I reported on the first criminal and Nursing Board investigation in the fall in another post. A second criminal investigation has been launched. If the allegations involve nursing care, then the Nursing Board will be involved in the second complaint also.
Nursing Board and Attorney General Office investigations are pending in the first case.
Anytime you as a nurse are asked to meet with an Ohio Nursing Board investigator, an Ohio Attorney General Office investigator, and an investigator from the Ohio Dept. of Health, the allegations are serious, you think!
Here is the cut and paste from a newspaper article published last month:
Friday, November 07, 2008
State office investigates Birchaven complaint
By MARY KATE MALONE
Staff Writer
The state Attorney General has opened a second criminal investigation into Birchaven Village nursing home in Findlay, state officials said.
The Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit will not disclose who or what it is investigating, but the unit has the authority to examine and prosecute cases of abuse and neglect at nursing homes.
Since August, the Attorney General has been investigating the treatment of a female dementia unit resident at Birchaven who developed an open wound due to a hand condition. Eight nurses were fired and nursing home officials said all problems had been resolved.
Last week, the Attorney General received a case from the state Department of Health regarding an incident at Birchaven involving pressure sores, also known as bed sores, according to a health department spokeswoman.
Attorney General investigations are unusual at nursing homes in Hancock County and could end with criminal charges being filed.
In the last six years, only five investigations have taken place, including the two under way at Birchaven, according to the Attorney General.
Birchaven "self-reported" the latest incident to the state health department, said Barb Lockard, Blanchard Valley Health System's director of marketing and public relations. Birchaven is part of the health system.
Lockard declined to comment about what happened or who was responsible, but said, "The patient received appropriate treatment and is recovering nicely."
Pressure sores, also known as bed sores or pressure ulcers, develop when sustained pressure cuts off circulation to certain areas of skin, usually on the backside, hips and heels, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Birchaven was cited by the state Health Department in January for failure to properly prevent pressures sores and heal existing ones.
"There seems to be a systemic problem with the facility as to how they are assessing pressure sores," said Beverley Laubert, state Long-Term Care Ombudsman.
"It concerns me that a facility cited in (January) would still be having problems in November of that same year. I would have hoped a more substantial correction would have been made," Laubert said.
Her agency, an arm of the state Department of Aging, is a watchdog for enforcement of federal and state nursing home regulations.
She advised families of Birchaven residents and other nursing homes to visit frequently and check the resident's skin often, especially if they are thin and immobile.
Malone: 419-427-8417,
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