Resident complains of nursing
home’s ‘decline’
| Since April of 2000, I have been a resident of Horizon Health and Rehab. I have multiple sclerosis and am now a quadriplegic as a result of the natural progression of the disease. After reading the article in the February 22 [edition of The Manchester] Times, I felt compelled to write this letter concerning my personal experience with this facility. When I first moved into the facility, it was Coffee County Nursing Home attached to Coffee County Hospital. In November of 2003, the facility was bought by United Regional Medical Center. It was then that the Administration in the nursing home changed and it became the responsibility of the hospital simply because it was physically attached. From then on, in my opinion, the quality of care in the nursing home began to decline. Two days after Thanksgiving in 2003, the new Administrator came into my room and began taking my belongings away from me. She took my big easy chair and my small apartment size refrigerator because the “chair was too big, the refrigerator was a fire hazard and both took up too much room.” Since I have a private room and we are allowed to have our own possessions, I was baffled and quite upset. According to my daughter and other family members, other residents had chairs just like mine and the maintenance man in the nursing home has inspected and connected the refrigerator himself in order to ensure safety. Nevertheless, both items were removed from my room. That started a three year of what seemed to me a constant, unrelenting vendetta against me in an effort to cause me to leave the nursing home. I did not know why and to this day do not know why I have been chosen to be on the receiving end of such harsh and unfeeling treatment. Most of my family in this area and I was comfortable, or I had been comfortable and did not want to leave. But, that seemed to make no difference to them and their constant insistence that I move. They did everything they could with no consideration for my physical health or my patient’s rights. |
The Administrator brought me a list of the nursing homes in the area where I could go, she had me watched by my techs with instructions to report everything I said to her, my techs were told not to talk to me and not to come into my room alone. I was not even left in privacy for my showers nor the most intimate of personal care.Some of thetechs and Ihad becomefriends and they would not talk to me for fear of reprisal from the Administration. Needless to say, without too much communication with the outside world, the people in here had become my social group and I was being involuntarily isolated. Finally, I called Legal Aid. Legal Aid agreed their treatment of me was not right and agreed to represent me in my efforts to defend myself. The nursing home took me to court and we spent five days in which the Administrator, Director of Nursing and Assistant Director of Nursing attempted to convince a judge I was dangerous, difficult and should be moved. The Judge disagreed and at the end, I won the case. Since that time, I have been treated very well. Much as I should have from the beginning, as should every resident. This is all a matter of public record and can be checked as to its truthfulness. Contrary to rumor, I did not sue the facility, they took me to court. Neither did I receive any monetary compensation. I am also attaching an Internet article [available at www.tals.org] that appeared at the time of the court process. I have, by no means, related every incident of abuse and violation of my patient’s rights during this three year period of time. The whole ordeal ended in February 2006. However, since reading the article in the Times, I am now aware of continued abuse in the facility. [The nursing home] as now been bought by Horizon Health and Rehab, but the Administrator remains the same and she is in charge of the facility. The buck stops with her. If abuse is taking place, she is ultimately responsible in my point of view. When I endured three years of violation of my rights, I did not do that for myself alone. It was in hopes of a facility wide change in which all residents would be treated with respect and dignity. – Nancy Massey |
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