Published: March 31, 2009 07:49 am      

Falls, care plans and bedsores also cited

TRAVERSE CITY -- Problems at Tendercare Health Center-Birchwood didn't end with reported physical and sexual assaults between residents in 2006-07.

The nursing home was ordered to pay $19,760 in fines for other problems discovered in spring 2008.

Birchwood employees didn't do enough to prevent some residents from falling and failed to prevent and treat bedsores. Staff also didn't always follow comprehensive care plans, the blueprints for residents' medical, nursing, mental and psychosocial needs.

Michigan Department of Community Health records obtained by the Record-Eagle detailed Birchwood's shortcomings.

Employees' failure to follow guidelines resulted in at least three residents falling, according to the state report.

Inspectors also found staff didn't adequately treat or prevent pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, for one of four sampled residents.

"Pressure sores is a focus the state and federal government has," said Alice Turner, director of nursing home monitoring for the Department of Community Health. "We always go in looking for problems with addressing pressure sores, be it treatment or prevention."

State inspectors in December 2008 found eight infractions that prompted citations. Most nursing homes average six to seven citations per inspection.

"There are very few nursing homes that get no citations," Turner said. "There's no perfect nursing home."

The December report found Birchwood employees violated two patients' confidentiality. They also didn't always record times, dates and doses of medicine given to three residents.

Staff didn't properly care for a 68-year-old man with recurring constipation, prompting the resident to act out aggressively with his peers, the report stated.

Other citations involved problems with a resident receiving medication through a feeding tube, insulin vials that were not dated and incomplete resident records.