient at risk for falling tries to get out of bed. At the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain, health care professionals are adopting techniques from aviation safety experts to reduce the chances of a catastrophic event happening before a clinical alarm goes off. These are among the many ways Connecticut hospitals are tackling a phenomenon known industry-wide as alarm fatigue. Health care experts worry that medical devices with built-in alarms – such as heart monitors, infusion pumps and ventilators – designed to alert caregivers that patients are in danger could potentially put patients at risk because caregivers are desensitized by the sheer number of alerts and false alarms and fail to respond in a timely fashion. Research shows alarms in intensive care units are accurate less than 10 percent of the time, and 90 percent are false alarms.

Solutions for combating alarm fatigue range from alarm integration technology that sends alerts to a caregiver’s telephone to the development of a new generation of “smart alarms,” including ones designed to monitor multiple vital signs.

Fines & Sanctions

Nursing Homes Fined For Residents’ Deaths, Care Lapses

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The state Department of Public Health has fined a dozen nursing homes in recent months for lapses in patient care, including the deaths of residents at homes in Bridgeport and Norwalk. Bridgeport Manor in Bridgeport was fined $1,440 in December for failing to provide a resident with psychiatric services and adequate supervision, DPH records show. The resident was frequently observed playing with privacy curtains at the home. On Nov. 27, 2012, the resident was found with a privacy curtain wrapped around the neck and upper body and died two days later.

Fines & Sanctions

Portland Rest Home Placed Under State Monitoring

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A Portland rest home, where a schizophrenic resident who had been missing for more than 18 hours was later found dead in the Connecticut River in 2012, is undergoing 18 months of monitoring by the state Department of Public Health and has had to hire an independent consultant to improve its practices. Under a consent order released by DPH Tuesday, Luel Swanson, the administrator at Greystone Rest Home, also agreed to provide sufficient personnel to monitor its residents, report unusual occurrences to the state and enforce its policies on residents who don’t return from leaves. State records show that the 59-year-old resident had a troubled history, including trying in 2011 to thrust a piece of glass down her throat and gouge her eyes out. The woman also had hallucinations and heard voices, DPH records show. On Jan 26, 2012, the woman signed herself out to visit the local library and go to dinner and was expected to return at 6:30 p.m., records show.