
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990                   TAG: 9005170403
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STATE DROPS ADULT-HOME SUIT

State officials facing a $1.27 million lawsuit from a Southwest Virginia adult home - have backed down from their attempt to close the home.

Welfare officials had been trying to shut down Abingdon Manor Home for Adults for two years. But they now say the Washington County adult home may keep its license.

Abingdon Manor's lawsuit, which charges state officials with having a vendetta against the home, is still alive in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.

Both sides say they expect a settlement soon, however. The home's attorney, Emmitt Yeary, would not say whether he expected the state to offer a cash settlement.

State officials said the lawsuit did not influence their decision to give the home its license back. Asked whether he believed the lawsuit had influenced the state, Yeary said, "I think anyone can draw their own conclusions."

Welfare officials had contended that Abingdon Manor was housing residents who needed to be in a nursing home instead of an adult home.

Adult homes are allowed to give frail elderly people help with bathing, dressing, eating and taking medicine. But they are not supposed to keep residents who need full-time nursing care.

In 1988, the state sent a team of nurses and other medical workers into the home. It determined that at least 25 residents were so frail or sickly that they shouldn't be in an adult home. Welfare officials also contended that many many residents were getting bedsores because workers were not properly caring for them.

Abingdon Manor responded with the lawsuit. The state finally yielded after the home had local physicians examine its residents and certify that they could live in an adult home instead of a nursing home.

Carolynne Stevens, licensing director for the state Department of Social Services, said the doctors' decision left the agency with no choice but to drop its action against Abingdon Manor.

Yeary, the home's attorney, said the case shows that state regulations are confusing and easily open to misinterpretation and abuse. He said it was an example of state employees making judgment calls that can be better made by the residents' own doctors.

by CNB