Siler City Nursing Home Threatened with Fines

The state says 80% of nursing homes in North Carolina have at least oneviolation in their annual inspections. But some are worse than others. Arecent state inspection of a home in Siler City revealed residents sittingin their own waste, unable to get out of bed, unable to get clean and unable to get help.

It breaks Adelaide Carr's heart to think about what her 95-year-oldmother, Emily, went through before winding up safe at Meadowbrook Manor inDurham. Just three months ago, Adelaide says her mother was neglected,unhealthy and unsafe at Country Forest Manor in Siler City.

"She broke her leg," Carr explains. "She must have been trying to get upby herself. The other time she was in a wheelchair, and she fell out of the wheelchair."

When Carr and others complained, the state stepped in. Investigatorsfound 15 deficiencies, four of them serious enough to cause harm. Theviolations include neglecting patients needs and allowing unsanitary conditions.

Public records about the state's 400 nursing homes are kept at the Division of Facility Services in Raleigh.

Nursing home licensing representative Steve White suggests people spendtime going through the records, as well as visiting the nursing homes andspeaking to patients there.

Carr believes it's the community's responsibility to protect the elderlyfrom being neglected and abused.

The new owner of Country Forest Manor, Sun Health Care of New Mexico, hassubmitted a plan to the state about how it's going to correct theproblems. If the problems aren't fixed by next Wednesday, the homewould be fined $200 a day.

Future action by the state could include denying the home from taking newresidents or completely shutting it down.

Editor's Note:Twenty-five percent of the elderly spendtime in a nursing home at some point during their life.

Most nursing home patients are there because of a health crisis such as astroke, not because their health deteriorated over time.