Massachusetts Nursing Home Indicted For Manslaughter In Connection With Death Of Elderly Patient
Monday, June 18th, 2007.
Cambridge, MA - A national nursing home corporation was indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury today in connection with the 2004 death of an elderly patient in its care. Life Care Centers of America, Inc., the Tennessee corporation that owns and operates the Life Care Center of Acton, was charged with manslaughter, abuse and neglect of a long-term care facility resident, and making a Medicaid false claim in connection with the death of Julia McCauley, age 74.McCauley was a resident of the Life Care Center of Acton since September 1996. McCauley was confined to a wheelchair. In May 1999, she was found in her wheelchair in the foyer of the facility. At that time, personnel at the facility were concerned that McCauley’s safety risk, and per a physician’s order, placed her on a device called a WanderGuard®. A WanderGuard® is a bracelet worn by the patient at all times that sets off an alarm and locks the doors if the patient approaches the doors of the facility. The physician’s order required that the WanderGuard® be checked by nursing staff once a day, every day, to ensure that the device was present and functioning.
According to authorities, shortly after 7:00 a.m. on April 17, 2004, McCauley was found dead in her overturned wheelchair at the bottom of the front stairway to the facility. Authorities allege that at the time of her death, McCauley was not wearing the WanderGuard®, wheeled herself through the front entryway and down the stairs.
The Attorney General’s Office learned of the matter from the Department of Pubilc Health in May 2004. After a thorough investigation by Attorney General Coakley’s Medicaid Fraud Division, with assistance from the Acton Police Department, the case was presented to a Middlesex Grand Jury.
During the course of the investigation, authorities learned that due to faulty procedures, the physician’s order that McCauley wear the WanderGuard® at all times, and that it be checked daily, were not properly transcribed on her chart. As a direct result, the absence of the WanderGuard® at the time of McCauley’s death was not detected. Authorities allege that the facility was wanton or reckless in failing to carry out this physician’s order. Authorities believe that had McCauley been wearing the WanderGuard® monitoring device, her death could have been prevented.
The indictments were returned this afternoon. An arraignment date in Middlesex Superior Court has not yet been scheduled. Assistant Attorney General Steven L. Hoffman is the prosecutor assigned to this case, which was investigated by Investigator Linda Landry of Attorney General Coakley’s Medicaid Fraud Division.
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