Senator calls hearing on care at Wis. veterans' homes
(Published Friday, March 23, 2007 10:25:26 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Ryan J. Foley Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - A state senator said Thursday he would call a hearing to examine the quality of care at Wisconsin's state-run nursing homes for veterans.
Sen. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa, said the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee he heads would hear April 3 from home administrators, employees and residents on the status of care.
Sullivan said he called the hearing in Union Grove in response to reports of substandard care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, one of the premier facilities for treating those wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I don't expect that we're going to be finding any kind of glaring problems here but then again it is a current issue and people have concerns about it," Sullivan said. "We want to make sure people know our veterans are being well taken care of here in Wisconsin."
The state Department of Veterans Affairs runs homes for veterans in King, 75 miles southwest of Green Bay, and Union Grove in southeastern Wisconsin.
King is the largest with about 710 residents. The homes are open to veterans and spouses who meet certain criteria for service, residency and income.
Sullivan said he would look into reports by The Associated Press that the King home recently paid $87,500 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit and that a nurse there resigned in January after her actions drew federal citations.
The settlement to the widow of Harold LaBarge - secret until the AP's report earlier this month - also prompted the Board of Veterans Affairs to request a briefing on the matter from agency officials Wednesday.
The lawsuit claimed the home had an untrained nursing staff and that nurses failed to put an alarm on his bed to prevent him from falling. After he fractured his hip and had surgery, nurses failed to treat his pneumonia and he died within days in January 2004, it claimed.
Meanwhile, records show the home was cited in January for elder abuse and substandard quality of care after it reported nurse Sarah Nixon's actions to state regulators.
An investigation found Nixon forced a woman whose legs were in chronic pain to stand in a long line despite her protests and made sarcastic remarks to her.
Nixon also discussed her sexual habits in front of residents, called another an expletive, failed to treat a patient's open wound and then falsified records to show she had, according to the home's report on her actions on Christmas Eve.
Nixon, who had worked there for 16 years, resigned in January.
A spokeswoman for state regulators has described the home's record of care as excellent and praised the home for reporting Nixon's actions and taking corrective action.
Sullivan said he wanted to learn more.
"I'm glad to hear they have taken some action," he said, "but I'm saddened to hear it happened in the first place."
