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Read comments (9)"I find, based upon the follow-up survey report that the deficient practices and conditions detrimental to the health, safety, or welfare of the residents were corrected and the facility has returned to substantial compliance," said Susan Cooper, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health, in a letter to BCNH administrator Wayne Schumann.
Admissions were suspended and the facility was slapped with hefty fines following a May 25 incident in which a resident died after falling out of a lift chair. The state found the nursing home to be at fault in this matter.
Since that time, Schumann has made several corrections to the facility and has worked toward getting the admissions suspension lifted.
Department of Health surveyors reviewed the facility July 8-10 to determine that the nursing home's deficiencies had indeed been corrected, Cooper said.
While reviewing the nursing home last week, the state also determined a second death at the nursing home that occurred late June to be an accident. The nursing home will receive no penalties regarding that incident.
The nursing home was charged $6,550 per day, beginning May 25, in federal civil penalty fines and a $3,000 state fine. Schumann estimates they'll be charged the $6,550 for 38 days, in which total fines would exceed $248,900.
"There are still a lot of questions to be answered about that," said Schumann, who still is waiting to hear the official total.
Depending on the total cost of the fine, Schumann has a couple of options. He can argue at a hearing that the nursing home was actually in compliance with the state June 17 (24 days of fines as opposed to 38), which would drop the total federal civil fines to about $157,000.
The second option is to pay the fines in total, in which case they'd receive a 35 percent discount, dropping the total to about $161,785.
"It may be cheaper to just pay the fines," Schumann said, by the time they factor in attorney and other fees.
Schumann said they're still looking at their options and waiting to receive the official total from officials.
First let me say to the people of Bedford County, the bedford county nursing home is one of the best run nursing homes around. I work at the NH and we have plenty of staff to take care of your loved ones. Sadly, it is because proper precedures werent followed that a death occured. I have listened to all the comments people of this county have made and to the families of the the residents involved, my heart goes out to you. To those of you who have no idea what goes on in our Nursing home welcome you to come in and see what we do there. Alot of our residents only have the staff as family, so while you are sitting there downing the staff on a isolated incident, come on by and look around. See for yourself how your loved ones and everyone else's loved ones are cared for. Sure our NH is not exempt from having people there who don't care about what they are doing as long as they get a pay check, but those people are working themselves out the door. We cannot afford to have people taking care of our elderly who don't love what they do. I love my job, and wouldn't want to work anywhere else. BCNH good place to work, To to our County Commissioners, we also invite all of you to come by and see the tax dollars at work. There is a great need for our NH, consider that before you think about selling it.
Yes there are state regulations in place on the staff patient ratio but that doesnt mean that it's followed as it should be. I have worked there and I know first hand if you have to wait on help sometimes the job wouldn't get done. I'm also not saying this is a excuse for the patient not being strapped in properly.
Just curious--8 for how many residents?
Technically according to the state regulations of staffing,BCNH is not understaffed they were very well staffed the day of the accident, and the state has rules on how many people must work and tech per patient ratios.So thats no excuse. Ive seen them up their staffing lately also. Sometimes up to 8 on dayshift and 6 or 7 on 3-11, Night shift sometimes 4-5 which I do think nights need atleast 5.
I'm sure you would feel different it had been your loved one that died from a fall. And I have worked at this facility it is very understaffed!
ALL OF MY CO-WORKERS AT BCNH ARE DOING AN OUTSTANDING JOB AND WORKING VERY HARD TAKING CARE OF THE RESIDENTS. I HAVE NEVER SEEN A MORE DEDICATED GROUP OF PEOPLE.IT IS A TOUGH JOB WITH LOW PAY BUT MY CO-WORKERS EVEN WITH THE MANY HARDSHIPS THAT THEY HAVE ARE DEDICATING THEMSELVES TO TAKING EXCELLENT CARE OF THE RESIDENTS.
Maybe this can be put behind us now.
It takes a special kind of person to be cut out to do this kind of work. And we need to be Thankfull that we have a nursing home here to be able to care for the people that needs it.I know theres a list of people waiting to get into a nursing home.And I think they should open the rooms to the OLD hospital and make some good use out of them. So there won't be a waiting list.
Any one who has had to take care of a loved one knows how hard it can become to take care of them.And having them in a 24/ 7 around the clock nuring home. With our hospital just right down the street. We are very lucky.
I say" Good Luck to BCNH and all their dedicated employees".There are some of us who really knows how hard you all work.
I have several years as a safety compliance officer in long term care. I have been watching this story and know the safety officer at BCNH. The young man doing the job, Jerry Peoples is doing a outstanding job. Long term care is a tough business. We need to support them, its a never ending sometimes overwhilming job to keep a facility compliant with all the regulatory standareds.
I PREDICTED THAT THE NURSING HOME WOULD BE IN COMPLIENCE,AS IT POSSIBLY HAS NEVER BEEN OUT OF COMPLIENCE TO BEGIN WITH.TOO BAD THE PENALTIES CANNOT BE RETROACTIVE TO THE DATE OF THE TRIGGERING INCIDENT.WE ALL MUST CONTINUE TO SUPPORT OUR NURSING HOME STAFF,ADMINISTRATION,AND VOLUNTEERS.THEY ARE DOING AN OUTSTANDINGLY GOOD JOB!!!