08.16.07
Investigation Report on Atria Willow Park
Atria Willow Park fails to comply with the Department of Aging
Atria Willow Park facility fails to comply with licensure standards for type A facilities by admitting residents who are not capable of independently evacuating the facility in an emergency. Atria Willow Park also fails to provide sufficient supervision to prevent resident falls and injuries. There is a ratio of 2 care staff per 60 residents. Not only is this ratio low but the residents that they admit cannot transfer themselves without assistance. Which means that many residents are not properly taken care of. Atria Willow Park was fined $650.00 on November 13, 2006 then fined for the same violations on April 23, 2007 for $1950.00. These fines are small according to what they are getting away with. Atria is making more profit cutting out staff hours and excepting residents that require advanced care than these small fines.
The investigation
The Investigation held on April 10, 2007 shows that 9 of 11 residents that were sampled did not meet physical requirements to live at an assisted living facility (such as being able to stand, tansferring with little assistance). The Executive Director Ron Lewis states on June 7, 2007 one resident was moved into Hospice of East Texas and another was moved out of the community as of May 15, 2007. The other 7 residents still live at Atria but Atria Willow Park concluded “…we feel they are appropriate with the assistance of their physicians, families, and responsible parties through physical therapy.”
My opinion is that is seems like fraudalent activity
In my opinion it sounds like a big fraud for profit. It costs about $4,000.00 a MONTH to live there per resident. So by not transferring residents to a nursing home or hospice where they could receive more care they continually have a full facility at Atria Willow Park and someone is getting very rich from scamming the elderly.
To read the letter to the District Attorney in Smith county and the report from the Texas Department of Aging click on the below pdf file:
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