Sarasota Florida Nursing Home Remains Open After Numerous Violations and Patient Death
Posted By
on Aug 27, 2011 3:17pm PDT
It is not always easy to spot a facility where a loved one might suffer from nursing home abuse or
nursing home neglect. On the surface the facility may appear clean and well kept. The staff may seem patient, knowledgeable, and helpful. Such is the case at Harmony Healthcare, a nursing home that opened in Sarasota in 2006 and has been cited approximately 85 times for various violations. There is evidence other violations were not reported and citations were not issued.
The Sarasota based Herald-Tribune reported on Harmony Healthcare and the incident that finally made regulators aware of the ongoing problems at the facility. A patient who had arrived only 16 days earlier was given a cookie, despite medical orders that she be on a liquid diet due to her breathing tube. This act of
nursing home neglect cost the woman her life.
It took ten months for investigators to be made aware of the situation at Harmony Healthcare. An anonymous tip brought regulators in to examine the facility and its records. Their report found residents of the facility were in "widespread immediate danger," which is the most severe judgment state officials can pronounce. It took another year before the nursing home was put on federal watch lists.
Despite an overhaul of the management, administration, and business practices at Harmony Healthcare, there are still violations. Medication has gone missing, though the facility's manager claims, "the issues really behind this were just management. It has nothing to do with the people that work here or the quality of care." The state is still waiting for approval from the federal government to approve a revisit and possibly recommend the facility's license be revoked.
To an advocate like a Sarasota nursing home abuse lawyer
, situations like these are very concerning. While investigators continue to look into issues at this home, the residents appear to remain in jeopardy. That this nursing home has remained open with these ongoing problems for so long shows the law tends to protect facilities over patients.