Company’s bankruptcy filing could affect sex assault lawsuits

Monday, Oct. 12, 2009 | 3:38 p.m.

Steven Farmer

A company that provides temporary nurses to hospitals in the Las Vegas area has filed for bankruptcy liquidation, potentially affecting sexual assault lawsuits against nursing assistant Steven Farmer and Centennial Hills Hospital.

American Nursing Services Inc. of Metairie, La., in the New Orleans area, and associated companies including American Health Care Recruiters Inc. filed for protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware Oct. 2.

No reason was listed in court papers for the bankruptcy filings and company officials could not be reached for comment Monday. Calls to the firm's Las Vegas office are referred to the company's bankruptcy trustee, who could not be reached.

On its Web site, the company said the Las Vegas office branch has operated since 2000 and has been serving a dozen hospitals in the Las Vegas and Henderson areas.

American Nursing Services in its Chapter 7 filing listed estimated assets and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million apiece and estimated it had 200-999 creditors.

American Nursing is one of the defendants in two pending lawsuits in Clark County District Court filed by women charging they were assaulted last year by Farmer at Centennial Hills, whose employment at the hospital was arranged by American Nursing.

The bankruptcy filing automatically stops prosecution of the civil cases against American Nursing, but they can proceed against the other defendants.

Anyone suing American Nursing now needs bankruptcy court permission to proceed with their suit and anyone claiming damages against the company potentially could become a creditor.

Farmer is awaiting trial on sexual assault charges involving six women he allegedly encountered while working at Centennial Hills or previously at Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital. The first of two planned criminal trials is set to begin next month in Clark County District Court.

Neal Hyman, an attorney for one of the women suing Centennial Hills and American Nursing, said Monday that the bankruptcy filing means his client's case will continue to focus on what has always been the main target of the suit: Centennial Hills, which is part of the Valley Health System.

Valley Health System is owned by King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services Inc.

The woman's suit alleges the hospital failed to properly supervise Farmer, enabling him to assault her twice in May 2008 -- once in an elevator while taking her from the emergency room to a hospital room; and then again in the hospital room.

Hyman said Monday that American Nursing had documented previous inappropriate behavior between Farmer and a patient at another facility.

"He had been written up for improper sexual conduct," Hyman said.

Centennial Hills is jointly and 100 percent liable for the alleged negligence in Farmer being placed for employment at Centennial Hills, Hyman said.

He added that besides seeking damages for her alleged injuries, the woman hopes the suit results in changes in Valley Health System procedures to prevent future assaults.

Attorneys for Centennial Hills and Farmer have denied wrongdoing in both civil suits, with Centennial Hills saying specifically it had no knowledge of any previous wrongdoing by Farmer.

Centennial Hills has said it already has measures in place to ensure the safety of patients.

Discussion: 8 comments so far…

By jlb101

10/12/09 at 8:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

This guy looks like something from a hardcore wino shelter.
By Mike123

10/12/09 at 8:31 p.m.

Suggest removal

Looks like a mugshot to me-what did he get locked up for?
By AgMallard

10/13/09 at 5:42 a.m.

Suggest removal

Speaks to local hospital administrators of these for-profits being unwilling to cancel surgeries and admissions due to short staffing. Yep, they will take any rent-a-nurse that can fog a mirror no matter how poorly they have historically preformed. "So what if staffing is down, just keep filling the beds, right fellas?" Ater all, it's the midnight census that the boys back at corp. really care about.
By its2hot

10/13/09 at 8:04 a.m.

Suggest removal

And we wonder what is wrong with America, the owners and founders of this company should not be allowed to skate around the suits just. They themselves should be brought into the suit and lose all their personal wealth they've attained for hiring personal without due diligence. They need to be holding a sign "WILL WORK FOR FOOD" or "WHY LIE I AM A SCUMBAG -- I WANT A DRINK" donations gladly accepted.

When owners lose all their personal wealth when they or the business they started then all new business owners would take think twice before allowing what occurred to occur. In today's market crime does pay and it comes with little to no consequences to the ones who reaped the rewards and the working stiffs pay the tab.
By MyVoice

10/13/09 at 11:20 a.m.

Suggest removal

First and foremost, if found guilty, this nurse should be punished severely. However, in all fairness to Centennial Hills Hospital, they could not have known this guy, or anyone else for that matter, would do such a thing as this particular nurse has been accused of doing. Presently, there is a nursing shortage here in Nevada, as well as most other states. This presents a problem for all hospitals when they are understaffed. They have no other choice but to get temporary Nursing staff. I believe it is the responsibility of the Nursing registry to run background checks on their staff, and to provide the hospitals with that information when sending a temporary nurse to work for them. Make no mistake, the hospitals do run background checks on their permanent employees. One other point I would like to make is that there are many wonderful, hardworking, honest, caring nurses and staff at Centennial Hills. These fine individuals are saving lives every day; perhaps your own life will be saved by them someday. I know that Centennial Hills Hospital strives for perfection and their goal is to provide excellent care for their patients. The nurse accused of this horrible crime should not be viewed as one of Centennial Hills Hospital regular staff, because he wasn't. This could have happened in any hospital; for profit or non-profit.
By God_is_imaginary

10/14/09 at 3:42 a.m.

Suggest removal

""Presently, there is a nursing shortage here in Nevada, as well as most other states."" Not so true! There is a shortage of greedy corporations willing to place the care of their patients above profits. We don't have nursing staffing with a patient to provider ratio of 35:1 yes! That's thirty-five patients to one provide, due to a nursing shortage, we have those ratios due to greed, the hospitals don't want to pay for adequate coverage and a decent patient to staff ratio. The hospitals depend on outside agencies and hiring per diem, as a means of cheap labor, and a way to avoid paying benefits. Meanwhile the ones that the gods have forsaken (the patients) are being raped in more ways than one and dying needlessly in the process. While the greedy corporations spend truck load of money to prevent the state from passing laws that provide safe patient to staffing ratios.
By Burrittobandit2

10/14/09 at 4:23 a.m.

Suggest removal

Is that Gary Busey drunk again?
By rresendez

11/14/09 at 10:05 p.m.

Suggest removal

I have been an agency nurse recruiter for many years and I can tell you that there are agencies that just don't care and are just in it for the money. The agencies know how to skim by when it comes to credentialling the candidates. Referencing is the most importnat part of the process and almost all of them seem to forget that or just don't do it properly. My advice to hospitals is to make your regional pools your own agency. It will save you a lot of money and heartache it the long run. In my opinion, it looks like this agency went bankrupt on purpose. I believe the people running it knew this and other agencies ought to think twice about hiring the people from American who knew about this and allowed this guy to go on working just for the revenue, numbers or commissions.