Wednesday, July 21, 1999
Beechknoll nursing home may lose funds
BY LEW MOORES and PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NORTH COLLEGE HILL — A nursing home here is fighting a government plan to relocate 48 patients and stop their Medicaid and Medicare payments after being cited by health care inspectors.
Beechknoll Convalescent Center, 6550 Hamilton Ave., has not corrected a number of deficiencies in its operation, pointed out in inspections of the facility by the state health department in January, March, May and July.
The May inspection came one day after Cathedral Rock Corp., based in Fort Worth, Texas, took over the 31-year-old facility. There were 20 deficiencies noted then. In July, there were eight.
Cathedral Rock said that it is working to correct the deficiencies and that it had taken over operation of the nursing home in May. New beds have been bought, and more than a dozen staff members have been replaced.
“Each of those (inspections), we have found the facility to have continued deficiencies and have failed to correct deficiencies previously cited,” said Alan Curtis, in charge of the state health department's Bureau of Regulatory Compliance.
“They've corrected some and then we've found new deficiencies. Some have remained since the beginning.”
State health department officials said deficiencies include:
• How resident needs and
treatment are assessed.
• How residents receive care and services.
• Staff training.
But Kent Harrington, president of Cathedral Rock, said he has asked the state to reconsider termination of the Medicare-Medicaid payments. He said the facility will remain open.
“We have made vast improvements in the operation,” Mr. Harrington said.
As an example, he said Cathedral Rock has ordered 100 beds that have locking mechanisms on the wheels; 20 have already arrived.
Another reported deficiency was that an inspector noticed bed sores on several patients. Beechknoll contests that, saying it has records to prove that the patients had just moved into the home from the hospital, where they obtained the sores.
State health department officials said the Ohio Department of Human Services will begin relocating residents to other facilities within a week or two. But until the move is made, Medicare and Medicaid will continue paying until Aug. 19 for residents who have not been moved.
Mr. Harrington said any such move has been put off.
There are 46 Medicaid and two Medicare residents at Beechknoll, and 23 private residents. The plan does not affect the assisted-living and independent-living sections of the Beechknoll campus, Mr. Harrington said.
Mr. Harrington said the facility has complied with addressing two-thirds of the deficiencies cited in the last inspection.
“None of the remaining cited (deficiencies) provided immediate jeopardy to any of the residents, and none of them showed any substandard level of care,” Mr. Harrington said.
A fine of $145,000 has been assessed against the facility for noncompliance.
Mr. Curtis said no hearing has been scheduled yet on whether to revoke the Beechknoll license.
Media reports on the situation have caused some uneasiness among the people who work at Beechknoll and call it home. Mr. Harrington has held two staff meetings this week to address any concerns among employees worried about their jobs.
Caught in the middle, though, are residents like Ruth Brickner. The 80-year-old former bookbinder has lived in Beechknoll five years.
“I don't want to go any place else,” Ms. Brickner said Tuesday night. She thinks the home has gotten a bum rap through the inspection ordeal. She has been impressed with Mr. Harrington's firm since Cathedral Rock took over.
“He's sincere,” Ms. Brickner said. The company has made some changes and is putting in the effort, she said. Yet, she's never really had a complaint about the place.
The state health department licenses Ohio nursing homes and makes inspections at the direction of the federal Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), which oversees all Medicare-Medicaid reimbursements for hospitals, nursing homes and other health provider agencies.
Late Tuesday, Mr. Harrington said Beechknoll and HCFA have reached an agreement to put off any mass move until the situation has been reviewed by a federal judge.
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