NEWS - MEDIA COVERAGE
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA PERSONAL INJURY LAWYER
Fines on Adult Care Homes Hit $48K
DURHAM - It's been a year since regulators started levying fines against Burlington businessman Faiger Blackwell alleging shoddy operation of his three Durham adult care homes - failures that led to the death of one resident, mistreatment of many others and misuse of many thousands of taxpayer dollars.
The fines now total nearly $50,000 for 13 violations involving all of Blackwell's Durham sites. Yet state laws make the collection process so cumbersome that Blackwell may never have to pay the tab, said Dan Hudgins, director of the Durham County Department of Social Services.
Thomas Henson, a Raleigh attorney representing families of injured nursing home residents, said the state's use of $10,000 maximum fines is so low, especially in the face of death, severe injury and repeated violations, that they represent a mere cost of doing business for many long-term care home operators.
Blackwell, for example, has been collecting millions of taxpayer-supplied Medicare and Medicaid dollars every year while repeatedly failing to honor agreements to provide safe and healthful surroundings for his residents, most of whom were poor, Henson said.
"There are plenty of good facilities out there providing good care," said Henson. "But there's also a spectrum of chronically understaffed facilities and profit-driven operators neglecting patient care. Those are the ones that need to be held accountable by civil action, in part because other penalties that should be imposed often aren't for any number of reasons."
Durham's public schools, strapped for cash, could get the fine money if Blackwell were to pay his current assessment, according to Hudgins. Records provided by Jim Upchurch Jr., chief of the Adult Care Licensure Section of the state Division of Facility Services, show Blackwell has been fined $48,800. But he hasn't paid a fine since he paid $1,000 in May 2000 for a violation assessed to him in November of 1999. The latest fines were assessed April 10.
Fines that are being appealed don't have to be paid until the appeal is resolved. It could not be determined Tuesday how many of the fines Blackwell is appealing. If a fine isn't appealed, a home operator has 60 days to pay it.
The largest fine on the local Blackwell list is for $10,000, one of two against Durham Village, an 81-bed facility at 5010 S. Alston Ave. Ervin McIva Evans Jr., 45, a resident of the adult care home, died last June 13 a few miles from the home.
Evans' relatives said he was being treated for schizophrenia while living at Durham Village. The rest of the home staff failed to pick him up after taking him to a doctor's appointment the day before, and didn't notice him missing until police found the body.
Another $2,000 penalty involved Durham Village. It and another Blackwell facility were listed for "Type A" infractions. Those are actions or failures to act that either caused serious harm or death to residents or had the potential for such outcomes. The other, the 29-bed Durham Manor Rest Home, at 3218 Apex Highway, has been empty since last year. Blackwell faces $5,000 in total fines there for failure to adequately care for residents' basic needs, including supervising their medications.
A long list of violations at Durham Manor led inspectors to give Blackwell a "provisional" license for the facility last year, along with the fines, pending corrections. But Upchurch said Blackwell apparently received a tip just before inspectors showed up with plans to shut Durham Manor down, and Blackwell moved the facility's remaining four residents to another of his homes outside Durham.
Since the building had no residents when inspectors arrived, Blackwell avoided the raid that would have cost him his license, Upchurch said.
"Then since the law only allows us to go 180 days on a provisional license, and that period ran out before we had anything to re-inspect, I was forced to return him to full license status effective Jan. 13, 2003," said Upchurch. "But he's still under a 'suspension of admissions,' which means he isn't allowed to admit any new residents there until he meets all code requirements, including fixing the fire alarm system."
Blackwell has said he intends to sell that facility.
A "Type B" violation brought a $1,650 fine recommendation for Blackwell's operation of Hanson Hills, an 84-bed facility at 709 Hanson Road. Inspections last June 6 and 7 uncovered deficiencies in such areas as staffing, food services, health care, personal services for residents and medication. The fine reflects $50 a day for 33 days that Blackwell failed to make necessary changes after being issued formal citations from the inspections.
Hanson Hills was then raided last Aug. 30 by some two dozen county and state human services officials, who moved all residents to other facilities after Upchurch suspended Blackwell's license for failure to make corrections to a long list of violations there.
An additional $30,150 in eight more fines was added this year to Blackwell's Hanson Hills total, including one for $9,550.
"Blackwell's attorney has contacted our attorney to discuss a settlement of some type," said Upchurch. "It's in the General Statute that agencies must try to reach settlement when possible. I guess I can understand it sometimes. It can be very time consuming, tying up attorneys and county and DFS people. They'd all have to be involved in hearings, in testifying. Administrative hearings are lengthy processes."
"If you understood how many cases we have - how many hearings - and almost every penalty gets appealed. We get eight to 10 a month, and every one takes a couple of days of our staff time, plus hearings. Settlement, from my standpoint, makes some sense because it frees up our staff to be in the field."
Phone messages from the The Herald-Sun to Blackwell and his Greensboro attorney, Terri Harris of the Smith Moore LLP law firm, weren't immediately answered Tuesday. Blackwell owned part or all of 18 adult care facilities in the Piedmont but he told The Herald-Sun last year he was turning over operation of three of his Durham homes to his nephew, Carl Blackwell.
Durham area citizens with complaints about long-term care facilities can call (919) 855-3765.
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