(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Nursing home admin gets 'warning' after man was locked outside overnight • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1] ['Clark Kauffman', 'Jennifer Shutt', 'More From Author', '- May', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img'] Date: 2024-05-20 The state board that oversees Iowa’s nursing home administrators has issued a warning to the head of a facility where a resident was deliberately locked outside of the building for 11 hours overnight. In January 2023, the Iowa Board of Nursing Home Administrators charged Scott Morton with: professional incompetence; negligence in the practice of the profession; and violating unspecified regulations, rules or laws related to the practice of nursing home administrators. According to the board, the violations were tied to an incident that took place in June 2022 at the Dubuque Specialty Care nursing home, where regulators found that a resident of the home who used a wheelchair was deliberately locked outside overnight. On May 7, the board entered into a settlement agreement with Morton rather than take the case to a hearing that was scheduled for later this month. The settlement calls for Morton to be given a warning and to complete six hours of training on residents’ rights or effective communications with staff. No other sanctions were imposed. In its decision, the board attributed the resident’s predicament to “confusion” on the part of unspecified individuals about recent policy changes at the home. The board acknowledged that while Morton was not present when the resident exited the building — having already left work for the day — he was contacted by a facility staff member that evening and informed that the man had left the building. According to the board, Morton didn’t learn until the following day that the man was left outside overnight, was denied re-entry and wasn’t provided with food or medication. By law, the Board of Nursing Home Administrators consists of nine members – three licensed health professionals, four nursing home administrators and two individuals representing the general public. Currently, the two public representatives are the board chairman of a nonprofit that owns a nursing home in Riceville, and a woman who says she has been a licensed health professional in Iowa for the past 30 years. Nurse: ‘He’s still human’ According to the state’s nursing home inspectors, the incident at Dubuque Specialty Care began when the resident became upset about a new policy that barred residents from smoking anywhere outside the building on company property. “I’m getting the hell out of here,” the man reportedly told the staff. A nurse asked him to sign papers acknowledging that he was leaving the facility against medical advice, telling him once he exited the building, he wouldn’t be let back in and was no longer the responsibility of Dubuque Specialty Care. A staff member then let the man outside. He sat in his wheelchair at the end of the driveway to the home, waiting for a ride from a friend. He eventually migrated to a location on the sidewalk across the street from the facility and remained there until 4 a.m. the next day, eventually calling a taxi service. He then fell and soiled himself while trying to get into the taxi. The driver summoned an ambulance, and the man was taken to a hospital. During the man’s 11 hours outdoors, Dubuque Specialty Care failed to provide him with food, transfer assistance, treatments or any of his medications, which included insulin, placing him in immediate jeopardy, state inspectors later reported. Those same inspectors interviewed a licensed practical nurse who was on duty the night of the incident, and she alleged that Morton, the administrator, had said, “We can no longer allow them to smoke. If they have a ride, they can go somewhere else, but they cannot smoke near the grounds.” “We did not ask him to come back inside because the administrator had told us we could not,” one nurse reportedly told inspectors. “The administrator told me if he went out, he was not allowed back.” Another nurse allegedly told inspectors, “I got a phone call from a gentleman across the street in the condominiums. He went and checked on (the resident) and he offered him a glass of water.” About 10 p.m., a nurse asked a certified nurse aide to go outside, check on the man, and take him a sweatshirt because it was getting cool outside, telling the aide, “He’s still human.” The aide brought the man the sweatshirt, which he accepted, and a beef stick from the nurse’s dinner, which he rejected. Morton: ‘We were not responsible for him’ Another nurse aide told inspectors she went outside to offer the man water, although some of her colleagues had advised against it. “The nurses directed me to stay away from him,” she said, according to the inspectors’ reports. “They were worried about losing their jobs. ‘You are going to get fired if they find out you are out there,’ is what they said.” “No, I did not tell staff residents were not allowed back in the building,” Morton allegedly said when interviewed by inspectors. “Technically, he discharged (himself) from the facility, so we were not responsible for him,” Morton added, according to the inspectors’ reports. Two days after that interview, Morton was questioned again by inspectors. On that occasion, he allegedly stated the staff and residents had all misunderstood the policy and that residents had always been allowed to go outside to smoke. “I learned about (the man) being outside all night the next morning,” he allegedly said. “I followed up with our admissions coordinator the next day. I had her check on him, and I think he is currently in the hospital.” The admissions coordinator denied that, telling inspectors Morton never directed her to follow up with the hospital or check on the man’s well-being. Inspectors also interviewed the resident who had been left outside. He reportedly stated the home’s director of nursing had said to him, “You ain’t going nowhere. If you go out that door, you are out!” He said the director of nursing later drove by him in a car, warning him, “You better not put one foot on my property.” The man told inspectors that after being taken to the hospital, he was given pain pills and discharged. He ended up at a hotel, he said, and was doing well there for a few days until he started to feel weak, which he attributed to his lack of insulin. He then went back to the hospital. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services fined Dubuque Specialty Care $131,640 as a result of the incident, although CMS does not disclose whether such fines are actually paid. The facility is owned and operated by Care Initiatives of West Des Moines. [END] --- [1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/05/20/nursing-home-administrator-gets-warning-after-man-is-locked-outside-overnight/ Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/