Many families face the gut-wrenching decision to place an elderly, disabled or rehabilitating loved one in a nursing home to ensure they receive the best care in a comfortable, safe environment. Unfortunately, some patients are abused, neglected or mistreated by caregivers or other residents. Many of these incidents are the result of a lack of training, minimal supervision, a failure to perform proper background checks, or insufficient administrative oversight.
If your loved one was mistreated, the Arkansas nursing home neglect attorneys can help now to ensure your family is adequately compensated, and those responsible for causing your loved one harm are held legally accountable. Our team of lawyers have represented many Benton County victims and can help you too. Let us begin working on your case now.
This Medicare/Medicaid-participating long-term care (LTC) center is a "for-profit" 125-certified bed Home providing cares to residents of Siloam Springs and Benton County, Arkansas. The facility is located at:
811 West Elgin Street
Siloam Springs, Arkansas, 72761
(479) 524-3128
Fined $8664 for substandard care
Federal and Arkansas state investigators can penalize any nursing home that has violated rules and regulations that resulted in harm or could have resulted in harm of a resident. These penalties include imposing monetary fines and denying payment for Medicare services.
Within the last three years, federal authorities imposed an $8464 fine against Siloam Healthcare on October 26, 2017, citing substandard care. Also, the nursing home received one formally filed complaint in the last 36 months. Additional information concerning penalties and fines can be found on the Arkansas Adult Protective Services website concerning this nursing home.
To ensure families are fully informed of the level of care every nursing home provides, the state of Arkansas routinely updates their long-term care home database system. This information reflects a complete list of opened investigations, filed complaints, dangerous hazards, health violations, safety concerns, and incident inquiries that can be found on numerous sites including Medicare.gov and the AR 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 concerning health inspections, three out of five stars for staffing issues and three out of five stars for quality measures. The Benton County neglect attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center have found serious deficiencies, hazardous violations and safety concerns at Siloam Healthcare that include:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated September 22, 2016, the state investigator noted the facility's failure to "ensure resident grievances that indicated possible abuse or misappropriation of resident property were properly documented and thoroughly investigated as possible allegations, in order to rule out abuse.” The deficient practice by the nursing staff involved four residents at the facility.
The survey team also said that the facility had failed to “report allegations to the Office of Long Term Care (OLTC) for [one of five residents] who submitted grievances in the past twelve months.” It was also documented that “this failed practice had the potential to affect eleven residents who filed grievances within the last twelve months.”
An investigator reviewed the resident’s Grievance/Complaint Form dated March 11, 2016, that reads that a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) “came to my office in the early afternoon and asked that I go down and talk with the resident because she was upset. I then walked down to talk with her. I got down to section 3 and spoke to her. I asked her if she [would] like to talk to me because the girls said she was upset. She told me that she did not want to talk to me.” The writer said it was alright that the resident calls her sons.
Approximately one hour later, the writer went to the Activity Director’s office to speak with the sons who arrived at the facility. One son stated that his mother “called him and said that these Aides had ‘locked her in the bathroom and would not let her out.’ I pinpointed it down to the two Aides as [two identified Certified Nursing Assistants].”
One son had stated that “this happened once before with the same Aides. I asked the resident to explain to me exactly what happened. She said she was going to the bathroom, she wiped herself and then told the Aides she was done. The Aides would not let her out of the bathroom. She told them and told them to let her out and they would not. Her son stated that this happened one other time with the same Aides. The resident went on to say that they were going to push another incapacitated resident out into the street and let her get hit by a car and say that [the resident] did get herself.”
The writer told the resident that “will NOT happen and we are here to help them and be sure they are safe.” The writer filling in the grievance form informed the “resident and her sons that [they were] sorry, but I did not know about the first incident, but I would definitely look into what happened, and I will give the son a call first thing Monday after we [have interviewed] the Aides.”
The writer then said, “I went to the Section 3 nurse and asked her to do a urinalysis on the resident to check for urinary tract infection. I then went to the Assistant Director of Nursing and told her what had just happened. She stated both of these Aides were working on Saturday (the next day). She said that she would interview them separately and ask them to write a witness statement. The interviews were conducted on Saturday. After reading both statements and hearing their interviews, their stories are collectively the same.”
Both Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) “stated that they took the resident to the bathroom and they thought she was wiping herself but instead of wiping herself, she was playing with some dried fecal matter under the toilet rim. This resulted in the resident having dried fecal matter under her fingernails and also in the nailbed. The aides told the resident to stop and took her hand out of the toilet. She then said she was going to the bathroom, so they cleaned her bottom, and instructed her to wash her hands. She then refused.”
