Regulators move to permanently close nursing home after 14 died without AC

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida regulators have moved to permanently revoke the operating license of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills after 14 people died when it lost air conditioning during Hurricane Irma.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration also wants the owners to pay a fine of about $43,000 for violations of health and safety standards and for inspection costs.

The agency licenses and regulates long-term care facilities. In September, it forbade the nursing home from taking in new residents or receiving Medicaid.

The rehabilitation center lost power to its central air conditioning after Hurricane Irma for several days. By Sept. 13, residents began suffering respiratory distress and cardiac arrest, one after another, in shockingly fast succession. Eight died that day and six more in following days.

Authorities evacuated the building, shut down the nursing home and launched a criminal investigation.

The nursing home is fighting its closure. It denies violating any regulations and has asked for a hearing before an administrative judge.

The home has also filed a lawsuit in Tallahassee claiming that AHCA cannot prove the residents — who were old and sickly — died because of the lack of air conditioning. The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office is still determining the causes of death.

In Washington on Wednesday, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee announced that it is launching an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the nursing home deaths.

The panel has jurisdiction to examine the conditions in the facility because it oversees payments from Medicare and Medicaid.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has asked that the committee determine whether Florida properly certified that the nursing home met all the required emergency preparedness regulations to qualify for federal funding.

“As part of our oversight responsibilities, we want to ensure the safety of residents and patients in nursing homes and other similar facilities during natural and man-made disasters,” the committee chairman, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in a letter to AHCA Secretary Justin Senior.

In the latest state action against the nursing home, the Agency for Health Care Administration revealed that 59 of more than 140 residents lived on the top floor, including each of the eight residents who died on Sept. 13.

The Sun Sentinel reported earlier this month that all the initial victims lived on the second floor.