Woman drops suit over state’s oversight of nursing homes during pandemic
An Ambridge woman who filed a federal lawsuit against the state Department of Health alleging the state failed to properly oversee nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic — including the Beaver County facility where her father lives — withdrew her lawsuit last week, citing the state’s efforts since the lawsuit was filed that address her concerns.
“A lot of what we wanted in our lawsuit has happened,” said Jodi Gill, who filed suit April 28 and withdrew it Tuesday.
Her attorney, Bob Daley, agreed, saying that they believed that “by and large, either directly or indirectly, the Department of Health responded to the lawsuit.”
Mr. Daley noted that not only did the state detail in a recent filing in the lawsuit the number of nursing home inspections that it has completed in recent months, but the state also recently mandated testing of all nursing home residents for COVID-19 — which were both actions Ms. Gill sought through a request for an injunction in her complaint.
In particular, Ms. Gill said she was moved to drop the lawsuit after she heard from two state agencies recently said that they were investigating a primary concern in her lawsuit: that her father, Glenn, 81, a resident at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, was given the experimental drug hydroxychloroquine and zinc without proper oversight, and that she felt coerced by the facility to agree to that.
On June 23, she received a letter from the state Department of Health’s Pittsburgh field office that said an inspector had visited Brighton on June 18 and determined that the state “was able to identify deficient facility practice with the use of experimental medications and not requesting the approval of the Department of Health.”
“The investigation revealed that the facility failed to request approval from the Department of Health to use a medication that is not approved for use to treat the COVID-19 virus,” the letter, from Field Supervisor D.A. Scolieri, read, in part.
“I definitely was happy with the finding,” Ms. Gill said. “I’m waiting to see what their report says and what their plan of correction says” in response to the finding that they improperly used hydroxychloroquine and zinc on her father.
A day after she got that letter from the state, Ms. Gill got a call from a state attorney general investigator, who was calling to ask her questions about the use of hydroxychloroquine and zinc as a treatment on her father.
Mr. Daley said the investigation by the attorney general’s office is even more significant than the finding by the state Department of Health.
“That’s very important,” he said. “They might be able to move things along more quickly than through civil litigation.”
The attorney general’s office said it could not comment about the contact with Ms. Gill, but in May, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said he was going to investigate specific nursing homes and hold them “criminally accountable” if they provided improper care.
Mr. Shapiro’s announcement came a week after state Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Ambridge, wrote to Mr. Shapiro asking him to specifically investigate Brighton.
Nate Wardle, a spokesman for the Department of Health, said in an emailed statement about Ms. Gill’s withdrawal of the lawsuit: “The department is committed to protecting the health and well-being of Pennsylvanians, and ensuring a healthy Pennsylvania for all, and is pleased that the case has been voluntarily dismissed.”
He would not add any details about the state’s deficiency finding in Brighton’s use of hydroxychloroquine and zinc, but he said the report will be released publicly later this month.
Brighton said in an emailed answer to questions: “We do not litigate through the press or comment on lawyers’ motivations for filing lawsuits.”
But it defended its use of hydroxychloroquine and zinc, writing that it “notified the Department of Health prior to physicians administering hydroxychloroquine.”
“To the best of our knowledge, the Department of Health did dictate infectious control policies related to COVID-19. However, we believe its policy was to refrain from providing any guidance relating to the treatment plans of COVID-19-positive residents,” Brighton’s administration wrote in part.
Though Ms. Gill was happy to see the state investigate her complaint about how her father was treated, it has been a difficult time for her and her dad.
When she filed the suit, Mr. Gill had been one of the lucky residents at Brighton not to test positive. But since then, he did test positive but only showed moderate symptoms.
“I’m still worried about him,” said Ms. Gill, who has twice visited her father in the social distancing setup that Brighton has created for families, where they get to talk in person through an entranceway.
Mr. Daley said what was interesting about the state’s June 18 inspection at Brighton — which the state said was in response to Ms. Gill’s complaint — is that her complaint to the Department of Health about what was going on in Brighton in early April did not include a complaint about the use of hydroxychloroquine.
“Her complaint was made before he was administered hydroxychloroquine” on April 10, Mr. Daley said. “So I viewed that [June 18 inspection] as a response to the federal lawsuit.”
“I think the results of the lawsuit were positive overall,” Mr. Daley added, “and I’m happy the Department of Health is doing all it is doing now.”