Have you recently admitted your loved one into a nursing home? If so, they deserve to receive the best services available in a compassionate, safe environment. Unfortunately, many nursing home residents are victimized through mistreatment, neglect, and abuse at the hands of their caregivers or other residents.
If your loved one suffered from mistreatment while residing in a McKinley County assisted living facility, nursing home, or rehabilitative center, the New Mexico Nursing Home Law Center attorneys can help. Our team of lawyers has investigated hundreds of mistreatment cases statewide. We have sought justice on behalf of our clients and obtain financial compensation to ensure their financial damages are recovered. Contact us today so we can begin working on your case now.
This long-term care (LTC) facility is a 102-certified bed "for-profit" home providing services and cares to residents of Gallup and McKinley County, New Mexico. The Medicare/Medicaid-participating center is located at:
3720 Church Rock Road
Gallup, New Mexico, 87301
(505) 722-2261
In addition to providing around-the-clock skilled nursing care, the facility also offers:
New Mexico and federal nursing home regulatory agencies have the legal authority to impose monetary fines and deny payment for Medicare services for any nursing facility cited for serious violations of regulations and rules. The federal government nursing home regulatory agency imposed a monetary penalty against Red Rocks Care Center for serious issues that resulted in a massive $113,815 fine on September 15, 2017.
Also, Medicare denied payment for services rendered on two occasions including on September 15, 2017, and August 30, 2016. Over the last thirty-six months, this nursing home has received two formally filed complaints due to substandard care. Additional information about fines and penalties can be found on the New Mexico Department of Health Nursing Home Reporting Website concerning this nursing facility.
The state of New Mexico and federal government regularly updates their long-term care home database systems with complete details of all safety concerns, health violations, opened investigations, filed complaints, dangerous hazards, and incident inquiries. The search results can be found on numerous online sites including Medicare.gov and the NM Department of Public Health website.
According to Medicare, this facility maintains an overall rating of one out of five stars, including one out of five stars involving health inspections, two out of five stars for staffing issues and four out of five stars for quality measures. The McKinley County neglect attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center have found serious deficiencies, hazard violations and safety concerns at Red Rocks Care Center that include:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2018, the state investigators documented that the nursing home had failed to "report the results of an investigation was reported to the State Survey Agency within five days." The deficient practice involved to residents "reviewed for abuse. If the facility is not reporting and investigating resident-to-resident abuse according to policies, then the facility is likely to be unable to determine the cause and identify strategies for preventing further abuse." The investigators reviewed the facility policy titled: Abuse Policies and Procedures that reads in part:
"Residents have the right to be free from abuse."
"Our facility is committed to protecting our residents from abuse by anyone including and not necessarily limited to other residents."
"The timely and thorough investigations of all reports and allegations of abuse" and the "reporting and filing of accurate documents relative to incidents of abuse" will have "an ongoing review and analysis of the abuse incident" and "the implementation of changes to prevent further occurrences of abuse."
The state investigative team interviewed a resident's family member on the morning of June 19, 2018, who stated that "a few months ago, [the resident] got into a fight with another resident, which involved hitting on the part of each resident." The family member stated that the resident "was typically laid back and did not have a history of getting into altercations."
The family member stated that "right after the altercation had occurred, [the resident] was sent out to a psychiatric facility for a couple of weeks and then she returned to the facility." The family member said that "she was not informed about what actually happened between the residents."
As a part of the investigation, the surveyors reviewed a witness statement documented February 2, 2017, that revealed that the witness saw a resident-to-resident physical altercation between two residents. The witness said that "Once I seen the resident hitting [the other resident], I immediately separated them, and informed both nurses on duty." The incident "happened around 11:10 AM [and] upon the separation between them [the other resident] chuckled and went back to her room."
The resident's incident report revealed that the chuckling resident self-propelled herself "to her room in her wheelchair and she met [the family member's resident] in her wheelchair. The two residents began to swing and flailed their arms at each other, and no injuries were sustained. An incident report with the same date on it was documented for [the other resident]." The survey team said that there was "no documentation of the Administrator, Director of Nursing, Ombudsman, physician or State Agency being notified on either incident report [by] the facility's policy."
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2018, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to "ensure an allegation of physical abuse between two residents was reported to the appropriate individual/agency including the Administrator, physician, agency for one of two allegations of potential resident-to-resident abuse that were reviewed. This deficient practice created the potential that abuse would go unrecognized, not be addressed, and perpetuate a culture in which abuse could occur."
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2018, the state investigative team noted that the facility had failed to "thoroughly investigate incidents of resident-to-resident abuse and report the results of those investigations to the Licensing Authority within five days." The surveyor said that "this deficient practice has the potential to prevent staff from determining the cause of the incident, identifying the need for staff training and implementing needed changes to prevent resident-to-resident abuse."
