This past March, Signature HealthCARE at St. Francis, located at 6007 Park Ave. in Memphis, TN, which is not affiliated with the hospital but is on the same campus, proved to be yet another disturbing example of a nursing home’s consistent failure to provide its patients with an acceptable level of care. An “acceptable level of care” is the minimum amount of care all nursing homes are required to provide patients in exchange for receiving state and federal funds.
Signature HealthCARE at St. Francis has had a history of inspection failures and delivering substandard care to its residents. In order to continue receiving government funds, the nursing home not only paid out $1.2 million in fines in 2015 but also agreed to correct its numerous areas of non-compliance. The facility failed to live up to its end of the bargain. Consequently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) terminated their contract with Signature HealthCARE at St Francis on March 8th, 2017. By April 25th only 9 of the 140 patients remained.
Signature HealthCARE at Saint Francis ratings from medicare.gov are below:
Date(s) of complaint inspection(s) for Signature HealthCARE at St. Francis between 5/1/2016 – 4/30/2017:
Health inspection results: 1 out of 5 stars: Much Below Average
Overall rating 2 out of 5 stars: Below Average
Residents’ complaints ranged from one patient’s waiting days for pain medications to dangerously unhygienic conditions. A review of facility stated, “it was determined the facility neglected to provide services necessary to avoid physical harm and mental anguish for incontinence and/or rehabilitation care for 3 of 53 Residents sampled. Of the 53 residents included in the stage 2 review, the facility neglected to provide incontinent care which resulted in actual harm when one resident smelled strongly of urine”.
On April 9th Memphis local news station, WREG Channel 3, reported that “One patient ended up in the emergency room and suffered a stroke. Records show that it took an hour and a half to transport him. A worker even threatened to call 911 herself.”
The distance from Signature’s Nursing Home at St. Francis to the Emergency Room at St. Francis Hospital is approximately 443 ft. Despite the nursing home’s proximity, Signature HealthCARE’s policy still required that the suffering resident needlessly wait 90 minutes. Essentially the resident was treated like a prisoner.
At Jehl Law Group we have successfully represented residents of Signature at Saint Francis who have suffered due to issues resulting from the facility’s lack of care. Signature HealthCARE operates over 140 long-term care, rehabilitation, and healthcare services in 11 states. Four of the Company’s homes are in Memphis. If either you or a loved or has suffered due to resident care issues either at Signature Saint Francis, or any of the company’s other numerous facilities, feel free to contact us at Jehl Law Group for a free consultation.