Whistleblower Retaliation Does Not Go Unnoticed in Iowa
We discussed alleged whistleblower retaliation at select Iowa nursing home facilities, including Windmill Manor in our March 25, 2010 blog. Reportedly, the Director of Nursing at Windmill Manor, a Coralville nursing home facility, threatened to fire seven facility employees if they reported any abuse or neglect violations to state inspectors. She reportedly told her staff that "she had a stack of applications" from prospective employees. She admitted to state investigators that she made the threat during a luncheon during Nurses' Appreciation Week but would not have carried through on it.
According to the Des Moines Register, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals fined the facility $5,000 for the incident and referred the matter to Johnson County authorities for prosecution. The Director of Nursing, Karen Etter, now faces a criminal charge of attempting to impede or interfere with state inspections at the nursing home facility and is scheduled to appear in court on April 19, 2010. While her nursing license currently remains in good standing, she is no longer employed at Windmill Manor. In addition to the individual prosecution of Etter, she faces possible federal charges as investigators recently met with federal prosecutors about the possibility of federal charges or criminal sanctions against whistleblower retaliation offenders.
Windmill Manor now resides on the federal list of "special focus facilities" that have a history of noncompliance with health and safety standards. These facilities are subject to bi-annual inspections and closer review.
More information has come out about two other Iowa facilities that were fined for whistleblower retaliation around the same time as Windmill Manor. Granger Nursing and Rehabilitation Center was fined $5,000 for firing an employee that told state inspectors about equipment problems that occurred prior to a resident's death. Crossbridge Homes of Marshalltown was fined $1,000 when its former administrator, who faxed a list of concerns to the inspections department, was demoted.
