Maryland Nursing Home Fined $70,000 for Failing to Protect Patients from COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic that started in early 2020 hit the Maryland nursing home population extremely hard. In fact, the Pleasant View Nursing Home in Mount Airy suffered an outbreak that resulted in 126 infections and 29 deaths among patients and staff. Now, the facility is facing $70,000 in fines from the state for failing to properly isolate to prevent the spread of the virus.

According to the Baltimore Sun, elder care facilities are responsible for about two-thirds of COVID-19-related deaths in Maryland. As for Pleasant View, inspectors visited the facility over two weeks in May, and reported that the staff wasn’t properly isolating newly arrived patients. Regulators called this “immediate jeopardy” to the nursing home population, handing down a $5,000-a-day fine.

In March, county health department officials reported 66 positive test results at Pleasant View in one day, raising big concerns about the facility’s staffing and practices. Ed Singer, director of Carroll County’s health department, remarked at the time, “We’re all trying to prepare for what could be ahead of us, as far as a surge.”

State officials reported that “the facility failed to properly implement infection control practices to prevent COVID-19 and was not following infection control safety practices and guidance recommended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), during a COVID-19 pandemic.”

These same inspectors also found that Pleasant View’s director of nursing resigned in April, but the facility never reported that fact to state officials. Further, inspectors alleged that Pleasant View didn’t meet state-required staffing levels. The Sun also reported that one resident – who experienced delusions, hallucinations, and aggressive behavior – was admitted to a COVID-negative area of the facility with the results of a COVID test pending. During that time the patient wandered the halls, and was later diagnosed positive for the virus.

Other violations found during inspections included a resident who tested negative being moved to a floor with positive residents, nurses forced to work in the rooms of both positive and negative patients on the same day, and understaffing that led to incidents of positive and negative patients mixing together.

Carrie Kelley, who lost her stepfather, a staff member at Pleasant View, told the Washington Post, “$70,000 seems very low to me. It doesn’t even get close given the number of lives that were lost… Frankly, I can’t even believe [the facility] is still in existence.”

State inspectors also found problems at other area nursing homes, including Sagepoint Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in La Plata (37 deaths) and Hebrew Home of Greater Washington (21 deaths).

Please contact Paulson & Nace, PLLC through this contact form or by calling 202-463-1999.