Registered Nurse, Kathleen Kennedy, an employee at Daleview Care Center in Farmingdale, New York was recently sentenced to five years probation after falsifying records in a resident’s nursing home chart. Nurse Kennedy reportedly failed to properly assess a resident (with a history of falls who had previously suffered a fractured hip) after a fall, failed to properly document the fall and later submitted a false statement that she had no knowledge of the fall.
Our firm handles many cases involving residents that have fallen at New York nursing homes due to the failure to properly assess the resident, as well as the failure to create and implement a proper plan of care to prevent falls. It seems that not only did the nurse involved fail to properly assess the resident, she also failed to follow appropriate protocol for documenting falls and decided to lie about it. As in most instances involving document fraud, here the cover-up was likely worse than the “crime”.
Long-Term-Care Community Coalition, Enforcement Actions 6/11/11 – 9/15/11.