CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT SEEKS DAMAGES FOR DANGEROUS UNDERSTAFFING AT CITADEL NURSING HOME
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 | | Author: | Original Article
FOR RELEASE May 17, 2021
MEDIA CONTACT:
Linda Wike
Wallace and Graham, P.A.
525 N. Main St.
Salisbury, NC 28144
(800) 849-5291
E-mail: lwike@wallacegraham.com
May 17, 2020, Salisbury NC – Wallace and Graham Law Firm in Salisbury NC has filed a class action lawsuit for elderly residents of the Citadel Salisbury nursing home located in Rowan County. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. It seeks damages for residents and their families.
The lawsuit alleges that nursing home residents at the Citadel Salisbury have had to live with disgusting and unacceptable conditions in their rooms at the facility. Because of severe understaffing, they have had to deal with lack of key medications, lack of nursing assistance, horrible food and unsafe conditions.
The lawsuit was filed with a report by Dr. Charlene Harrington, a noted expert in the nursing home area. Her report describes the testimony of a facility worker in December of 2020 that “I still continue to find patients saturated with their urine and sometimes feces. Patients aren't getting out of bed that normally do get out of bed because of the short-staffed issue.”
The complaint describes repeated failures by the facility to give key heart medicines to one of the residents, and that “a staff person had falsely reported on the computerized resident chart” that the resident “had been receiving her medications when, in fact, she had not, because they were out of the relevant medication in question at the facility.”
The complaint also claims that the Citadel Salisbury is one facility in a chain that now has over 35 facilities in North Carolina. Under a government five-star rating system, this chain only has facilities rated one or two stars for the most part. Today, the Citadel Salisbury is on the “Special Focus” list reserved for the worst nursing homes in America.
The complaint alleges that when the new owners bought the nursing home, they sent a letter to families promising to offer their elders “5 star service.” However, at that time, the owners knew that in reality, the official government ratings system had only given this nursing home one star out of five. Today, it has zero stars.
Commenting on the lawsuit, lead attorney Mona Wallace stated: “These brave facility residents and their families are not just suing for themselves. They are trying to get relief for all of the other families who have loved ones at the Citadel.”
Ms. Wallace added, “this for-profit chain has nursing homes in our state going by the names of Accordius, Citadel, and Pelican Health. We have heard stories from families of bad conditions at many of those facilities too. Inadequate staffing conditions like this are unacceptable, but unfortunately occur far too often.”
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