Surprise inspections by state investigators uncovered deplorable living conditions at a New Haven nursing home. The West Rock Health Care Center is closing its doors Friday, on the heels of those findings.
Anthony Pinto has owned West Rock Health Care since 1998, but last year he hit rock bottom when he ran out of money and had to file for bankruptcy. This year brought another blow.
He says he was pushed out as owner and forced to close. "The state has been here since April 12th correcting it. So see it’s just a matter of correcting it so why does the facility need to be shut down. I can understand a mistake but no one died."
Pinto blames the Department of Public Health for closing him down. Surprise inspections found 37 pages worth of violations. Patients were found in beds that were "unmade and with an accumulation of soiled sheets," according to the Department of Public Health.
Residents’ hair was found to be "quite greasy and unkempt," according to the state report.
It found "the facility failed to ensure medications were administered timely for four of four residents reviewed."
Linens that were worn thin and brown; boxes of medical records soaked in pooling water; and a nurse who cleaned an open ulcer with the same "fecal smeared washcloth" used to clean the patient.
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In response Pinto says, "believe me, I understand that’s not an easy piece of paper to take. I was concerned like everyone in this facility but my God it was correctable."
Pinto says the state is closing him down because it wants to place his patients in the Jewish Housing For The Aged before selling it, "it would be much easier to shut West Rock. Take these 50 or 60 residents bring them there, sell the facility and that’s the end of that problem."
DPH calls the claim absurd. A spokesperson says the report does show systematic problems but Pinto's bankruptcy filing led to the closing... Not the state.
"This should’ve never happened to me or to them. This is a travesty," said Pinto holding back tears.
The last day of operation for the West Rock Health Care Center is Friday. It will leave 90 employees out a job and 79 patients needing a new nursing home.