The Aides then “stated that they cannot allow her out of the bathroom until she washes her hands to get fecal matter off her nails. She then refused again and said she would put their heads in the toilet so they could clean up with their mouths. They got [the resident] to wash her hands, and she was upset, which is when I was called to Section 3.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated September 22, 2016, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to “ensure its abuse prohibition policies and procedures were implemented by failing to ensure resident grievances that indicate possible abuse… were properly document and thoroughly investigated as possible allegations [to] rule out abuse.” The investigative team reviewed the facility’s Abuse Policy and Procedure and documented that the nursing home had failed “to report the allegation to the Office of Long Term Care (OLTC)” and that this “failed practice had the potential to affect twelve residents who filed grievances in the last twelve months.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated October 26, 2017, the state surveyors documented that the nursing home had failed to “ensure that before a resident was allowed to smoke cigarettes unsupervised, an assessment was conducted and documented to determine if the resident could safely do so.” The investigators also noted the facility had failed to “ensure the ability to safely smoke was re-evaluated at least quarterly. The nursing home also failed to ensure interventions, to include supervision/monitoring of the resident while smoking and securing the smoking materials/cigarette lighters when not in use.”
The home also failed to “immediately develop, implement and document on the Plan of Care after the resident was observed by staff to be smoking with oxygen in use, to prevent the resident from causing potential serious burn injuries to herself and others.” The survey team documented that “this failed practice resulted in an Immediate Jeopardy, which caused or could have caused serious harm, injury or death to [the resident] and had the potential to cause more than minimal harm to five residents who smoked tobacco products, including three residents who required oxygen therapy.”
The survey team observed a resident in a wheelchair on the morning of October 24, 2017, who “was receiving oxygen at 2 Liters per minute via a nasal cannula connected to a portable oxygen tank it that hanging on the back of the wheelchair. She propelled herself in the hallway to the outside of the building into the smoking area. She stopped approximately three to four feet from the glass door facing the smoking gazebo.” At that time, “with her oxygen tank still in use, the resident lit and started smoking a cigarette.” The investigators observed three staff members from the housekeeping staff who “were outside by the gazebo, and there was one other resident in a wheelchair who was smoking at this time.”
The investigators observed one unidentified staff member walking “by the resident and spoke to her. The resident continued to smoke for approximately one minute after the staff member spoke to her. The resident continued to smoke for approximately one minute after the staff member spoke to her, then extinguished the cigarette and placed the remainder of the cigarette in her purse. She turned her wheelchair toward the door to the facility, [and a member of the maintenance staff] went outside and assisted the resident back into the building and went to inform the nursing staff that the resident needed her oxygen removed to go outside to smoke.”
The investigative team asked the resident “about smoking a cigarette with oxygen in use that morning.” The resident responded, “sometimes, I forget it. They [the staff] have a fit and take the oxygen off … I have enough sense to take care of my cigarettes. I keep my cigarettes and lighters in my purse and then turn them in. The resident showed the surveyor pack of cigarettes and a disposable lighter insider purse, which was on her lap.” The resident said, “I am not supposed to have my oxygen on outside. I had to wait on someone to take the oxygen off to smoke.”
If you believe your loved one has suffered abuse, neglect or mistreatment while living at Siloam Healthcare, contact the Arkansas nursing home abuse lawyers at Nursing Home Law Center at (800) 926-7565 today. Our network of attorneys fights on behalf of Benton County victims of mistreatment living in long-term facilities including nursing homes in Siloam Springs. Let our skilled attorneys file and handle your nursing home abuse compensation claim against all those who caused your loved one harm. Our years of experience ensure a successful resolution. Contact us now to schedule a free case review to discuss how to obtain justice and resolve a financial compensation claim. Let us fight aggressively to ensure your rights are protected.
The attorneys accept all personal injury claims, nursing home abuse suits, medical malpractice cases, and wrongful death lawsuits through a contingency fee agreement. This arrangement postpones making payments to our legal firm until after we have successfully resolved your case through a jury trial award or negotiated settlement. We provide every client a “No Win/No-Fee” Guarantee, meaning you will owe us nothing if we cannot obtain compensation on your behalf. Let our attorneys begin working on your behalf today to ensure your family receives adequate monetary recovery from those who caused your harm. All information you share with our law offices will remain confidential.
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