Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990 TAG: 9006210220
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK and MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Police said Margaret Beatrice Jones, 32, of Orange Avenue Northwest, was arrested this week after an investigation of the June 4 incident at the Liberty House Nursing Home on King George Avenue Southwest. A spokesman for the city jail said Wednesday night that she had been released from jail, but was unable to provide bond information.
State officials have received more than 30 complaints about the nursing home in the past 2 1/2 years. Of those, 21 have been verified or partially verified, said Virginia Dize of the state Department for the Aging.
A local ombudsman with the state's long-term care program has verified an abuse complaint against the nursing home related to this month's incident, Dize said.
Police said Jones is charged with the malicious wounding of Annie Wells.
Wells suffered two broken legs, multiple bruises to her left arm and cuts to her left arm and left leg. The injury to her lower left leg was an open fracture, police said.
She was taken to Lewis-Gale Hospital, where hospital officials said Wednesday that she was still a patient. They would not release her condition.
Police said there was no indication a weapon was used, and they would not comment on a possible motive for the attack.
Judy Knecht, administrator of the home, declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but said Jones was no longer employed at Liberty House.
Police opened an investigation after they received an anonymous call from someone who said she had seen the tiny, bedridden woman being beaten the morning of June 4.
An employee at the home told police that she had cared for Wells for two years, and that the woman was "very incapacitated physically." Police said they had difficulty talking to Wells.
Knecht said the nursing home reported the incident to state officials.
Residents are encouraged to report problems that they cannot resolve at the home, she said.
"Overall, I think we give good care at the home," she said. "We are all very much saddened by this."
She said she could not speak to the complaints that had been filed against the home before she took over as administrator in January. Since then, she said, the level of care has improved.
"It's unfortunate that these accidents happen, but they also happen at home," she said.
In the last year, the state long-term care program has received just two complaints against the home - the June 4 abuse allegation and another complaint that still is being investigated. Dize said she could not give any more details about the pending investigation.
The local ombudsman, who works through the League of Older Americans in Roanoke, received 23 complaints about Liberty House from July 1988 through June 1989. Of those, eight were not justified, 12 were partially verified and two were verified, Dize said.
Dize said "partially verified" means that the investigators did not find "100 percent conclusive" proof, but they found enough evidence to believe that the complaint probably was true.
The partially verified cases include one complaint of resident neglect, one complaint of understaffing, two complaints of negative staff attitudes and two complaints of residents not being treated with dignity and respect.
The verified cases included one complaint of a resident's privacy being violated and an environmental complaint.
In 1988, a local long-term care ombudsman concluded that Liberty House had neglected a 65-year-old resident who suffered from Parkinson's disease.
The 6-foot-3 man weighed about 130 pounds and was dehydrated, undernourished and so stiff he could not bend his arms and legs, according to the ombudsman's report. He had seven bedsores, including one on his left heel that was open to the bone, the report said.
The man died 10 days after being taken to a hospital.
The ombudsman found that the nursing home violated five licensing regulations, but she said it was not clear how much the neglect had contributed to the deterioration of the resident's health.
by CNB