A Maryville, Tenn., nursing home put its residents in danger because it failed to prevent and improperly handled the June sexual assault of a resident and didn't change its security procedures afterward, a state and federal report said.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Health suspended new admissions to Fairpark Healthcare Center, 307 N. Fifth St. in Maryville, and has fined the facility $3,000, based on a complaint investigation conducted Aug. 13 through Aug. 20 at the 75-bed nursing home. In addition, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determined the nursing home, owned by Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare Inc., is providing "substandard quality of care" and placing residents in "immediate jeopardy" and is fining the facility $6,000 per day, to be placed in escrow, until CMS is satisfied problems with administration, performance improvement, nursing services, social work services and resident rights are corrected.
The investigation was prompted after an 89-year-old resident with severe dementia told two family members on June 15 that she had been raped by a man she did not know, the report said. The family member reported the allegation to a nurse, who examined the resident and then, instructed by the nursing home's on-call physician, transferred the resident to a hospital emergency room so that a test, known as a rape kit, could be performed.