Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

We discussed Silver Lake Care Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in our previous blog. Jason Pearl, a certified nursing assistant at the facility, was charged on March 26, 2009 with two felony counts of caretaker abuse and a misdemeanor charge of verbal abuse. He remains in jail and faces a hearing on May 21, 2009. We have now learned that state investigators cited Silver Lake Care Center of Bartlesville for failing to protect its residents from abuse - just one month before Pearl was arrested for felony abuse. In February 2009, state investigators cited the facility for failing to have an effective system "to screen for, prevent, identify, report, and investigate abuse". Shortly after the citation, an owner of the facility, Eddie Martin, notified residents that the facility would close and gave them 90 days to find new facilities. The last resident moved out on April 4, 2009. Silver Lake Care Center has had problems for years. The defunct facility faces multiple lawsuits for neglect and wrongful death, one of which alleges that a resident was physically assaulted by a facility employee. Most of the lawsuits are not yet resolved. A former Director of Nursing, Terri Conley, resigned her position at Silver Lake because she alleged that the facility was improperly managed and that there was not enough staff to care for the residents. She also said a regional administrator told staff that the facility was "in dire straits financially". Both Healthcare Services Group and NurseStat, LLC allegedly have unpaid bills in the amounts of $150,000 and $90,000 respectively. It is also alleged that Martin has also defaulted on the Silver Lake mortgage. Reportedly, the FHA mortgage on the property was last paid in November 2008. Eddie Martin has ownership interests in seven other Oklahoma nursing facilities, some of which also have problems. Those facilities are: Glenpool Health Care Center, Cimarron Pointe Care Center, Sequoyah Pointe Living Center, Rolling Hills Care Center, Coweta Manor Nursing Home, Pleasant Springs, and Shawn Manor Nursing Home. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has pulled funding for new admissions at Pleasant Springs, Glenpool Healthcare Center, and Cimarron Pointe Care Center within the past three years. The Coweta Manor Nursing Home has come close to closure multiple times and is currently under orders to clean up deficiencies by May 8 or face denial of federal payments.