Many elderly citizens need to be relocated to nursing centers, assisted living homes, rehabilitation centers to ensure they maintain the highest quality of living. Unfortunately, not every nursing home provides even the most basic standards of care. When Medicare determines the nursing center is providing resident’s insufficient care, they reclassify the home as a Special Focus Facility (SFF). The facility is then given the opportunity to correct serious problems that have the potential of causing minimal to severe harm to the residents.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently added Grand Prairie Care and Rehabilitation Center to SFF status due to serious safety concerns at its facility. The information below can be used by families interested in finding the best location in their community to place a loved one who requires ongoing medical attention and assistance with activities of daily living in a safe and loving environment. The facility will remain on the list until they correct their problems and maintain a good standing as defined by Medicare and Medicaid. If the nursing home fails to correct serious concerns, CMA will likely terminate their contract to provide care to Medicare patients and participating in the federal program.
Grand Prairie Care and Rehabilitation Center is a for-profit 141-certified bed Medicaid/Medicare participating facility providing skilled nursing care, resident care and post-hospital care to residents of Lonoke County, including those in the Grand Prairie area. The facility is located at:
1010 Barnes St.
Lonoke, AR 72086
(51) 676-3103
The nursing home operates underage legal name Lonoke Healthcare Center and Rehabilitation Facility, LLC.
The federal government and state of Arkansas nursing home regulatory agencies classify certain nursing homes as SFF (special focus facilities) when they rank far below average compared to nursing facilities nationwide that provide care, services, and safety. The updated information is made available to the public on the federal Medicare.gov website. Currently, Grand Prairie Care & Rehabilitation Center maintains an overall one out of five-star ranking compared to all facilities in the United States.
Medicare determines the overall rating based on its staff rating involving staffing hours that include Registered Nurses (RN), Licensed Practical Nurses, Certified Nursing Aides, and Licensed Vocational Nurses. Grand Prairie Care & Rehab Center has maintained a four out of five star rating on staffing. Additionally, the facility received one out of five stars for quality measures that include clinical data measures in providing residents care. Finally, Medicare issued a one out of five-star rating on health inspections.
Our attorneys have uncovered numerous opened investigations, filed complaints, and patient safety concerns involving Grand Prairie Care and Rehab Center. Some of these concerns involve:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated March 24, 2017, the state surveyors noted that the facility failed “to ensure a transfer was conducted with a sit-to-stand mechanical lift and two-staff assistance as per the [resident’s] Plan of Care.” This failure “resulted in the resident falling onto the side of the bed with a staff member on top of her.” The surveyors also noted the facility’s failure “to ensure staff reported the fall and [failed to wait] for a licensed nurse to assess the resident for injury prior to moving the resident to prevent further potential injury.”
Also, the failed practices of the nursing staff and administration at Grand Prairie Care and Rehabilitation Center “resulted in Immediate Jeopardy, which caused or could have caused serious harm, injury, or death to [the resident involved in the incident].”
The surveyors reviewed the resident’s medical records that revealed the resident “sustained a fracture to the right femur when staff conducted a one-person manual transfer and fell with the resident, [before placing] the resident back in bed without informing a licensed nurse of the incident. The failed practices also had the potential to cause more harm than minimal harm to [two residents who] are required two-person transfers with the use of a mechanical sit-two-stand lift at the time of the incident, as documented in the list provided by the Director of Nursing on March 23, 2017.
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated August 10, 2017, the state surveyor noted that the facility had failed to “ensure the physician was properly consulted regarding a resident’s complain of itching and possible insect bites […and] any necessary treatment for [a resident’s who] reported possible insect bites and itching.” The failed practice of the nursing staff “had the potential to affect one resident who reported possible insect bites in the last 30 days, according to the list provided by the Interim Administrator on August 23, 2017.”
A review of the resident’s records revealed that “on August 6, 2017, at 2:45 PM, during the initial rounds with a Registered Nurse (RN), the resident was walking in the hallway, [and was] approached by the RN.” The resident “stated he woke up with bite marks from bugs this morning. There were red [blotches] on his right shoulder. He also stated he had seen bugs in his room.” An LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) providing care asked the resident if “he had been outside.” The resident replied, “No.” The LPN replied that she would discuss the bite with the resident’s doctor. However, as of August 7, 2017, at 2:03 PM, “there was no documentation in the Nurses Notes or elsewhere in the clinical record of a physician being notified regarding the resident’s complaint of insect bites.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated August 10, 2017, the state investigator noted the facility’s failure “to ensure housekeeping and maintenance services were provided to maintain a sanitary, orderly, and comfortable interior and improve the quality of life or residents who utilized (Central, 200 and 400 Halls shower rooms…).” This problem was “evidenced by failure to ensure soiled and stained shower chairs were thoroughly cleaned, and a failure to ensure toilets were cleaned of fecal matter, and a failure to ensure shower curtains were free from black mildew-like substances, and failure to ensure a leaking shower stall was promptly repaired.
The state investigators also noted the facility’s failure to “ensure stained/soiled ceiling tiles were properly disposed of after being removed from the ceiling on [200 Hall] to maintain an orderly, clutter-free walkway for residents.” The investigator noted that the “failed practice had the potential to affect all residents.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated August 10, 2017, the surveyor noted that the facility “failed to ensure resident Plans of Care were reviewed by the interdisciplinary team and revised to address aggressive behaviors.” A new Plan of Care could “provide staff with appropriate interventions to minimize the potential for resident-to-resident altercations for [five residents] who had episodes of aggressive behavior toward others.”
The failed practice of the nursing staff and administration “resulted in Immediate Jeopardy which caused or could have caused serious harm, injury or death to [five residents] and had the potential to cause more than minimal harm to 13 residents who resided in the secure wing…”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated August 10, 2015, the state investigator noted the facility’s two failures, including the failure “to ensure necessary care and services were provided to address complaints of pain related to hemorrhoids.” The second problem involved the facility’s failure “to ensure the physician-ordered treatment was promptly initiated and consistently provided to treat the resident’s bleeding hemorrhoids and control the resident’s pain” who had physician orders.
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated August 10, 2017, the document notes the facility’s failure “to ensure supervision and adequate, competent staff were provided on the secure unit to properly intervene when residents exhibited aggressive behaviors and prevented resident-to-resident altercations.” The surveyors also noted the facility’s failure to “ensure staff to work on the secure unit were trained on dementia care and how to intervene with residents who exhibited aggressive behaviors…”
An additional deficiency noted in the summary statement of August 10, 2017, revealed a failure to provide proper care for residents requiring special services including injections, colostomy, tracheotomy care, ileostomy, Urostomy, respiratory care, foot care, and prosthesis care. This includes a failure “to ensure chest tube supplies (Vaseline causing clamps) were readily available in a resident’s room to ensure proper care in the event of dislodgment” for a resident who had a chest tube. It was noted that the “failed practice had the potential to affect … only residents with the chest tube.”
If you, or a loved one, have suffered serious harm through mistreatment, neglect, abuse or poor care while residing at Grand Prairie Care and Rehabilitation Center, or any other nursing facility, help is available. Contact us now! Arkansas nursing home abuse attorneys can provide immediate legal options to stop the neglect now.
For more information on the laws and regulations related to Arkansas nursing homes, look here.
For material related to nursing homes in specific cities and local attorneys with experience with these cases, see the pages below:
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