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Nursing home, president charged in patient death

Hospital Safety Connection, October 28, 2003

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A Pittsburgh-area nursing home and its president were charged with involuntary manslaughter and a registered nurse faces a perjury charge in the death of an 86-year-old Alzheimers patient who wandered outside in the cold in 2001, the Associated Press reports.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health also obtained an emergency court order October 22 appointing a temporary manager for the Ronald Reagan Atrium I Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Robinson Township, where Mabel Taylor died on October 26, 2001.

The nursing homes administrator and president, Martha Ann Fenchak-Bell, and registered nurse Kathleen Galati, who was promoted to director of nursing after Taylor's death conspired to cover up Taylor's death, according to court documents.

Investigators believe Taylor walked out a door that was propped open or whose alarm had been deactivated so workers could smoke outside. Taylor fell down and died of a combination of heart failure and exposure.

Authorities charge that Galati, on Fenchak-Bells orders, had aides carry Taylors dead body back into the home, clean blood off her from an apparent fall, change the woman into a nightgown, and put her to bed. Galati then allegedly falsified records to make it appear that the woman died in her sleep.

A nurses aide told investigators she heard Galati call Fenchak-Bell at home after Taylors body was found outside in 40-degree temperatures; the aide recounted the conversation in which Galati agreed to clean the body, fake the cause of death, and not file an incident report.

Criminal sanctions against the company could range from a fine to a court-ordered shutdown. The most serious charge against Fenchak-Bell is neglect of a care-dependent person, which carries up to 20 years in prison because of Taylor's death.

In July, the state health department fined the nursing home $12,000 and placed it on a provisional license after a May inspection found evidence of patients falling, losing weight, and wandering around unsupervised.

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