In recent years, there has been a significant rise in the need for more nursing home beds and competent staff that can provide the highest level of care. Unfortunately, neglect and abuse are serious problems that still exist in many facilities nationwide. In some cases, the family remains unaware that a severe problem exists until their parent, grandparent, spouse or loved one suffers severe injuries, permanent harm, or dies unexpectedly.
If your loved one became the victim of mistreatment in a Pulaski County nursing facility, the Arkansas nursing home abuse attorneys can help. Our team of dedicated lawyers can provide legal representation, counsel and advice on how you should proceed to ensure your family receives the monetary compensation they deserve. Let us begin working on your case today to seek justice and hold those at fault for causing your loved one harm legally accountable.
This Medicare/Medicaid-particitpating center is a 90-certified bed facility providing services to residents of Little Rock and Pulaski County, Arkansas. The "for-profit" long-term care (LTC) home is located at:
6411 Valley Ranch Drive
Little Rock, Arkansas, 72223
(501) 868-8857
Arkansas nursing home regulators and federal inspectors have the legal authority to penalize any nursing home identified as violating rules and regulations that harmed or could have harmed a resident. Typically, these penalties include monetary fines and denial for payment of medical services. Within the last three years, the nursing home governmental agencies have fined The Village at Valley Ranch on for three separate incidents including a $22,841 fine on September 7, 2017, $54,208 fine on January 25, 2018, and a $6767 fine on January 25, 2018 for a total of $83,816 in penalties.
Also, Medicare denied payment for services rendered on January 25, 2018, due to substandard care. The nursing home has also received thirteen formally filed complaints and self-reported three serious issues that resulted in a citation over the last thirty-six months. Additional information concerning penalties and fines can be found on the Arkansas Adult Protective Services website concerning this nursing facility.
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 dangerous hazards, health violations, safety concerns, incident inquiries, opened investigations, and filed complaints 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 two out of five stars involving health inspections, one out of five stars for staffing issues and one out of five stars for quality measures. The Pulaski County neglect attorneys at Nursing Home Law Center have found serious deficiencies, hazardous violations and safety concerns at The Village at Valley Ranch that include:
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated October 20, 2017, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to “ensure necessary care and services were provided for management of non-pressure-related wounds.” This deficiency was “evidenced by a failure to consistently conduct and document thorough weekly wound assessments to allow tracking of healing progress or prompt identification of deterioration of wounds.”
The deficient practice by the nursing staff involved three of fifteen residents “who had wounds.” The Nursing Home failed “to consistently provide physician-ordered wound treatments or only document the treatments as administered when the treatments were actually provided, [to] prevent potential deterioration promote healing of wounds and allow accurate determination of whether current treatment orders were effective.”
The failure to “provide the correct, most recently ordered, wound treatment to promote healing for [a resident…] that resulted in actual harm to [three residents] whose wounds deteriorated or failed to improve and had the potential to affect thirty-nine residents who had wounds.”
In one incident, the surverors observed a resident just after noon on October 16, 2017 while “sitting in a wheelchair in his room, watching TV. There was a soiled dressing to the left mid-lateral area of his left leg. There was also soiled dressing to the left inner aspect of the right leg and … green tinged wound located on the frontal region of the right leg. There was dried drainage visible on the dressing and no dates visible on the left or right leg dressings and no odors from the soiled dressings. The resident was asked how often the dressings were changed.” The resident replied, “they were changed last week and that they change every now and then.”
Approximately three hours later on the same day, the resident was observed “sitting in a wheelchair in his room, watching TV. There was a soiled dressing to the left leg and an open area below the knee with serous drainage present. There was a yellowish/brown drainage visible on the outside of the right leg dressing. The resident stated that the dressings were not being changed three times a week, as ordered.”
Later that evening at 5:40 PM, a different resident “was asked if the Administrator ever performed a dressing change to his legs.” That resident replied, “No, she has never touched me.” About 1.5 hours earlier, the investigative team asked the Administrator “if she signed the electronic Treatment Administration Record (eTAR) for this resident’s treatments. She stated, ‘I sign the eTAR when a nurse calls in. I am a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and I work the floor sometimes.” The investigator asked “if she worked the floor today.” The Administrator stated, “no, not today.” When asked if she had provided any wound care treatment in the last week, the Administrator replied, “No.”
During the interview with the Administrator, it was revealed that the Director of Nursing is responsible for “making sure that the residents receive their wound care treatments.” The Administrator stated that they had taken the keys yesterday morning “because the nurse was running late, and the other nurse wanted to leave.”
The Administrator did not administer medications nor did the they address the resident’s lower extremity wounds. When asked if they had signed the eTAR for the following morning concerning treatment to the resident’s “bilateral lower extremities,” the Administrator stated that they had “cleared them, yes.” The Administrator thought that the treatments were done by the resident’s physician.” The Administrator admitted that there had not been a wound treatment nurse at the facility for “at least 2.5 weeks."
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated October 20, 2017, the state surveyors noted the nursing home had failed to “apply heel protectors as ordered by the physician to promote healing of a pressure ulcer.” The deficient practice at the facility involved one resident “who had orders to utilize heel protectors. This failed practice had the potential to affect three residents who had orders for heel protectors.”
