A Shelton nursing home owned by Brian Foley – who was sentenced to three months in a halfway house in January in a campaign corruption scandal – has been fined $5,000 for lapses in care and ordered to hire a nursing consultant.
On Feb. 5, Foley, the CEO of Apple Rehabilitation, signed a consent order with the state Department of Public Health in which he agreed to the fine and monitoring by the state to correct multiple violations at Apple Rehab Shelton Lakes. The action by DPH, which was posted on its website Tuesday, is unrelated to the scandal that ensnared Foley, his wife, Lisa Wilson-Foley, and former Gov. John G. Rowland.
In unannounced inspections between June 4 and June 11, 2014, DPH found lapses in care that involved residents at the home who fell, lost weight, became dehydrated or were neglected, the consent order states.
In addition to the $5,000 fine, the nursing home agreed to hire an independent nursing consultant to monitor the home for six months to assure “the safety, welfare and well-being” of Shelton Lakes’ residents, the order states. The consultant will make sure that there is sufficient staff to care for the residents and that patients will be maintained in a “clean, comfortable and well-groomed” fashion, the order states.
Ann Collette, Apple Rehab’s spokeswoman, said Foley signed the consent order and agreed to maintain staffing levels and education to support Shelton Lakes’ plan to correct the violations.
“Currently, the center is in substantial compliance” with state regulations, she said.
The incident of neglect involved an incontinent resident who complained that no one had changed his clothes or bed linens all day on Aug. 25, 2013, the order states.
DPH also found that one resident became dehydrated in April 2014, but the home’s records failed to note whether a doctor was notified. Another resident’s weight dropped by 25 pounds in 11 days in April 2014 and the home’s records failed to reflect whether a doctor or the person’s family was notified of the weight loss in a timely fashion, the order states.
The order also stated that the home failed to treat one resident in a dignified manner in June 2014 when he or she reported being left in a wet diaper for several hours after being told that the home didn’t have enough staff to provide care.
In February 2014, one resident fell and hit his or her head and inspectors determined that the care plan did not reflect whether interventions had been in place to prevent the resident from falling, the order states. The resident sustained bruises but otherwise was not injured.
In May 2014, another resident fell and was ordered to have physical therapy, the consent order states, but there was no record to indicate whether the resident ever received the therapy.
The state also found that the home failed to demonstrate proper infection control in 2014 when it did not clean lifts between patients, the order states.
DPH also found instances in which the home failed to conduct annual performance reviews of employees or check references before hiring staffers, the order states.
Foley, of Simsbury, was ordered Jan. 9 to pay a fine of $30,000 and spend three months in a halfway house for conspiring to conceal that he had paid Rowland for campaign consulting for his wife, Lisa Wilson-Foley, who was running for Congress in Connecticut’s fifth district in 2012. Wilson-Foley was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison and a $20,000 fine for conspiring to hide the payments to Rowland in violation of federal campaign finance laws. On March 18, Rowland was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $35,000.
