Nurse Accused of Sexually Assaulting Elderly Nursing Home Resident Worked in Multiple Ohio Nursing Homes for 20 Years
Failure to protect residents from sexual assaults violates residents’ rights to be free from abuse and neglect. It may indicate substandard quality of care that is deficient in providing adequate supervision to prevent assaults, resulting in the submission of false claims.
Compliance Perspective – Sexual Assault
Policies/Procedures: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Administrator and Director of Nursing will review policies and procedures intended to protect residents from sexual assaults and other forms of abuse, and to ensure performance of thorough background checks on all employees.
Training: The Compliance and Ethics Officer, as well as every department head, will ensure that staff are trained to respond in a timely manner to concerns about any category of abuse or neglect.
Audit: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Social Work Director should personally conduct an audit by talking with residents and their families to determine if the residents feel safe or are exhibiting symptoms of insecurity and anxiety that could be indicative of a sexual assault or any other type of abuse or neglect.
FREEDOM FROM ABUSE, NEGLECT AND EXPLOITATION
A 55-year-old nurse has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting an 86-year-old resident, and the county prosecutor believes there are more such victims. The suspect has been working with other elderly residents since the alleged sexual assault occurred. He will be arraigned in county court.
Since 2015, the accused suspect has worked for at least five other nursing homes, and although he had been arrested for domestic violence in 2016, the charges were reduced to disorderly conduct. His background check did not reveal any concerns.
The nursing home where he was working when the incident occurred has terminated the suspect. The general counsel for the facility issued this statement: “We have no incidences of abuse that were alleged during his time with us. And his time with us was very short, and obviously he was terminated.”
Documents show that the accused suspect had previously been in the military and law enforcement. The suspect is reported to have stated that he believes in integrity, honor, truth, and commitment.
