Iowa Nursing Home Named One of The Nation’s Worst
An Iowa nursing home had been added to Medicare's list of the nation's worst senior living facilities. This comes after the center was fined over $300,000 for numerous violations. The Garden View Care Center in Shenandoah, Iowa has been cited for 23 violations so far this year.
Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that after an April inspection, federal officials fined the home $306,335. Sadly, this senior home is one of 10 Iowa care facilities that are on Medicare's Special Focus Facility List, which is a national list of homes with some of the worst records of compliance. Garden View was recently added to that list based on poor performance. The home has the lowest ratings possible in three categories measured by federal agencies; quality of care, staffing levels, and compliance.
The Centers for Medicare Services report that 32% of Garden View's staff have yet to be vaccinated for COVID. April's inspection saw the home get cited for failing to keep its residents safe from abuse, failing to have sufficient staff, not maintaining sanitary conditions, failing to provide supplemental oxygen, failing to develop a care plan, not providing adequate grooming and bathing, failing to change wound dressings, not setting up physical therapy for residents, and not protecting residents from accidents that led to two bone fractures.
Inspectors reported that the wait time after a resident hit their call light was 30 to 50 minutes, and sometimes up to three hours. Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that the federal fine has yet to be paid. The center has stated that they intend to fix the problems listed in the federal report. My heart breaks for the seniors who are forced to live in these types of conditions. No one deserves their final years to be like this.