Assault on Ohio Nursing Home Resident | Ohio Nursing Home Abuse Blog

The Chillicothe Gazette reported in September on another case of Ohio nursing home abuse, in what sounds like clear-cut assault by a nursing aide. The nursing home at issue is Westmoreland Place in Chillicothe, a for-profit nursing home owned by Chillicothe Long Term Care, Inc. according to the Medicare.gov website.

According to the family, their 85-year-old mother was “beaten and left with bruises by a former employee” of the nursing home.

What’s most bizarre to me is the time it seemed to be taking to bring criminal charges against the aide for this nursing home assault. The news report came out in September, 2016, but the nursing home assault occurred six months earlier, in March. By the time of the article, there does not seem to have been an indictment, despite the female aide having been arrested–and apparently convicted–of other crimes.

Just consider the overwhelming evidence as reported by the Gazette, which includes coworkers describing her as “acting oddly,” “disheveled,” and wearing bloody clothes that day, and the alleged assailant being unable to provide a coherent explanation to investigators:

The resident’s shirt was torn down the right lower side with drops of blood noted on it and a bloody pillow case was found on the floor of her room by another STNA, according to the Medicare investigation report.
The resident, Williamson’s mother, said the STNA was pinching and punching her eyes, hitting her face “like a man,” hitting her head on the bed rails, and dumping water on her. The resident also reported the STNA said to her: “Think of what I am going to do to you in the shower.” She told police it was dark in her room and she could not see her assailant, but the person came into her room and started hitting her in the stomach and in the face and she was unable to defend herself.
According to the initial police report, the STNA said that the resident who had bruises on her was being belligerent toward her and calling her names. In a written statement for the Medicare investigation, the STNA said the bruises and cuts were a result of the resident hitting her head on the rails of the bed while being rolled to her side and a ring created a cut on her hand.
Employees reported the STNA was wearing a tank top with blood, acting oddly, appeared disheveled and showed up late to work that day.
Initial police reports showed the STNA provided a written statement, but it was “hard to understand” and officials had to use a transcribed copy of an interview.

How can such a clear nursing home assault have taken place and there be no charges for over six months? Why was there enough time for nursing home government regulators to finish an investigation–revealing multiple victims–but still no indictment?

You also have to wonder about a nursing home like this, with over 150 beds. What types of screening are done on employees? Why is the aide’s care, which seems to have included violently attacking residents, not being recognized by supervisors?

The stats do not look good for Westmoreland Place at Medicare.gov:

Westmoreland Place’s ratings at Medicare Compare show one-star for quality measures “how well the nursing home cares for resident needs.”

So how does this 150-bed, for-profit facility have such poor quality measures (and health inspections, for that matter), and have 4/5 stars for staffing, you might ask? Well, staffing levels under the 5-star system are one area nursing homes can manipulate pretty easily. Maybe that’s the case here, maybe they just have really bad hiring practices and management.

Either way, this seems to be a nursing home that needs to turn things around for their resident’s safety.