As a nursing home resident or someone with a family member in nursing home care, you need information. In fact, information provides you with power over the care received. Visibility into the complaints, administrative orders and criminal actions against facilities can help you ensure that you or those you love will be receiving proper care.
One of the most popular facilities in the state of Florida is also one of the most problematic: ManorCare. ManorCare has nursing home and assisted living facilities throughout the state, and many of them are failing to provide the basic level of safety and care to their residents.
A Recent Agency Order to ManorCare of Venice
In late 2020, ManorCare received instructions to comply with order 59A-4.1265 Emergency Environmental Control for Nursing Homes from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration. These orders went out to all elder care facilities to make sure they had adequate emergency plans in place for power outages. The primary goal was to protect people from problems arising due to lack of power, including failure to keep refrigerated medications and food cool and exacerbating medical conditions due to inadequate temperature regulation.
ManorCare of Venice requested a variance from these orders in 2020. Specifically, the organization asked for more time to comply with the orders.
In its Final Order from the State of Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the agency denied ManorCare’s request.
What can we glean from this request and denial?
There are numerous lessons we can learn about ManorCare from this entire exchange:
- ManorCare is not keeping up with basic safety measures. The orders from the Health Care Agency were a clear and simple measure to ensure the safety and well-being of nursing home and assisted living facility residents. The primary idea was to make sure residents did not suffer needlessly due to power outages. Even with these obvious and important goals, ManorCare failed to comply.
- ManorCare is not up to date with basic legal compliance. It is critical to note that these initial orders came out in early 2018, ManorCare did not submit its variance request until May of 2020, more than two years later. This type of delay to comply with basic safety orders from an authorized agency is a clear sign of an organization that is not up to date with basic legal compliance matters.
- Protecting its residents is not one of ManorCare’s priorities. Considering its failure to comply with basic safety protocols and its delay in seeking variance, protecting its residents is clearly not one of ManorCare’s essential priorities.
From all of this information, it is safe to conclude that ManorCare might not be the best facility for you or your beloved family members. Also, if you or a loved one are currently residing at a ManorCare facility, you could be in danger of nursing home negligence or assisted living facility negligence. Talk with an elder care law firm in Florida to protect your rights against negligent facilities.