Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
COLFAX — A local assisted-living facility was shut down July 24 due to a myriad of complaints.
On Friday, Aug. 4, state Department of Social and Human Services spokeswoman Jessica Nelson outlined issues prompting the agency to relocate 24 Paul’s Place residents within two days and shut down the facility.
“There were 10 complaints filed,” Nelson said.
The complaints allege criminal activities by owner Cynthia Dvorak of Garfield and her employees at the 907 S. Mill St. facility. Among those complaints were allegations of criminal sexual abuse, financial exploitation and drug use, with staff providing residents the contraband.
At least one complaint alleged Dvorak asked residents to fraudulently obtain food from the Food Bank. That food was then used by the assisted-living center, rather than the resident who picked it up.
Those complaints have been shared with local police.
“We’re just working hand-in-hand with Residential Care Services to see if there’s anything beyond civil,” Chief Bruce Blood said.
Several other complaints said the facility was neither safe nor sanitary, noting there were bedbugs in the building as well as insufficient heating and cooling.
Complaints also alleged the owner didn’t following state guidelines on hiring staff and maintaining the facility, Nelson said. Among those complaints were allegations of the hiring of non-credentialed workers and a failure to complete fingerprint background checks.
In some cases where employees failed background checks and were disqualified from working in an assisted-living facility, the owner still hired them, Nelson said.
Overall, the issues made the place unsafe for residents, according to the allegations.
To exacerbate the problem, when the owner and staff were notified of the issues, they did not report the allegations to the state and they did not investigate them, Nelson said.
Dvorak could not be reached for comment at Paul’s Place and her personal telephone number had been disconnected.
Nelson declined to identify the complainants, citing Revised Code of Washington 74.39A.060(6).
Under that provision of the law, the identity of the complainant may be withheld if made by a resident of the assisted-living facility or a by an informant concerned about retaliation against a resident.
The assisted-living center was shuttered July 24, DSHS Residential Care Services Director Amy Abbott said.
The Residential Care division provides licensing and oversight of assisted-living care centers in the state.
Paul’s Place is licensed for 60 residents by the DSHS’s Residential Care division, but only 24 were living there when it was shuttered.
“We want to stress that we take patient safety seriously,” Nelson said previously.
Residential Care rules have three time guidelines for relocated residents in assisted-living centers.
The standard time frame is 20 days, Abbott said. If issues care “highly concerning,” officials move residents within 10 days.
Urgent issues affecting the immediate safety and health of residents lead to relocation within two days.
Of the 24 residents moved out of Paul’s Place, two moved in with family members, and three were transferred to assisted-living homes in other Eastern Washington counties. Of the remaining 19 residents, only five were transferred to an assisted-living center in Colfax; the rest were moved to other facilities in Whitman County.
Nelson cited state law in declining to name those centers where residents were moved.
“We cannot share the names and addresses of the facilities where residents were placed because a patient’s address is ‘protected health information’ protected from disclosure by the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) Privacy Rule,” Nelson said. “Particularly in this context, with small numbers of residents in a relatively small community where an address or facility name could be used to identify the individuals.”
As the assisted-living residents are also “patients,” their identity is non-disclosable under the act.
Roger Harnack is the co-owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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