Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 17, 1995 TAG: 9506190023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY AND LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The lack of personal grooming is one of the things Julie Light has documented about her father's care in the two years he has lived in the Roanoke facility.
"What do I do to get some of these things changed?" the Roanoke County woman asked Friday at the center's board of trustees meeting.
About 60 people packed the meeting, and several of them pummeled board members with questions about quality of care.
Complaints had a common theme: There was not enough staff to care for the 232 veterans who live at the center.
When audience members questioned the board about issues ranging from why medications weren't given on time to why so much clothing was missing, board members looked to Administrator Michael Little for answers.
Little offered to give Light's father a daily shave himself.
"That's not your job," said Evelyn Loree, who took her husband out of the center because she was displeased with his care there. "Your job is getting this place straightened out and getting it run like it should run."
Loree said her husband's health deteriorated in the six months he was at the center. She said she documented several instances of neglect and has given the information to state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, and the board.
During one of her visits to the veterans center, she said, her husband's blood pressure was 210/112. His temperature was 101.
"No one knew this," she said, "and I repeatedly asked for people to see him.
"You've got some excellent staff," Loree said. "But many of them are so frustrated and so demoralized and ... so understaffed that they literally cannot be patient with residents."
Her husband's health has improved since she moved him to a Franklin County facility June 1.
Ironically, Loree has put her husband in a nursing home in Rocky Mount that administrator Little ran until he took the Roanoke job in February.
Friday's meeting had triple the usual attendance. Residents - some in wheelchairs and leaning on crutches - and families of residents filled a center conference room.
The meeting came one day after Gov. George Allen's office said the center was the target of a state police investigation into allegations of wrongful death. A separate investigation on a complaint by several residents against a board member, alleging use of inappropriate behavior and language, also is under way.
Complaints involving the center have been investigated by the Area Agency on Aging in Roanoke in the past 12 months, said Linda Barrett, agency ombudsman.
Barrett would not say how many investigations are pending, but said four complaints have been resolved. She gave few details.
The four complaints included an incident of physical and verbal abuse; an issue of confidentiality, in which unauthorized people were looking at residents' records; physical abuse; and gross neglect.
Gross neglect, she explained, means "something major, not like somebody forgetting to give somebody aspirin but something much more serious."
Discussion about the investigations was off limits at Friday's gathering, said Chairman Walter Sanford of Alexandria. But that didn't stop supporters of Trustee Michael Fries from asking when he would be allowed to visit the center.
The Area Agency on Aging in Roanoke and the Roanoke Department of Social Services are looking into anonymous complaints that Fries verbally abused patients, and he has been barred from the facility until the complaints are resolved.
But Fries was at Friday's meeting.
Fries, who is retired, spent hours at the center each week, sometimes just visiting with residents, but also taking an active role in center operations. Sixty residents signed a petition supporting him, but some members of the board have indicated they consider Fries' actions intrusive and counterproductive.
At the urging of Vice Chairman Dan Karnes, the board voted to define the "precise chain of command" at the center.
The center is leased to Diversified Health Service Inc., a Pennsylvania company that hires the administrator and staff. Diversified pays the board rent based on occupancy - about $330,000 a year currently. Part of that money is used to pay for an executive director and secretary, who have offices at the center and answer to the board.
The director's job has been vacant for several months, but will be filled soon, the board said Friday.
Also at the meeting, Chris LaCivita, assistant to the state secretary of administration, said the Department of Health and Human Resources has been asked to assist in dealing with complaints.
June McCorkle, whose husband has been at the center since 1992, said Friday she visits him every day and is so worried about his care that she is afraid to go to church on Sundays.
Her husband, Mack McCorkle, has Parkinson's disease.
McCorkle said her husband was hesitant at first about coming to the center, concerned that there would be no one to turn him in bed regularly.
"I told him there would be `two people to turn you,''' she said. ``Now they're saying, `Turn over yourself.'''
Diversified's president, James Goodrich, said he welcomed the news that "professionals who understand long-term care" would be involved. The staff felt intimidated in the previous environment, he said.
Goodrich, who looked grim throughout the afternoon, pointed out that while the state has profited from the home, his company has lost "a considerable amount of money" getting it opened.
"We might break even this year," Goodrich said. His company has a three-year contract with an option to renew for two more years. When asked if his company is still interested in operating the home, he replied: "I'm not sure."
By the meeting's end, Administrator Little was weary.
"This has been the worst day of my life," he said.
by CNB