Nursing home told to fix problems or lose Medicaid

Art Nadler

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 11:49 a.m.

The state Medicaid division has given a North Las Vegas nursing home until March 31 to correct living and health-care violations or face the loss of its federal contract.

The Cheyenne Residential and Nursing Center, 2860 E. Cheyenne Ave., was slapped with the ultimatum on Wednesday. Until the nursing facility comes into compliance, it cannot accept any new Medicaid patients and is being fined $3,000 a day.

April Townley, state deputy administrator of Medicaid, said the nursing home needs to implement a patient care plan, detailing how patients are accessed when they arrive, receive their medications and are evaluated for daily living activities.

The Medicaid office is also concerned how the nursing center handles residents who lose weight and is recommending that it review its social services department.

"None of the patients are in immediate jeopardy," Townley said. "The nursing home has responded positively. They have tried to improve care, but it just reached a time period where we had to take this action."

The state Bureau of Licensure and Certification conducted an investigation of the nursing home Feb. 8-10 responding to 28 complaints. Five complaints were substantiated. There were 188 residents living at the facility at the time.

The nursing home was also cited five times last year, and the Medicaid division put it on probation and levied a fine of $50 a day. When improvements were made by July, the fines were lifted.

This is the first time Medicaid has set a deadline to revoke the facility's federal contract.

The nursing home is managed by Integrated Health Services Inc. of Owings Mills, Md. A team of experts is being called in to evaluate the violations, Bruce Rubin, a spokesman for the company, said.

"At this time there is nothing to worry about," Rubin said. "The staff is working 24 hours a day to provide medical care."

Wally Hanson, administrator of the nursing home, said several changes have occurred over the years to improve conditions. These included, in part, implementing a new nursing system and completing $500,000 in remodeling of the campus.

"I feel we are just as good as any other center at this time," Hanson said. "We have a great facility, and I'm very proud of our residents."

Hanson said the nursing home is currently staffed with 180 people including certified nursing assistants, licensed nurses, dietitians, housekeeping staff and a medically licensed director.

Townley said the state will conduct future unannounced examinations within the next two weeks. Also, the Nevada State Board of Nursing earlier this month approved an investigation into allegations that nurses may have practiced beyond their scope of duties at the nursing home.

The board would not comment on what alleged violations were being investigated.

Both Rubin and Hanson said they were unaware of any investigation being done by the nursing board.