A nursing home in Baltimore, America has been fined $52,500 in state fines over air conditioning failures which forced the transfer of 150 patients from the facility.
The Ravenwood Nursing & Rehabilitation Centre – who have risked losing its licence – had air conditioning pumps and compressors that had been inoperable since last summer, with blowers and filters in patients’ rooms dirty and clogged.
The state Office of Health Care Quality found that on July 2 the centres chilled circulation pumps had failed and the temperatures of the patient care floors had begun rising, reaching 90-96 degrees by the time state inspectors arrived on July 6th. One of the West Franklin Street centre patients had to be treated for heat-related dehydration at a local hospital.
The home’s walk-in refrigerator was found with the door propped open with a food cart to help cool the kitchen down. Due to this, fridge temperatures had climbed to 60 degree. Safe temperature for food storage is 41 degrees.
“The chronic problem we saw was a failure to maintain a cooling system that could withstand the heat that was predicted that week,” said Nancy Grimm, director of the Office of Health Care Quality. “The acute problem was a failure to communicate and respond to the loss of the air conditioning” before it became a crisis, she said. “There may be some financial issues as well, which we’re working through right now.”
Chief Operating Officer of Ravenwood Healthcare Inc, Michael D. Smith, issued a statement expressing gratitude to the state and the city for full assistance with what he called “our recent voluntary evacuation of our facility following unexpected air conditioning problems.”
The state’s report “reflects some needed work” on the air conditioning system, Smith said, but it “actually only became inoperable on [July 4]…It is unfortunate that the system could not be immediately repaired once inoperable.”
However the state’s investigation found that Ravenwood’s managers were aware about the breakdowns in the air conditioning for more than a year, failed to take timely, effective action to avoid a complete failure, and did notify the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of their problem.
Grim said that Ravenwood did nothing to get people out saying, “They didn’t do anything to ensure or suggest that. So we said, ‘We’ve got to get these people out of here.’ And they agreed to it.”
“The outcome of these problems together is that 150 residents were abruptly uprooted from their home, family and belongings, and they had little control over the situation, which we found to be a psychosocial harm to the patients,” Grimm said.
At present the nursing home is empty and the $52,500 has been ordered to a draft plan of correction in 10 days. Ravenwood have three months to achieve ‘substantial compliance’ with state and federal standards of care.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will recommend that Ravenwood will be denied Medicare or Medicaid payments for new admissions if the home is not in substantial compliance by October 16th.
Patients will not return to the facility until it is reinspected.
Smith, Ravenwood’s COO, said the air-conditioning system has been repaired and inspected. “All the units are running and cooling the facility,” he said. “We are currently working with [the Office of Health Care Quality] and hope to begin returning residents to their home within the next several days following a revisit by their office.”
Authorities were made aware of the situation after a patient called 911 complaining that the building was too hot and ‘he wasn’t able to breathe’ on July 6th according to the state’s report.
When paramedics arrived Ravenwood personnel began to move patients to an area of the building with working air conditioning and portable air conditioning was brought in.