By Deb McKee
ROCKVILLE — A Wabash Valley nursing home with a checkered history has been issued its second probationary license in four months, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
Lee Alan Bryant Health Care Facilities in Rockville has been issued a 90-day probationary license, effective Aug. 1, according to Ken Severson, public affairs officer for the state Department of Health. A survey administered in July by the department found the facility out of compliance.
“There were deficiencies still cited through the survey,” said Sue Hornstein, the director of long-term care for the Department of Health.
Hornstein said she could not disclose the details of the survey, which will become public later this month.
Lee Alan Bryant, at 3838 East Old U.S. 36, has been operating under a probationary license since May 1. The current probationary license expires Oct. 31.
In the meantime, the facility must submit a plan of correction to the Department of Health, which will conduct a follow-up visit.
If Lee Alan Bryant is still out of compliance, a third probationary license could be issued. Beyond that, further non-compliance could result in the facility having its license revoked permanently, Hornstein said. If that were to happen, Lee Alan Bryant would be forced to close its doors.
Thomas Hein, owner and CEO of Lee Alan Bryant, said he wasn’t aware of the probationary license.
“We asked for a license change,” Hein said during a phone conversation Wednesday. “There was a probationary period on the old license but the new license was issued today. We got a call from the state saying they issued the wrong license … they said they did issue something to us today, and they said disregard it, because they’re sending out a new license, so we’re not going to have a probationary license.”
Hein said administrators at the facility voluntarily changed their status from a comprehensive care nursing home to a residential care facility. He added that Lee Alan Bryant is no longer under the Medicaid program.
“It’s totally residential, we have 253 beds to total residential care, they get three meals a day, general supervision and medication,” he said, adding, “99 percent of our residents have major mental illness … we needed more residential beds, so we basically, we dropped our certification.”
Severson, of the Indiana State Department of Health, confirmed that Lee Alan Bryant is no longer considered a nursing home, but only a residential care facility as of June 19.
Severson added that the facility is indeed in probationary status and that it has been de-certified by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Hornstein of the state Health Department said the same probationary license applies, despite Lee Alan Bryant’s change from a nursing-home facility to a residential-care facility.
After the designation changed, Lee Alan Bryant relocated nursing-home residents (mainly Medicare- and Medicaid-eligible residents) to 26 different facilities through the state, according to Hein.
Lee Alan Bryant has been through probationary periods in the past, most recently in February of this year. The facility’s profile on the Indiana State Department of Health Web site, www.state.in.us/isdh/
regsvcs/ltc/profile/cr000487.htm, indicates sub-standard quality of care designations on Feb. 17, 2006, Dec. 5, 2006, Feb. 9 of this year and May 31. In addition, the profile indicates Lee Alan Bryant residents were in “immediate jeopardy” on each of those same dates. There have been four substantiated complaints in 2007, three in 2006 and two in 2005 according to the profile. According to Hornstein, the facility also was issued a probationary license from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, 2005.
The Bryant facility made headlines twice in 2006 after residents walked away from the nursing home and died. In February 2006, Robert E. Didelot, 62, was found dead three days after he wandered away from Bryant, where he lived. In October, George Porter, 56, walked barefoot out of the facility and onto U.S. 36, where he was struck by a car and killed.
In January of 2002, 71-year-old Myrtle Nordholt died of hypothermia after she wandered from the facility.
In April of the same year, 30-year-old resident Derrick Rolewicz left Lee Alan Bryant and hanged himself less than a quarter mile away. Another resident wandered away in the spring of 2002, and was found safe.
In 2004, the facility faced sanctions after a survey revealed mental, verbal and sexual abuse of its residents.
Deb McKee can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.
