Saint Therese nursing home in New Hope, Minnesota has found itself in hot water — again — for its failure to protect its residents from harm by the facility’s employees. Saint Therese is a 258-bed nursing home.  Click here to read our earlier blog about staff abuse of residents, which was captured on hidden video footage.

Medicare, which rates nursing homes, has rated Saint Therese as a “below average” facility. In addition, Medicare rated Saint Therese as “much below average” based on the government’s health inspections of the facility.

According to Medicare’s most recent annual inspection, Saint Therese was cited by the government for 12 separate health deficiencies (nearly double the state average for Minnesota nursing homes). Medicare issued deficiency citations to Saint Therese for this nursing home’s:

• failure to protect each resident from all abuse, physical punishment, and being separated from others;
• failure to hire only people with no legal history of abusing, neglecting or mistreating residents;
• failure to report and investigate any acts or reports of abuse, neglect or mistreatment of residents;
• failure to develop policies that prevent mistreatment, neglect, or abuse of residents or theft of resident property;
• failure to provide necessary care and services to maintain the highest well being of each resident;
• failure to provide care for residents in a way that keeps or builds each resident’s dignity and respect of individuality;
• failure to make sure that each resident’s drug regimen is free from unnecessary drugs;
• failure to make sure that each resident’s entire drug/medication is managed and monitored to achieve highest well being;
• failure to have a licensed pharmacist review each resident’s medications at least once a month, and report any irregularities to the attending doctor;
• failure to make sure that the nursing home area is free from accident hazards and risks and provides supervision to prevent avoidable accidents;
• failure to administer the facility in an acceptable way that maintains the well-being of each resident; and
• failure to set up an ongoing quality assessment and assurance group to review quality deficiencies quarterly, and develop corrective plans of action.

This is not the first investigation of Saint Therese of New Hope. In April 2014, 92 year-old World War II veteran and Kosieradzki Smith client, Bill Lacina, was nearly drugged to death at Saint Therese when he was given narcotics, something which he was never prescribed. He was admitted to North Memorial Medical Center’s emergency department where he was treated for a narcotic overdose.

To read the full article on Fox9.com, click here.

To read more about Bill Lacina’s incident at Saint Therese, click here.

The Kosieradzki • Smith Law Firm represents clients in cases involving catastrophic injury caused by nursing homes like Saint Therese and other care facilities that fail to protect their residents from harm. 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 consultation.