FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information, Contact
Martha Deaver,
501-450-9619 or 501-269-4626 or
e-mail
MarthaDeaver@aanhr.org
Almost 30 Violations Not “Minor,” Says Patients’ Rights Advocate Group
Fayetteville
Veterans Home Should Be Model of Nursing Home Care According to
Arkansas
Advocates for Nursing Home Residents
FAYETTEVILLE, AR (Dec. 13, 2011) – A Dec. 11, 2011 article in the
Northwest Arkansas Times reporting on
the state of violations at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Fayetteville
Veterans Home has a patients-rights advocate group enraged.
Martha Deaver, President of Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents, a
nonprofit organization focused on patients’ rights and reform in nursing homes
in the state, said the 22 violations reported in March as well as the five
violations noted in June of this year is more than two times the average of
nursing homes in the state.
“This is completely unacceptable, and I find it appalling that the administrator
of the facility trivialized the violations,” Deaver said.
“Another nursing home administrator in the area said the report was ‘bad,
but not awful.’ The residents in this facility are men and women who put their
very lives on the line for every one of us in this country, and the best we can
offer them now is ‘bad, but not awful’? The administrators should be ashamed. As
the only veterans’ nursing home owned by the State of Arkansas, it should be
setting the standard for care.”
In addition to the violationsoutlined in the reports, Deaver says she has
uncovered other abuses at the Fayetteville Veterans’ Home, including failure to
properly treat wounds, dispense medications according to federal law and perform
background checks on 10 employees. The violation reports also observed the
facility’s nurses were not following Arkansas State Board of Nursing standards
or guidelines.
“The administrator of the Fayetteville Veterans Home called the following
violations ‘minor,” Deaver said.
“She also acknowledged that ‘to
someone reading this report out of the blue, these things sound shocking, yes.
But there are many variables to each of these things, and the answer is
monitoring and observation.’
I have worked with nursing home residents
and facilities for decades and read reports just like these so I have the
context in which these violations were reported, and I have never read anything
as horrific as this one.”
A list of the violations
is outlined here.
For more information about Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Resident’s
response to this story, please contact Martha Deaver at
501-450-9619/501-269-4626 or e-mail
MarthaDeaver@aanhr.org
or visit
www.aanhr.org.
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**Editor's Note:
Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents has family members available for
comment. Please contact Martha Deaver for more information.