Nursing home under Investigation

Lake Mary,Florida US by Fox News

A 90 year old hospice resident at the Spring Hills nursing home at 3655 W. Lake Mary Road will be sleeping in his bed tonight. He fell out of his bed at around 3:30 in the morning Monday and police say it was nearly two hours before a staff member at the facility found him.

?He had some blood around him,? said Officer Tony Seda with the Lake Mary Police Department, ?Lake Mary Fire Rescue responded to the scene and transported him to the hospital.?

Officer Seda said the department?s policy is to call the Florida Elder Abuse hotline to report such incidents.

When we visited the nursing home to find out why the man wasn?t discovered right away. The facility?s executive director, Charlie Goucher, met us at the door but she only said the resident is fine before telling us to leave.

Later a spokesperson for the nursing home said the facility?s policy is to check on residents every two hours but Jill Frederiksen said a staff member found the 90 year old within an hour and a half.
?We actually exceeded the policies that we currently have in place,? said Frederiksen.

This latest incident isn?t the first time the first time the nursing home has been investigated for neglect. Three years ago an 89 year old woman had to call 911 when she fell out of bed and couldn?t get anyone to help.

The nursing home was named The Gables back in 2005 when Lake Mary Police responded to help the woman but couldn?t get anyone to let them in and then found two workers asleep. A lengthy investigation that followed resulted in the arrest of two workers for neglect. The owners were also told to make changes or shut down.

The Elder Abuse hotline forwarded the latest case to the Department of Children and Families to investigate. The Agency for Healthcare Advocacy is also looking into the case. DCF received the case Monday morning and is now investigating the amount of time the man was injured on the floor. They will try to determine if his specific needs may have required even closer observation than checks every hour and a half.

Frederiksen said at this point they have no plans to change any policies.
?If we feel it necessary,? she said. ?We will review the policies but at this time it looks like we were there in time to help him.?