On April 4, 2024, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced that an assisted living facility employee had been convicted for abuse of vulnerable adults.
In December 2021, an employee at a Severna Park assisted living facility viewed a video on her Instagram feed that depicted another employee, the defendant, taunting an 80-year-old resident with Alzheimer’s in the same assisted living facility where she worked. The employee immediately reported what she saw to her supervisor. That employee later learned of a second video, also posted on Instagram, that showed the defendant taunting another resident, an 80-year-old dementia patient, and pushing the resident to the ground. Both videos were posted on an Instagram account about crime in Baltimore.
The posts garnered thousands of views before they were taken down. After an investigation, the case was prosecuted by the Office of Attorney General’s (OAG) Medicaid Fraud and Vulnerable Victims Unit, which focuses on the abuse or neglect of vulnerable adults in Maryland’s long-term care and Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) program facilities.
The defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of abuse of a vulnerable adult. On January 23, 2024, a judge sentenced the defendant to ten years in jail, suspending all but six months, representing a five year, suspend all but three- month sentence for each victim, to run consecutively. The defendant was also ordered to be placed on five years of supervised probation, during which time she is prohibited from providing direct care to vulnerable adults and from working for any healthcare provider who receives state or federal funds.
Compliance Perspective
Issue
Abuse is the willful infliction of injury, unreasonable confinement, intimidation, or punishment with resulting physical harm, pain, or mental anguish. Instances of abuse of all residents, irrespective of any mental or physical condition, cause physical harm, pain, or mental anguish. Residents have the right to privacy and confidentiality (F583) and to be free from abuse and exploitation (F600). Mental abuse includes abuse that is facilitated or enabled through the use of technology, such as smartphones and other personal electronic devices. This would include keeping and/or distributing demeaning or humiliating photographs and recordings through social media or multimedia messaging. Reporting abuse, neglect, and exploitation is mandatory for all nursing facilities. It is crucial that each nursing facility have a process in place for reporting violations. Staff members should understand their role in identifying, reporting, and investigating abuse.
Discussion Points
- Review your policies and procedures on social media and on preventing, identifying, and reporting abuse. Update as needed.
- Train staff upon orientation, annually, and as needed on your social media policies. Also train staff on what is considered abuse, and the steps that should be taken when it is suspected. Document that these trainings occurred and file the signed document in each employee’s education file.
- Periodically survey employees to ensure that they are aware of the facility’s social media policies and that they understand their responsibility to report any inappropriate posts to their supervisor, the compliance and ethics officer, or via the anonymous hotline. Also periodically audit staff understanding to ensure that they are aware of the steps that should be taken if they suspect abuse, and their reporting options, including the use of the anonymous hotline. Audit care delivery through observation and interviews of residents receiving that care. Ensure that any complaints received are fully investigated, addressed appropriately, and reported per requirements.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
