Life Care fired staffer who revealed nursing home nightmare to Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-nurses-retaliation-idUSKBN23T1JA

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(Reuters) - A nursing home owned by Life Care Centers of America Inc has fired one nurse and banned another from the premises after the two were quoted in a Reuters investigation detailing horrific conditions, a staff exodus and a botched management response to the facility’s deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

Life Care terminated one of the nurses, Colleen Lelievre, last week after managers at the Littleton, Massachusetts, home accused her of making clerical errors involving narcotics for residents. She said she had not been told of any issues until June 12, two days after publication of the Reuters report. Another nurse, Lisa Harmon, said a manager barred her from the building the same day, without explaining why.

“I don’t know how they think that they’re just blatantly doing this and getting away with it,” said Harmon, a supervisor.

[A Hit With The Ladies, BSN, RN]

I read the same article this morning! I wonder how there is a nursing home left in our country that has not yet gone bankrupt.

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The two nurses also said management left staff in the dark about the outbreak and didn’t provide staff testing until mid-May. Thirty-four workers had tested positive by that month’s end, federal data shows. Twenty-five residents and one nurse died of COVID-19. (To read the Special Report, click reut.rs/3dmYSQT )

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A spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Attorney General, told by Reuters of Life Care’s actions against the nurses, said “we take allegations of workplace retaliation very seriously.”

Spokeswoman Chloe Gotsis added that the attorney general is already scrutinizing the facility’s management of the crisis: “We have an active and ongoing investigation into the Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.”

Lifecare is the largest privately held long term care provider in the nation. They filed for bankruptcy in 2019.