State withdraws licenses of seven nursing homes

The Louisiana Department of Health has withdrawn the licenses and Medicaid certifications from seven nursing facilities that sent more than 800 seniors to a flooded Tangipahoa warehouse during and after Hurricane Ida.
Stephen Russo, director of legal, audit and regulatory affairs for the Health Depart-ment, made the announcement Tuesday at a multiagency press conference held by Gov. John Bel Edwards.
At issue is the treatment of the 800 nursing home residents moved from nursing homes owned by real estate investor Bob Dean to what has become known as the Calhoun Street warehouse in Independence.
At least four people died there by the time residents were moved out Thursday.
Media accounts and witnesses, including people who staffed the evacuation facility, described a failed generator and air conditioning system, inadequate food and clothing, overfilled portable toilets and residents forced to lie on mattresses in a structure with water standing on the floor.
“The lack of care for these residents was inhumane and against the rules, regulations and applicable statutes,” Russo said. Russo said the department heard about conditions at the evacuation warehouse the morning of Aug. 30, the day after Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon.
Department personnel were denied access when they tried to inspect the warehouse, Russo said.
Dean also provided the department with false information by text message, Russo said.
The Advocate quoted Dean as blaming the Department of Health, saying its decision to move residents from the facility means he no longer knows where his residents are and that he doesn’t know whether they have their medications.
The nursing homes that lost their licenses and Medicaid certification are South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab; Maison DeVille in Terrebonne; West Jefferson Health Care, Park Place Healthcare Nursing Home and Nursing Home of Harvey in Jefferson; and Orleans Health Care Center and Maison Orleans Health Care Center in Orleans.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced his own investigation into the treatment of the residents and took a few swipes at the governor as he did so.
Landry said in a news release that he was concerned that the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Unified Command Group, composed of top state officials who coordinate disaster response, weren’t informed about “the potential patient abuse or neglect until the deaths were announced public.”
He also said he was concerned that the police chief of Independence and the sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish, Edwards’ brothers, said they do not intend to investigate these deaths.
Russo said Department of Health personnel arrived at the warehouse Monday and found cause for concern, but were told by a nursing home employee that Dean wanted them off the property.
Department personnel came back Tuesday and began moving the residents to licensed beds Wednesday.
Recovery
Edwards said recovery progress is being made, with the number of power outages reduced by more than half from 1.1 million customers. But residents of some southeast Louisiana communities may not have power again until the end of September.
At least 95% of customers in St. John, St. Charles, Terrebonne, Lafourche and St. James parishes are blacked out, he said.
“I can tell you we have a lot of work to do before we get people right-side up again …,” Edwards said. “This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Maj. Gen. Keith Waddell, Louisiana National Guard adjutant general, pointed to statistics that say 5,000 Guard troops have distributed 2.1 million gallons of water in bulk and 3 million liters of bottled water; distributed 43,000 MREs, and cleared 147 miles of road.