Six Connecticut Nursing Homes Fined Due To Patient Injuries

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.

Other citations included:

• Paradigm Healthcare Center of New Haven was fined $1,420 by the state for failing to properly supervise a resident who needed the assistance of two aides while in the shower. The resident fell and sustained a head laceration while showering, with only one aide present, the DPH report says.

• Hewitt Health and Rehabilitation Center in Shelton faces a $1,300 state fine for several incidents involving allegations of poor care, including one in which a resident sustained a skin tear while being moved, which the patient said was caused by her arm being squeezed tightly. The allegation of mistreatment was not handled properly, the state report says. In two other cases, residents complained about inappropriate or “rough” treatment by nurse’s aides. The facility fired the aides, according to the report.

•  Marshall Lane Manor of Derby was fined $1,420 for not providing adequate supervision of a resident who had aggressive behaviors and was resistant to directions by staff, according to the DPH citation.  The resident went into other patients’ rooms, and in one incident, pushed another resident, who suffered a broken hip and pelvis, the DPH report says.

•  Valerie Manor of Torrington was fined $1,160 for lapses in care involving two residents. In one case, the DPH found that the home failed to do adequate skin checks of a resident who ended up with a pressure ulcer due a knee splint.  In the second case, the home was faulted for not responding adequately after a resident with dementia fell four times from the same chair, once suffering a hematoma.  The DPH citation says the home did not take measures to enhance the chair’s stability until after the fourth fall.

•  Highlands Health Care Center of Cheshire was fined $1,020 for not adequately monitoring a resident’s heel sore. The facility failed to show that weekly wound monitoring was done.

In other cases not involving injuries, Aurora Senior Living of East Hartford was fined $470 in connection with problems involving two residents who left the facility unescorted, despite attempts to keep them from wandering.

Caroline Manor, a residential care home in East Haven, was fined $290 for lapses in care including a delay in administering an antibiotic to a resident with an infection, and another case in which a resident was given another person’s blood pressure medication by accident. The medication mix-up was not reported to the state as required, the DPH report says.