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2018, the state investigators noted that the facility had failed to "ensure that residents identified as a high fall risk receive the appropriate supervision and had safety interventions in place to prevent recurrent falls. During the recertification survey, three of seven residents were identified as high fall risks and were observed "with certain concerns."
In one incident, a resident "sustained a fall on June 3, 2018, resulting in a laceration to the back of the head and a subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding within the subarachnoid space, which is the area between the brain and the tissue that covers the brain). During the days of the survey, from June 18, 2018, through June 21, 2018, there were multiple observations of the high risk for fall resident being left unsupervised."
One observation of the resident occurred on June 20, 2018, when the resident was "left unsupervised in the facility dining room and was attempting to stand up." The resident "sustained a fall from the wheelchair after being left in the hallway unsupervised on June 9, 2018."
"Facility investigations revealed that the staff had failed to implement fall prevention interventions at the time of the fall. Observations during the survey revealed the positioning of the right stand close to the resident's bed which posed a safety hazard to the resident when in bed. It was determined during the survey, [that] the above findings had caused, or are likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment or death to the resident. An Immediate Jeopardy situation was determined to exist on June 20, 2018, at 5:20 PM."
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2018, the investigative team documented that the nursing home had failed to "maintain acceptable parameters on nutritional status and adequate hydration for three residents reviewed. This failure resulted in residents not receiving dietary supplements and residents at risk of additional weight loss." The investigators also noted the facility's failure "to provide adequate hydration and use of assisted devices for [one resident] identified at risk for dehydration."
In one incident, a resident had "lost 13.4 pounds which is a 10% weight loss in six months" beginning at 131.8 pounds in January 2018 and dropping to 118.4 pounds in June 2018." In another incident, a different resident "lost 16.4 pounds which is a 15% weight loss in ten months" beginning at 114.2 pounds on September 1, 2017, and dropping to 97.8 pounds by June 1, 2018.
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2018, a state investigator noted the nursing home's failure to "ensure that a staff member implemented appropriate wound care technique for [one resident]." The investigators also documented the Nursing Home's failure to ensure that a resident "no longer had a communicable infection. As a result, the potential existed for the transmission of organisms between residents."
The state surveyors observed a wound care nurse providing care to a resident who "performed the resident's wound treatment." The Registered Nurse (RN) stated that the resident had "gangrene (refers to the death of body tissue due to either a lack of blood flow or severe bacterial infection) of the toes on her right foot." The RN stated that "she completed a dressing change daily to [the resident's] right foot and would notify the surveyor when it would be completed."
Approximately twenty minutes later, the surveyor observed the wound care and saw the Registered Nurse washing "her hands [before] setting up the wound care supplies." The Registered Nurse "spread a clean towel on top of the treatment cart, and placed a bottle of [medicated] solution, 4x4s (gauze pads), tape, gloves and wrap on a towel enfolded the supplies into the towel and entered [the resident's] room."
Next, the Registered Nurse "placed the towel supplies, then donned a pair of gloves and proceeded to unwrap the resident's right foot." The Registered Nurse "then remembered the resident was seen yesterday in the wound clinic and stated she needed to check if there had been any change in the treatment orders."
After returning to the resident's room, the RN again washed her hands and donned a pair of gloves but "did not reposition the resident's bed from the low position to an adequate height for proper assessment and dressing of the resident's foot." Instead, the RN "squatted during the entire dressing change" and "removed the old dressing and her gloves, then placed a clean towel under the resident's foot." It was at that time that the Registered Nurse "donned a new pair of gloves without handwashing or use a hand sanitizer, and then proceeded to clean the resident's gangrene toes."
If you have suspicions that your loved one was injured or harmed while living at Red Rocks Care Center, contact the New Mexico nursing home abuse lawyers at Nursing Home Law Center at (800) 926-7565. Our network of attorneys fights aggressively on behalf of McKinley County victims of mistreatment living in long-term facilities including nursing homes in Gallup.
Our skillful attorneys provide legal representation in victim cases involving nursing home abuse when it occurs in private and public nursing facilities. Contact us now to schedule a free case evaluation to discuss how to obtain justice and resolve a financial compensation claim. Let us begin working on your case now to ensure your rights are protected.
Our network of attorneys accepts all nursing home abuse lawsuits, personal injury claims, medical malpractice cases, and wrongful death suits through a contingency fee agreement. This arrangement postpones making upfront payments for our legal services until after we have successfully resolved your compensation claim through a negotiated settlement or jury trial award. We provide every client a "No Win/No-Fee" Guarantee. This promise means if our legal team is unable to obtain compensation on your behalf, you owe us nothing. We can begin working on your case today to ensure your family receives monetary recovery for your damages. All information you share with our law offices will remain confidential.
Sources:
Carl R. Wilander, Esq.
Licensed in New Mexico
Chicago Nursing Home Injury Lawyer Nursing Home Law Center LLC Home