LAKE PLACID - A local nursing home was fined more than $20,000 earlier this year for unwell to protect a residents from potential abuse, neglect as well as mistreatment, as well as unwell to promptly investigate allegations of abuse at a facility.The fine imposed upon Adirondack Medical Center-Uihlein, now called Uihlein Living Center, was issued in June by a federal Centers for Medicare as well as Medicaid Services.Joe Riccio, a spokesman for Adirondack Health, that runs a nursing home, told a Enterprise upon Wednesday that a fine has been paid as well as a corrective action plan was initiated."Staff reacted swiftly as well as appropriately, as well as all those concerns were fully as well as completely addressed," Riccio said.The Enterprise schooled of a civil penalty from a headlines release distributed in late November by a Long Term Care Community Coalition, a nonprofit nursing home watchdog group. Under a federal Freedom of Information Act, a newspaper filed a request with a a Centers for Medicare as well as Medicaid Services to get more background information upon a case.The fine stems from a March 22 survey of a nursing home, that it says it requested, by Medicare inspectors from a state Department of Health. The review focused upon allegations of abuse involving two residents.Based upon a series of interviews, inspectors determined that a protected practical nurse, who was not identified in a report, refused to provide tracheostomy care upon several occasions in a early sunrise hours of Feb. 27 to an unnamed male resident of a nursing home. Namely, she refused to suction a resident, that would have allowed him to inhale easier, as well as refused to let him call his mother, a report says. The resident told a Health Department inspectors he was "scared as well as did not feel safe in a care" of a LPN. He in conclusion used Facebook to ask a friend to hit his mother, who reported what happened to a nursing administrator upon avocation that night.The report says a nursing administrator in conclusion had to suction a resident herself but did not remove a LPN from avocation since she was concerned about not having enough staff to care for other residents. Inspectors also cited a administrator for unwell to document what happened as well as unwell to immediately report a situation to a nursing home's administrator or nursing director.Additionally, a report says a nursing home failed to properly investigate a same resident's complaint that a certified nursing partner removed his Passy-Muir valve, (a vocalization valve for use with a tracheostomy tube), preventing him from speaking. Inspectors also cited a trickery for unwell to thoroughly investigate "injuries of unknown origin" to a different resident, together with facial lacerations as well as bruises.Uihlein Living Center Administrator Michele Byno submitted a plan of correction that's included with a report. It says a LPN was not allowed to work at a trickery following a Feb. 27 incident as well as was after fired "upon finding reasonable cause that abuse may have occurred." The nursing administrator upon avocation that night was "re-educated" about her responsibilities in dealing with as well as reporting situations of alleged abuse. The nursing partner was similarly retrained as to her duties in providing care to residents with tracheostomies.Nursing home administrators also pronounced they investigated a "injuries of unknown origin" a second resident suffered as well as found no evidence of abuse. The injuries were consistent with a fall, a nursing home said.In addition to taking these steps, a correction plan says all staff of a nursing home were re-educated upon a facility's abuse prevention policies as well as procedures. Administrators also pledged to begin investigations immediately following any allegations of abuse.Despite a corrective action taken by a nursing home, CMS fined a trickery $20,150 for "noncompliance that constituted immediate jeopardy to resident illness and/or safety."Riccio remarkable that a nursing home initiated a review process with a Department of Health by self-reporting a incident."The employee was terminated almost immediately," he said. "We've worked extremely tighten with a Department of Health. We've provided additional training to staff. Our top priority continues to be to protect a illness as well as well-being of a people in our care."
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