State Regulators Backpeddle On Nursing Home Shutdown Order Six Days Before Scheduled Close; Change Of Plans To Allow Facility To Stay Open, Those Among The Four Dozen Vulnerable Residents Who Were Abruptly Forced To Leave Invited To Apply For Readmission

In Port Orange, Florida, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports:

• State health care regulators relented on their original order to shut down a Port Orange assisted-living facility after its mishandling of sexual assault claims, records show.
  
  Six days before Grace Manor Assisted Living and Memory Care was required to close its doors, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration issued an amended order, changing its ruling from a license “suspension” to a “restriction,” a lesser requirement that allows the ALF to remain open.
  
  The facility was originally ordered closed by Tuesday. Now the owners of Grace Manor have until the same day to implement a list of 11 conditions to come into compliance, including firing its current administrator and retraining all current and new employees to deal with suspected elder abuse.
  
  In the new order, the immediate moratorium on new patient admissions remained unchanged.
  
  Grace Manor houses about four dozen residents in a single-level building at 1321 Herbert St. operated by Thrive Senior Living in Atlanta. AHCA officials previously said it was undertaking efforts to coordinate their relocation.
  
  That appears to no longer be the plan.
  
  Shelisha Coleman, a spokeswoman for the agency, said, “If residents want to return, they must be appropriately assessed” before coming back to Grace Manor, and the facility must “receive approval for each resident requesting to return.”
  
  “Subsequent to the suspension order, leadership of Grace Manor provided details to the agency of actions they have taken, including removal of the executive director," Coleman said in an email. "Although leadership is important, we must have assurances that similar events will not occur in the future.
  
  “Therefore, in addition to the initial steps taken by Grace Manor, the agency imposed restrictions on the license in lieu of proceeding with the license suspension at this time.”
  
  The about-face by regulators is not uncommon in ALF governance. In fact, it happens often, said Brian Lee, executive director for Families for Better Care, a Tallahassee-based group that advocates for improving long-term care for seniors.
  
  “There’s some truth to the fact that AHCA doesn't want to cause more harm to the residents that aren’t directly affected by this but indirectly affected by what’s happening in this particular situation,” Lee said, adding that moving from one place to another can be stressful for some residents.

For more, see State: Port Orange nursing home cited for sexual assaults can stay open.