Nursing assistant says KCK nursing home fired her for cooperating with investigators
A former certified nursing assistant at a Kansas City, Kansas, nursing home that’s part of a nationwide group that has seen numerous outbreaks of COVID-19 says she was fired in retaliation for cooperating with a state investigation of the facility.
The employee, Dominic Williams, filed a lawsuit against Life Care Centers of America and its Kansas City, Kansas, location in Wyandotte County District Court on Tuesday. She said that by firing her the agency violated a Kansas law prohibiting adult care homes from firing employees for cooperating with state agency investigations.
In a statement to The Star, the Kansas City, Kansas, facility’s executive director, Rebecca Brennan, said the facility cannot comment due to the pending lawsuit.
“We believe residents are our highest priority and that our associates are our most valuable resource at Life Care Center of Kansas City,” the statement said. “While this case is pending, we will continue to focus on providing quality and compassionate care to our residents.”
Williams’ attorneys did not respond to The Star’s request for comment in time for publication.
According to the suit, inspectors from the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services spoke with Williams on Aug. 11 for an investigation of the facility.
The agency did not respond to The Star’s questions regarding the alleged investigation and it’s findings.
Williams, the suit said, “answered the inspectors’ questions truthfully, even though she knew her answers would be viewed negatively” by her employer.
According to the suit, she spoke to the investigators about a variety of issues regarding security of narcotics, checking residents for bruising, inadequate staffing and supplies, a smell of urine in the building, and disuse of a machine made to lift residents.
According to the suit, the results of the investigation “included negative findings” about Life Care Centers and Williams’ participation was disclosed to supervisors at the facility.
Within weeks of the investigation, the suit said, Williams was fired. Her boss allegedly gave no reason for her termination leading Williams to believe she was fired because of her participation in the investigation.
A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspection of the facility published on Aug. 22 showed 18 deficiencies at Life Care Centers of Kansas City. The deficiencies were each marked as having minimal harm or potential for actual harm to residents.
A 69-page report on Life Care Centers in the KDADS database, also dated Aug. 22, 2019, relays several findings related to care quality and recordkeeping at the facility. Much of it was based on findings and interviews from between Aug. 20-22
In March, a resident of Life Care Centers of Kansas City was posthumously diagnosed with the new coronavirus and was the first person to die of the virus in Kansas. As of Thursday, at least 43 people connected to the center had been diagnosed with the virus, according to data from the Wyandotte County Health Department.
Outbreaks of the virus have been reported at several Life Care Centers facilities across the country including a facility in Kirkland, Washington, that reported 37 deaths from the rapidly spreading virus.
