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Another witness testified the conditions were so poor that she filed a complaint with the Department of Health citing concerns over the ratio of nurses to patients. A former staffing coordinator testified that St. Francis was understaffed on a daily basis and she received constant complaints from staff and family members of the residents. The investigation into St. Francis began after the Office of Attorney General received dual referrals from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Darby Borough Police Department.
Since the outbreak, 13,186 COVID-related deaths have occurred at Pennsylvania long-term care facilities, according to DOH. The 2005 sale, approved unanimously by county commissioners, also drew immediate controversy. Questions about how the deal came together led to a grand jury investigation that produced guilty pleas from the commissioners to violations of the state’s open meetings laws in 2006. A spokesperson for Lakewood, New Jersey-based Imperial Healthcare Group, LLC, confirmed Tuesday the company has bought the nursing home and will keep the facility’s administration in place, but declined to provide any further details. There is often a lag time between the reporting of a change and its appearance in our database.
‘Prioritized profits over people’: AG Shapiro announces Darby nursing home manager’s guilty plea after three residents die
A new owner of the former Conestoga View nursing home in Lancaster Township pleaded no contest to three counts of reckless endangerment of residents at a Delaware County nursing home, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office has announced. The attorney general’s office said it was called in to investigate in August 2017, when local police and the state Health Department notified it about issues at the facility. Staff at Mercy Catholic Medical Center had told the Delaware County aging office that several residents from St. Francis arrived there in poor health. According to the attorney general’s office, St. Francis has agreed both to maintain adequate staffing and to be audited by the state Health Department at three month intervals for a year.
Lancaster Online investigation in June revealed disturbing conditions in Conestoga View in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, by 2005, county officials had grown weary of spending more than $3 million annually to operate the 900 E.
New owner of Conestoga View pleads no contest to role in Delaware County nursing home deaths
On June 2 a manager of a suburban Philadelphia nursing home pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless endangerment of three residents, says an article on nbcphiladelphia.com. Chaim “Charlie” Steg had been regional operations director for the St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Darby where three residents who died in 2017 were determined to have suffered extreme health complications as a result of inadequate staffing levels. Steg’s plea stems from a 2017 investigation conducted by the state attorney general’s office and the Darby Borough Police. Shown is the St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Darby, Pa., Wednesday, June 2, 2021. Chaim “Charlie” Steg, who oversaw the suburban Philadelphia nursing home pleaded no contest Wednesday, June 2, 2021, to endangering three residents who before dying suffered health complications because of inadequate staffing levels, prosecutors said. Chaim "Charlie" Steg, who oversaw the suburban Philadelphia nursing home pleaded no contest Wednesday, June 2, 2021, to endangering three residents who before dying suffered health complications because of inadequate staffing levels, prosecutors said.
Steg’s plea deal calls for a sentence of 6 to 23 months of house arrest and three years of probation, along with a $15,000 fine and restitution. He will be barred for five years from overseeing nursing, clinical or medical services of a skilled nursing facility. A former nursing director told investigators she sometimes disobeyed Steg’s orders and hired agency nurses “just so she could sleep at night,” the attorney general’s office said. Former manager of PA nursing home pleads guilty to endangering residents, Steg, whose sentencing was set for October, will serve, according to his plea deal, 6 to 23 months on house arrest and three years of probation. He will pay fines and restitution of $15,000 and will be barred from managing a skilled nursing facility for five years. The investigation identified three St. Francis residents who were victims of neglect.
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Under the terms of the plea agreement, he will be sentenced to six to 23 months of house arrest followed by three years probation. His probation also has the condition that he cannot staff, manage, own, or operate the nursing, clinical, or medical services of any skilled nursing facility for five years. He will also be required to pay a $15,000 fine and restitution to the families of the victims.
Despite uncovering a culture of violence, cover-up, and “sexually inappropriate conduct” by staff, the grand jury opted against recommending criminal charges. Shapiro said that staff shortages were to blame, and that Steg repeatedly ignored warnings from his own employees. The quality of those former church-run facilities went downhill in the years following the sale, according to Menio. The statement says the company’s vice president of operations, Leon Tarlow, will become Imperial’s interim president and CEO.
The residents suffered conditions including, pressure wounds, sepsis, dehydration, and bowel obstructions. The evidence showed these outcomes were the result of systemic failures in St. Francis primarily driven by inadequate staffing practices. Steg’s employees repeatedly warned him that St. Francis’ chronic staffing problems endangered the residents. He ignored their warnings and his reckless decision making caused these three Pennsylvanians serious bodily injury and ultimately led to their death.
The Grand Jury heard from 22 witnesses, several of whom testified that they tried to fix staffing issues at St. Francis and were denied by Steg. Investigators concluded there had been “systemic failure,” mostly tied to inadequate staffing, the attorney general's office said. Shapiro said at the news conference that his office also has several criminal investigations pending of how nursing homes responded to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, and said he expects to make announcements "relatively shortly."
That includes serving as a majority owner of any nursing home, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a Wednesday press conference. The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Mark Levenberg and Deputy Attorney General Benjamin McKenna. OAG Special Agent Jen Nutter and Detective Brian Pitts of the Darby Borough Police Department led this joint investigation. One former Director of Nursing said at times she disobeyed orders from Steg to reduce staff just so she could sleep at night.
The initial investigation began in August 2017, after staff at the Mercy Catholic Medical Center’s Mercy Fitzgerald Campus notified the Delaware County Office of Services for the Aging of concerns they had for the poor condition of several residents transferred from St. Francis. The nursing home has agreed to maintain a sufficient number of employees and to be audited every three months for a year by the state Health Department. Since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 last year, 233 Conestoga View residents have contracted the virus, and 81 residents have died from it, according to the latest self-reported data to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Lancaster County built Conestoga View in 1969, continuing a tradition of providing nursing care for its poorest residents that began in 1799.
Investigators’ accounts of Steg’s understaffing at St. Francis echo in comments from current and recently departed staff members at LNRC, who claimed to LNP
The statement also indicated the company doesn't plan to make any more public comments on Steg’s plea agreement. Steg’s choice to forego a trial will prevent distractions that typically accompany protracted litigation and will allow our staff to remain laser-focused on the good work they do for those under their care,” Tarlow said in the written statement provided by Fladung at Hennes Communications. Steg was working as an employee in a regional support role with a different company” at St. Francis, and he joined Imperial later. The Office of Attorney General has agreed to more than a $1 million settlement with 1412 Lansdowne Operating and Catholic Facilities Operating. This settlement requires St. Francis to maintain an increased minimum staffing level and undergo an additional year of monitoring to ensure compliance through quarterly audits by the Department of Health. Violations will result in additional financial penalties and an extension of the supervisory period.
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