A Eureka Springs facility that was ordered to close by the Arkansas Department of Human Services will remain open until its case is heard on appeal.
Ridgeview Residential & Assisted Care Center was ordered to close by Dec. 11 after a patient attacked four people with a table leg on Sept. 26. Ridgeview appealed the decision Dec. 4, but a hearing date has not been set.
A department complaint survey dated Sept. 28-29 indicates Ridgeview failed to complete a pre-admissionassessment of Raymond David Jones to determine if the facility could meet his psychiatric needs. The report doesn’t include names of patients and employees, but it corresponds with police reports involving Jones.
Jones, 27, who had lived at Ridgeview since July 24, was arrested and charged with one count of first-degree battery and two counts of second-degree battery, said Brooke Coffey, an administrative assistant with the Carroll County prosecutor’s office.
Jones pleaded not guilty.He has remained in the Carroll County Jail in Berryville since the Sept. 26 incident.
“He battered four people,” said Detective Joe Barbalace of the Eureka Springs Police Department. “Three of them went to the hospital. The other was a delivery guy who tried to stop the mayhem.”
Two patients and a staff member were injured, Barbalace said. One of the patients was a woman in her 80s. All were treated and released the same day from Eureka Springs Hospital.
The agency’s report indicated Jones’ pre-admission screening listed only one current medical problem: “Seizures - last one November 2008.” The “current medical diagnosis” and “medical history” sections were left blank.
“The facility’s pre-admission screening was not complete and with pertinent sections related to the resident’s medical and psychiatric condition left blank,” according to the report, which also noted that the facility’s internal report of the Sept. 26 incident was incomplete.
The facility’s incident report indicates Jones became verbally abusive and “physically aggressive” after an employee offered him a snack.
A resident stated that Jones threw two salt shakers at her, according to the Human Services report. One struck her hip. The other struck her in the head. She said Jones then chased her down a hall threatening to kill her.
“He turned the table over and broke the leg off as a bludgeoning instrument,” Barbalace said of Jones, who is 5-foot-7 and weighs 130 pounds. “He was going after elderly people, too.”
An emergency room report stated one resident was struck in the back of the head, leaving a 1.5-centimeter cut that required two staples.
Charles Hicks, a Little Rock attorney representing Ridgeview, said the facility’s personnel had not been informed that Jones had any history of violent behavior.
Barbalace said Jones had been charged twice before with second-degree battery and once for terroristic threatening.
“My understanding is it was just a kind of breakdown in communications,” Hicks said.
Ridgeview houses elderlyand mentally ill patients, but it doesn’t knowingly take patients with a history of violent behavior, Hicks said.
Coffey said Ozark Guidance Center evaluated Jones on Dec. 2 at the request of the prosecuting attorney’s office. The evaluation indicated Jones had no mental disease or defect and that he was able to stand trial, she said. No trial date has been set, though.
The Department of Human Services sent a letter to Ridgeview on Oct. 7 stating that its long-term care license would be revoked on Dec. 11 if it didn’t appeal the decision. It cited the September incident and one in June in which an employee verbally abused a resident. The June incident wasn’t reported to the Department of Human Services Office of Long Term Care at that time.
On June 14, one resident apparently struck another resident on the shoulder “leaving a hand print.” An employee then locked the assaulting resident outside the facility, where she became angry and was “slamming her head into a stained-glass window,” according to the Department of Human Services report. The report stated that an employee was verbally abusive to the resident who was locked outside.
Arkansas Code Annotated 20-10-206 states that a longterm care facility license can be revoked if the facility commits three Class A or three Class B violations within six months. The October letter to Ridgeview stated that the agency found the facility had committed two Class A and two Class B violations during the September incident and seven Class B violations during the June incident.
Class A violations are those in which there’s a “substantial probability” that death or serious physical harm to a resident could occur. Class B violations result when a situation directly threatens the health, safety or welfare of a resident.
In his letter to the Department of Human Services, Hicks wrote that “every ... adverse finding should be reversed.”
Julie Munsell, a Human Services spokesman, said the last time the agency revoked a license was about 10 years ago.
The department contracts with a third party to be the administrative law judge for appeals, said Munsell.
“That person decides on the appeal and then it is sent to the DHS director to either affirm or reject the decision,” she said.
Ridgeview owner Dr. Mike Hopkins declined to comment.
Ridgeview had 15 residents at the time of the Sept. 26 incident. It currently has 12.
Carol Shockley, director of the Office of Long Term Care, sent a letter to residents of Ridgeway telling them of the impending closure, the possibility of appeal and providing a list of other assisted-living facilities in the area.
According to Ridgeview’s Web site, the facility sits on 3.5 scenic acres and has 16 luxury apartments designed for independent and/or assisted living. Safety and security are touted on the Web site. The cost is $1,750 per month for a private apartment or $1,375 to share an apartment with another resident. The cost includes meals, utilities, housekeeping, laundry, medication management and daily living assistance.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/24/2009