Information & Ratings on Maple Lawn Nursing Home (Violations)

Nursing homes owe a duty of care to the residents who reside in them. This means that they cannot be negligent when caring for a resident. It certainly means that they may not abuse or mistreat their residents. When you have a family member who is receiving care at a skilled nursing facility, you must be vigilant about remaining informed about their care and condition. In the event that deficient care causes them any injury or damage, you and your family may have the ability to bring a legal action against the nursing home for compensation. You should promptly seek out competent counsel to represent your loved one if it is necessary.

The Maple Lawn Nursing Home is a medium-sized facility with 138 certified beds. It participates in both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It provides long-stay nursing services to residents of Palmyra, MO and Northeast Missouri. It is owned by the county government and is located at:

1410 W Line St 
Palmyra, MO 63461
(573) 769-2213
URL: Maple Lawn Nursing Home

Each nursing home is supervised by both the federal government as well as the State of Missouri. Residents, or their guardians, have the ability to file complaints with the state regarding care at the home. In addition, the federal government will conduct an on-premises inspection generally once each year. This inspection is to ensure that the nursing home is complying with the requirements of the Medicare program. If a home's care is deficient enough, the facility can be permanently removed from the Medicare program.

Although the recent federal inspection report had improved since the prior one, the State of Missouri issued a Notice of Noncompliance to the facility. This violation was a Class I violation, which is the most significant kind of violation. Specifically, the facility did not adequately assess and supervise three residents who were smokers. Two residents were observed smoking while they were had oxygen tanks on their wheelchairs. The residents had smoking privileges, but were allowed to smoke when receiving oxygen treatment. The facility should have updated the residents' smoking assessment as to whether they should be allowed to have smoking privileges while they were receiving oxygen therapy. This was considered to be a relatively serious violation of Missouri regulations. 

Additionally, this facility received a large fine of $68,726 in December 2016. This fine was accompanied by a payment denial from Medicare. A payment denial happens when there are serious violations of regulations by a facility. Payment denials become mandatory if there are violations and the nursing home does not return to compliance within three months. 

The inspection report that accompanied the fine noted an incident in which one resident reported that a CNA slapped another resident. The nursing home did their own investigation and concluded that the allegation was without basis. However, regulations require that a nursing home report an abuse allegation to the state within a certain time period after it was received. A nursing facility does not have the right to determine on its own that an allegation lacks merit and that it should not be reported to the relevant authorities. 

Additionally, there was another violation that involved a resident who suffered a hemorrhage from blood thinners. The resident was running a fever and was bleeding from an oral cavity. However, staff did not alert the resident's physician to these issues. The resident required hospitalization to reverse the effects of the hemorrhage. The instructions for the medication required that the physician be notified immediately if any of these side effects occurred.

Not only did this nursing home receive a one star rating overall, but this facility received one star ratings from Medicare for nearly all of the relevant subfactors. With regard to staffing, the Maple Lawn Nursing Home did not adequately report the staffing numbers to Medicare so it could make an assessment of them. While there are no conclusions that can be drawn from numbers reported, at the same time, it is impossible to determine the adequacy of the staff that the home has on hand.

Additionally, the facility reported a much higher rate of hospitalization than the average nursing home. The Maple Lawn Nursing Home has an average of 2.9 hospitalizations of its residents for every 1,000 resident care days. This is much higher than the national average of 1.7. Medicare now considers the rate of hospitalization in deciding whether to give full reimbursements to facilities for the care that they provide.

The attorneys at the Nursing Home Law Center are your go-to source when your loved one has suffered an injury or has been harmed by deficient care at a nursing home. We have years of experience in Missouri in dealing with nursing home care deficiencies that have impacted residents. Call us today at (800) 726-9565 for a free confidential no-risk assessment of your potential legal case. If you retain our services, it is on a contingency basis, meaning that we do not get paid unless we are able to help you receive a financial recovery. 

Sources:

• December 18, 2018
• Inspection Report