Brightview Care Center looks like the perfect nursing home candidate to choose for a loved one. The website looks harmless, and is actually very appealing. One page is completely devoted to positive endorsements that patients and family members have said about Brightview, none are negative. There are certain measures taken to make sure these facilities are properly caring for its patients, but there are loopholes that allow certain errors and many homes continue on unscathed.
Located in Chicago’s Uptown, Brightview Care Center, 4538 North Beacon, is a nursing home with 143 certified beds and 122 patients. Yosef Davis owns 90.93 percent of ManagCare Inc., which owns and operates three other nursing homes in Chicago. And Israel Davis is the administrator. The facility is rated two stars or, “much below average” on the federal government five-star rating system.
The star-rating system, just like any other, is not perfect. David Vinkler, the Associate State Director of Advocacy for AARP, a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people 50 and over. Vinkler talked about the star system at an interview March 6, he said, “It’s like grading on a curve.” He went on to explain that five star nursing homes could be the best of the worst.
All records available of state inspections have been reviewed from 2002 to the present, however inspectors only make it out to each nursing home once a year, and administrators generally know when to expect them. Also, the list of violations and complaints are only the documented problems, and it is probable that there are more unknown issues. There are six lawsuits documented against Brightview, five where Brightview is the main defendant. The case types were titled, “Other personal injury, Medical Mal-practice and Miscellaneous statutory action.” This shows that although the nursing home has never been fined, it doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been any cause to provoke such justice.
The facility’s most recent inspection report dates December 9, 2011. There are a number of violations included in this document including: six residents with unnecessary restraints, an employee not properly washing his/her hands and two other distinct incidents.
One of the cases included a patient’s left-heel, open wound being treated. The resident was witnessed screaming and yelling loud enough to hear through the closed door, “It’s hurting me!” The resident continued to beg for the Treatment Nurse to stop, but the nurse did not stop or notify the patient’s primary nurse or doctor.
The facility wrote a response to this inspection, saying, “The care planning staff and nurses have been instructed on the importance and means of assessing residents… and carrying out approaches to manage pain during wound care… and halting wound care, notifying the appropriate health care professional, and assessing the resident if approaches are not effective or there is a significant change.” According to the facility’s most recent cost report, no money is spent on CAN training.
This cost report also states the administrator makes $82,175 a year, which is a hefty salary for someone running a nursing home that has such a large number of glitches.
It declares the total cost of the pharmacy was $63,090, only a little more than 10 percent of the total costs for the facility’s special services. With the sale of drugs marked at $75,042 (page 19), and their history of medication errors, one would think this cost would be a higher priority.
The report from September 12, 2002 states that the facility had a medication error rate of 8.16 percent, which is above the allotted 5 percent. Improper amounts and distributions of medicine have been accounted for in six other facility inspections.
Brightview’s administrator declined to comment on the problems his nursing home has faced and what they are doing to correct them.
Another case noted in the December 9, 2011 facility inspection is about a 41 year-old male with the diagnosis including urinary tract infection, renal insufficiency, major depression, quadriplegia, diabetes and hematuria. He was found on December 7 at 11:00 a.m. in his room, not speaking and lying on his right side. His lower extremities were completely bent to the level of his chest and arms were bent in the fetal position and he was unable to move them. He also had a gastronomy tube in place and a super-pubic urinary catheter draining urine. His occupational therapy records dated all the way back to June 25, 2010, which was over a year ago. The Rehab Nurse stated on December 9 that he has been in the fetal position since her employment at the facility. The patient’s clinical records show no additional assessments to determine if he improved, declined, or maintained at the same level.
The facility issued a response to this oversight in patient care and said he “has received an assessment that includes his lower extremities, and treatment orders have been carried out.” The specifics to what was done for the patient were not noted.
Although nursing homes issue a “Facility Response,” inspectors don’t insure the facility corrects the responses according to Wendy Meltzer, Executive Director of Illinois Citizens for Better Care, a resident advocacy group.
Brightview has a masked history of errors and mistreatment, and many of its problems will remain unnoticed forever.
michellepizzo 