Philly Home Left Patient in Pain

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Philadelphia nursing home has been cited for failing to respond to the pleas for help and medication from a female patient enduring excruciating pain.
In a report recently made public by the state Health Department, the Caring Heart Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in the city's Germantown section was cited for failing to respond to a patient in severe pain. In fact a state surveyor reported hearing the patient crying out for help during a November inspection.
"The patient was lying in bed and appeared dishevilled, her lips were dry and swollen," the report states. The patient "tearfully cried out several times saying that her legs hurt and she couldn't move them."
As a result of the inspection, the home was found out of compliance with the requirements of the federally funded Medicare program.
In addition to ignoring the patient's cries for help, the report charges that the facility failed to investigate multiple charges of abuse and neglect registered by multiple patients.
Officials of the 269 bed facility at 6445 Germantown Ave. could not be reached for comment, but they did file an abbreviated plan of correction with the state agency.
According to that filing staffers were to undergo a re-education program on the proper response to requests for relief from pain. The response also states that the female patient was re-assessed and had her medications and treatment revised.
As for the abuse and neglect charges, home officials said the six patients involved had been discharged.
The report states that the woman crying out for help had a neurological disorder and multiple pressure ulcers including one that went all the way to the bone. In addition she was totally dependent on staff for eating, toileting, bed mobility and hygiene.
"The patient verbalized constant pain at rest," the surveyors reported.
"The resident revealed that she had hollered out for help to a couple people that passed her room and they never stopped. They just kept on walking."
The resident told the inspector that when a janitorial staffer came in her room she told him she was in pain and needed water. She said the worker finished mopping and left, closing the door behind him.
Other residents recounted that their pleas for help were ignored and one staffer said, "Don't bug me," in response to a complaint.
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