2 days Ago
WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. — Comprehensive Rehabilitation Nursing Center at Williamsville is facing nearly $40,000 in state and federal fines after a resident wandered out of the facility twice in one day.
It all stems from an incident on June 18 when a resident with dementia and Alzheimer’s climbed out their bedroom window in an effort to escape the facility . The resident was stopped by a nurse in the parking lot and was then placed under 15-minute checks, but an investigation by the state found that those checks did not happen. Just two hours later the resident climbed out the window again, this time making it on a bus and later getting in a stranger's car, who drove them to their health care proxy’s house.
Several employees on duty received discipline and additional training following the incident. The resident agreed that an appropriate next placement would be at an assisted living facility and was transferred on July 17. The investigation led to a $2,000 state fine and $37,138 federal penalty.
The incident is just one of many at the 142-bed facility in the last decade and now marks the ninth time it’s been fined by the state, totaling $85,000. A simple Google search is also not a friend of the nursing center with the majority of reviews singing anything but praises, with one user writing, “I wish you could give a zero rating because that is what it would be,” and another cautioning people “to not send their loved ones there.” The facility has a rating of 1 of 5 stars on the U.
S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services website. The New York Department of Health responded in a statement: “Holding nursing homes and their operators accountable for the quality of care they provide is a top priority for the State Department of Health, and we remain aggressive in assessing the maximum fines permissible by law in every instance.
Per federal and State Public Health Law, nursing homes are responsible for protecting residents’ rights—including freedom from any type of maltreatment—and a maximum fine of $10,000 is permitted for violations that directly result in serious physical harm.” 2 On Your Side reached out to the facility for comment but did not hear back..
