The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has completed its investigation of neglect concerns at the ASI Metro 4, aka Accessible Space, Inc., an assisted living facility in St. Paul, Minnesota. A complaint was filed with the MDH alleging that neglect occurred when the facility’s resident did not receive prescribed medications for nine days, resulting in a seizure. The MDH investigated the matter and found that neglect occurred when the client missed 19 doses of a Phenobarbital, a scheduled anticonvulsant medication, for ten consecutive days and had a seizure lasting 15 minutes. The resident required emergency care and died the next day. The death certificate identified respiratory failure related to a seizure as the cause of death.
According to the MDH investigation, the resident was in the Accessible Space, Inc. facility with a diagnosis of seizure disorder and multiple sclerosis. The resident had cognitive impairment with decision making and required total assistance with medication set up and administration. The resident’s seizure disorder was well maintained with the use of medication and had not had a seizure in several years. The facility’s mediation administration record showed that the facility staff had failed to administer the resident’s anticonvulsant medication for ten days prior to the hospitalization.
The MDH investigation also revealed that the Accessible Space, Inc. assisted living facility also failed to administer three doses of the anticonvulsant medication to the resident three months earlier, in December, and had failed to administer a drug for a urinary tract infection in January.
The MDH determined that the facility is responsible for neglect of the facility’s resident. [Case no. HL25489002]
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that “This marks the second time in nearly two years that Accessible Space has been found responsible for a serious medication error. In 2012, a male resident was found “gray and pale and dazed” on the floor of his apartment after staffers set up his medications incorrectly. State investigators found that the man had not received two prescribed drugs, a pain reliever and an antihistamine, for three days. He was transferred to the hospital on the fourth day with “an altered mental status,” ccording to a June 2012 investigation report. The Department of Health cited the operators for allowing an unlicensed staff person without adequate training to schedule medications for the resident.”
The Kosieradzki • Smith Law Firm represents clients in cases involving catastrophic injury caused by nursing homes and other care facilities that fail to provide proper care. We have extensive experience representing clients in cases involving care facilities that fail to properly care for residents with seizure disorders and that fail to provide residents with essential medications. If you believe your loved one has been harmed due neglect or abuse in a nursing home or other care facility, take action and contact the Kosieradzki • Smith Law Firm online or call us toll-free at (877) 552-2873 to set up a no-cost, no-obligation
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