Home Health Care Agency Surrenders License

A Southington home health care agency has voluntarily surrendered its license to operate rather than contest dozens of violations found by state inspectors, including the use of unqualified employees and failures to follow doctor’s orders. Huemanity Home Care of Connecticut, which operated in the Milldale section of town, denied the allegations found by state Department of Public Health inspectors in August and September, but one of its representatives, W. Bruce Staebler, signed an agreement April 24 to cease operations to “avoid the expense and risk of a contested hearing.’’

The inspectors outlined the multiple violations in 65-page report. The violations include cases in which home health aides failed to document proper wound care or did not report a patient’s elevated blood pressure to a doctor, records show. In other cases, the agency failed to report to doctors that a patient’s pain had increased or that a patient had developed a blister or aides failed to properly track signs of infection, records show. In the case of one patient with dementia, the agency failed to document the medications that were taken during nursing visits over nine months, records show.