Iowa

• None.

• None. (Iowa Code §633.336 – Damages for wrongful death)

• Adult Abuse – (Iowa Code §235B)
• Wanton Neglect or Nonsupport of a Dependent Adult – (Iowa Code Title XVI Criminal Law and Procedures, §726.8)
• Department of Elder Affairs – (Iowa Code Chapter 231)
• Elder Abuse Initiative, Emergency Shelter, and Support Services Projects – (Iowa Code Title VI Human Services, §231.56A)

• Fall In Nursing Home Claims The Life Patient-- Less Than 24-Hours After Admission

On June 13, 2009, a nursing home patient fell out of bed and died at Fejervary Health Care Center in Davenport, Iowa.  This fall occurred within 24 hours of the resident being admitted to the nursing home.

This was not an isolated event at Fejervary.  Fejervary Health Care Center has a history of safety problems and has been fined several times by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.

• Iowa Nursing Home Cited For Inadequate Care Of Pressure Sores

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals has imposed $3,500 in fines against Country View Nursing Home.  The fines follow a December visit to the facility where investigators determined the facility failed to provide proper care to residents with pressure sores and errors with administration of medication.

A follow-up inspection revealed the initial findings had been substantially corrected, but revealed new problems such as problems with housekeeping, disrepair of wheelchairs, failure of staff to protocol related to the cleaning and feeding of residents, and failure to provide sufficient care to incontinent residents.  As a result of the findings cited in the second inspection, Country View faces a $200 daily fine and denial of payments from Medicare and Medicaid for new admissions.

• Pesky Government Regulations No Problem For Assisted Living Facility In Iowa

Dubuque Retirement Community was the largest assisted living center in Iowa.  It was run by Assisted Living Concepts, a Wisconsin for-profit-corporation that operates 216 care facilities in twenty states.  Now, Assisted Living Concepts has given up its assisted-living license on the troubled 116-resident facility. 

In its short two-year history as an assisted living center, Dubuque Retirement Community amassed several fines for failure to meet minimum government standards with respect to providing adequate resident care.  For example:

• Lets Award The Under-Acheiving

Three out of seven nursing home featured in the 2008 Iowa Governor's Quality Care In Heath Care Industry have numerous violations from federal and state authorities.  The three facilities have been cited for problems in meeting minimum health and safety requirements and have been cited by state inspectors for medication errors, failure to follow physicians' orders, unsanitary conditions, or failure to treat serious problems, such as broken bones.

Some of the 'award winning facilities' also had violations for failing to provide the prescribed amount of food to residents; unsanitary food service; failure to lock a medication cabinet in the unit for mentally impaired residents; failure to verify that two nurse aides had proper training; and six fire-safety violations.

• Caregiver Fired For Reporting Abuse In Nursing Home

After witnessing a co-worker verbally abuse of a handicapped resident at Montrose Health Care Center in Montrose, IA, Lora Washburn, did the correct thing and reported the incident to the facility's administrator.  Or did she?  Not satisfied with the nursing home administrator's failure to respond to the situation, Washburn filed a complaint with the state documenting the abuse. Days after the complaint was made to state authorities, Washburn was accused of trying to intimidate co-workers and was fired from her position.

In another incident involving an Iowa nursing home employee, Janice Rardin, the Director of Nursing at the Evangelical Free Church Home, was terminated from her job after filing two complaints of suspected abuse with state authorities.  The alleged abuser was the facilities administrator.  Rardin allegedly overhead the administrator telling an attorney for the facility that he intended on firing her for making the report.  The attorney alleged told the administrator to hold off on Rardin's termination dispel any talk of retaliation.