The incident in question involved a resident with a Brief Interview for Mental Status (BIMS) score of 15 who “was totally dependent on the assistance of 2+ people for bed mobility and transfer, required extensive assistance of one person for personal hygiene, had a wound infection, was at high risk for developing pressure ulcers, and had a Stage IV pressure ulcer.” The resident’s Wound Healing Progress Report dated October 14, 2017, showed that the resident had a wound measuring 1.6 x 1.8 cm and was noted as unstageable “due to Suspected Deep Tissue Injury.”
State investigators observed a resident just after noon on October 16, 2017 while “lying in bed, with his heels in direct contact with the sheet-covered mattress. He did not have heel protectors on his feet. The heel protectors were sitting on the shelf in the resident’s room.” At dinner time that same day, the resident was observed “sitting up in bed, eating his supper. His heels were in direct contact with the sheet-covered mattress, and he did not have heel protectors on.”
The following morning at 9:15 AM, two Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) “were in the resident’s room to provide incontinent care. After the staff completed the incontinent care, they did not place [the heel protectors] on the resident’s feet before leaving the room.”
At 4:00 PM that day, a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) was providing “wound care for the resident. After she completed his left heel dressing change, she applied the non-skid socks on his left foot and did not apply the heel protectors on the resident’s feet.”
At 10:10 AM on October 18, 2017, the resident was observed “in his room, sitting in a wheelchair without heel protectors on. The Director of Nursing and Certified Nursing Assistant transferred the resident from the wheelchair back to the bed with a mechanical lift. Once the resident was placed back to bed and repositioned in bed, the heel protectors were not placed on the resident’s feet.”
Just before dinner time that same day, a Licensed Practical Nurse “performed a PICC line flush and after completing the flush, left the room without applying heel protectors to the resident’s feet.” The investigator asked the LPN “who is responsible to ensure the resident has heel protectors on as ordered?” The LPN stated that the facility delegates that responsibility “to the Aides (CNAs). She was asked, are you aware that he has not had the heel protectors on (several occasions) this week?”
The LPN responded, “no, ma’am. I was not aware. He had said before that when he has the boots on, it makes his back pain worse.” The investigator asked “did you document that the resident had stated that TU and did you inform the physician?” The LPN replied, “No.”
In a summary statement of deficiencies dated October 20, 2017, the state investigators documented that the facility had failed to “ensure plan fall prevention interventions were promptly and consistently implemented to minimize the potential for further falls.” The deficient practice by the nursing staff involved two residents who “were at risk for falls. This failed practice had the potential to affect twenty-seven residents who were at risk for falls.” The incident involved a resident at high risk for falls and has had “a history of falls in the past three months” involving three or more falls.
The state investigators reviewed the resident’s incident report dated September 6, 2017, at 9:31 AM. The documentation revealed that the resident had an unobserved fall with a skin tear. At the time of the incident, the resident “was found on the floor lying on her abdomen with blood under the left side of the head, [and] an open wound to the center of the nose.” The nursing staff took immediate action and assess the resident who was sent to the hospital “for facial x-ray and evaluation.” The Advanced Practice Registered Nurse requested that the resident “have a Geri-chair.”
The state investigator asked the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) providing the resident care to discuss the incident that led to the resident’s injury. The LPN stated that the incident occurred on September 19, 2017 when the staff “had just gotten up for her lunch and put her in the wheelchair. I told him to stop until I take her blood sugar before she went down to lunch.”
The LPN “said [for the resident to] sit back, I do not want you to fall. I turned to draw my insulin and, as I was in the air with the thing (the syringe) to draw, I heard a thump. When I turned, I could see that she had hit her head against the floorboard; there was no blood. When we turned her over, I noticed that she had a skin tear on her left elbow area.”
The state investigator asked the LPN why the resident was in a wheelchair and not a Geri-chair as ordered by the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse to minimize the potential of all. The LPN responded, “I am not sure whether she had a Geri-chair at that time.”
If you, or your family, believe that caregivers victimized your loved one while living at The Village at Valley Ranch, call the Arkansas nursing home abuse lawyers at Nursing Home Law Center at (800) 926-7565 today. Our network of attorneys works on behalf of Pulaski County victims of mistreatment living in long-term facilities including nursing homes in Little Rock. Our dedicated lawyers can work on your behalf to file and resolve your claim for compensation against all those that caused your loved ones harm, injury, or premature death. 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.
Our network of attorneys accepts every case concerning wrongful death, nursing home abuse, and personal injury through a contingency fee arrangement. This agreement postpones your need to make a payment for our legal services until after your case is successfully resolved through a negotiated out of court settlement or jury trial award. We provide every client a “No Win/No-Fee” Guarantee, meaning if we are unable to obtain compensation on your behalf, you owe our legal team nothing. We can provide legal representation starting today to ensure your family is adequately compensated for your damages. All information you share with our law offices will remain confidential.
Little Rock Nursing Home Injury Lawyer Nursing Home Law Center LLC Home