Information & Ratings on Sunset Home (Violations)

When you entrust the care of your family member to a nursing home, you are literally trusting them with your loved one's life. Many nursing home residents have some form of dementia, which means that they are vulnerable and not able to make their own sound decisions. If the nursing home fails to exercise adequate supervision, and your loved one suffers harm, the nursing home can be found to be legally responsible for the injury. This could mean that your family is eligible for some form of financial compensation from the nursing home. 

Sunset Home is a small facility with 60 certified beds. It participates in both the Medicare and Medicaid programs, although it has had one payment denial back in 2017. The nursing home provides long-stay services to residents of Maysville, MO and the Northwest Missouri area. It has for-profit ownership and it is located at:

1201 S Polk St 
Maysville, MO 64469
(816) 449-2158
URL: http://www.visitsunsethome.com/

Federal laws and regulations prescribe a strict compliance regime for nursing homes that participate in federal programs. Since nursing homes derive much of their revenue from these programs, it is essential that they remain in compliance with all of these regulations in order to remain eligible. Prolonged noncompliance that is not addressed over a sustained period of time can result in either payment denials or permanent removal from these programs. These sanctions are not necessarily the norm for most nursing homes who stringently adhere to the federal and state rules. 

In August 2017, the facility received a Notice of Noncompliance from the State of Missouri. The violation was assigned a Class I rating, which is the highest category of violation. This is because a resident was placed in immediate jeopardy. Here, a resident eloped from the facility and was reported missing. When the resident was located, they were over four miles away from the facility in the middle of the night. The resident was previously assessed as a risk for elopement and had expressed a desire to return to their home. The resident had previously been discovered attempting to climb out of a window. Here, the resident opened the gate during a smoke break and exited the facility. This violation also resulted in a $13,909 fine from the federal government. This was also accompanied by a payment denial, whereby the facility was temporarily prevented from receiving Medicare reimbursements for new patients entering the facility. 

The above incident was one of three complaint investigations that the facility faced in 2017. In October 2017, the facility was given a citation for failure to investigate injuries of an unknown origin. One resident sustained bruises on their ankle, but did not know how they received them. Even if an unknown injury is not connected in any way to possible abuse, the facility must investigate the injury and report it to the state if necessary. In April 2017, the nursing home received a citation for failing to undertake the proper measures when two residents fell. Neither of the residents' responsible parties were notified of the falls and their care plans were not updated after the falls. Further, the residents' physicians were not notified of the falls as they should have been. 

The December 2017 inspection report resulted in ten health citations assessed to the facility. One of the deficiencies was that the facility did not undertake the proper measures to prevent accidents when transferring residents. The staff did not lock the wheelchairs when performing a gait belt transfer. 

In addition, the facility scored well below national averages in several key areas. First, the nursing home had a rate of hospitalization that was nearly double the national average. There is a new Medicare program that penalizes a nursing home by docking it up to two percent of its reimbursements from the program if the rate of hospitalization is higher than the national average. Here, the facility is in a position to be penalized due to the fact that residents have an average of 2.7 hospital stays for every 1,000 resident days. 

Also, this nursing home had far less than the national average for staffing levels at the facility. A nursing home is required to send pay data to Medicare who then quantifies and rates the level of staffing at the nursing home. Here, the facility had 58 minutes of nurse time for each resident for each day, which is significantly less than the national average of 93 minutes. Adequate staff is necessary to provide residents both with the help that they need for activities of daily life as well as the necessary medical care. 

If your loved one is a resident at Sunset Home and you are concerned that they may have suffered an injury or have had a medical condition that could have been avoided with proper care, contact the attorneys at the Nursing Home Law Center today. The call is entirely free and when you tell us the facts of your case, we can inform you whether we think you have a legal claim that is worth pursuing. You can reach us by phone at (800) 726-9565 or online through our website. 

Sources:

• August 14, 2017
• Inspection Report - 08/02/2017
• Inspection Report - 10/24/2017
• Inspection Report - 04/17/2017