Post-Irma deaths in nursing home spark police probe
Police obtained a search warrant yesterday in their criminal investigation of the deaths of eight elderly patients exposed to sweltering heat inside a Miami-area nursing home that continued to operate with little or no air conditioning after Hurricane Irma struck.
The loss of life at the nursing home in Hollywood, Florida, brought the overall death toll from Irma to 81, with several hard-hit Caribbean islands, including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Island, accounting for more than half the fatalities.
Irma, which had ranked as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record before striking the US mainland as a Category 4 hurricane, has been blamed for at least 31 deaths in Florida, plus seven more in Georgia and South Carolina, combined.
The eight deaths at the Rehabilitation Centre at Hollywood Hills, days after Irma struck, stirred outrage at what many saw as a preventable tragedy, and heightened concerns about the welfare of the state’s large elderly population with 2.8 million customers still without electricity.
‘‘It was unnecessary,’’ Bendetta Craig, whose 87-year-old mother was among dozens of patients safely removed from the centre, said yesterday. ‘‘I don’t know what happened inside. I wasn’t there. I hope the truth comes out. It is just senseless.’’
The facility is just one of nearly 700 nursing homes across the state, about 150 of which still lacked power when the Hollywood Hills crisis occurred, according to the Florida Health Care Association.
Police, assisted in their investigation by state and federal regulators, have said little about circumstances leading to the deaths of the patients ranging in age from 71 to 99.
Medical workers from an adjacent hospital, who assisted in evacuating the centre, yesterday recounted a scene of chaos and stifling conditions as panicky staff scrambled to move overheated patients into a room where fans were blowing.
Facing a situation that was out of control, doctors and fire officials ultimately decided to transfer all the patients to the hospital, where dozens were treated for respirat-
"I don't know what happened inside. I wasn't there. I hope the truth comes out. It is just senseless."
Bendetta Craig, mother of victim
UNITED STATES:
ory distress, dehydration and heat exhaustion, officials said.
Of the 141 patients who were evacuated, 70 were discharged from the hospital as of yesterday, city officials said.
Craig said nursing home staff had assured her before the storm that they were prepared to safely shelter residents through the hurricane, and were equipped with generators, food and other necessary supplies.
She questioned whether short staffing and fatigue on the part of overworked personnel may have factored in the crisis.
Attempts to reach representatives of the for-profit nursing home were unsuccesful.
The centre, which police sealed off as a crime scene on Thursday, was closed to new admissions by the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration.
The facility has had a spotty inspection record, earning a below-average grade in Medicare’s nursing home rating system. The state health care agency listed the centre as among the lowest-ranked 20 per cent of all nursing homes in Broward County.
A state inspection report in February 2016 cited the facility for failing to comply with regulations for emergency generators. There was no indication from state records of follow-up action on the issue, and no such deficiency was cited in fire-life safety inspection conducted a few months ago.
The physician listed in state records as the nursing home’s manager, Dr. Jack Michel, ran afoul of state and federal regulators in 2004 over a hospital and group of assisted-living facilities he partially owned. In 2006, he and three co-defendants paid $15.4 million to settle Medicare and Medicaid fraud claims against them without admitting wrongdoing. –