LAURINBURG – The family of a patient at a Scotland County nursing home say the facility is evicting their mother in retribution for complaining to state officials.

Willow Place Assisted Living and Memory Care on Stonewall Road has given Deborah Dial until Aug. 10 to find a new home for her mother, Nellie Hatcher.

Dial believes the move is in retaliation for her reporting the home to the state Department of Health and Human Services. The home was cited for 16 infractions earlier this year.

The Department of Health and Human Services Division of Health Service Regulation found that Willow Place violated numerous state codes concerning patient care and staffing between April and May. Among the violations were inadequate staffing to care for patients, inadequate nutrition and food supply, not following doctors’ instructions and improperly administering medications.

Deborah Dial and her brother James Hatcher were informed by a hand-delivered letter on July 13 of the home’s decision to discharge her mother.

The letter stated, “It is necessary for your welfare and your needs cannot be met in this facility as documented by the resident’s physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner … The reason for this notice of your transfer/ discharge is your needs cannot be met by this facility.”

The letter was signed by Tammie Bullard Administrator of Willow Place.

Repeated messages left for Bullard were not returned.

Dial took the letter to the office of mother’s physician to see whether or not the home had consulted him.

“Doctor Harris has been very helpful since he took our case. I haven’t heard back from them yet, but I don’t think he did this,” Dial said.

Hatcher has diabetes, Alzheimer’s and other medical issues and is a resident in Willow Place’s Alzheimer’s unit.

A conversation she heard being held in the background of a conference call between herself, Bullard, and owner Georgette Johnson led Dial to believe the discharge was a reprisal.

“I heard them say, if they would get rid of the instigator, the problem goes away,” Dial said.

The call was supposed to be a meeting to address her mother’s needs.

Dial said she wasn’t trying to get the home in trouble she just wanted to see that standards were met and patients taken care of.

“Why can’t they just fix the problems,” Dial said. “Not a whole lot has changed since the inspection.”

Dial and her brother have done everything they could to aid in her mother’s care and alleviate some of the duties of the staff. They handle her laundry, change her bed linens and whatever else they feel will help the staff and meet their mother’s needs.

She is distressed that the owners would move against her mother to get back at her.

“They shouldn’t take it out on her what I do; complaints should be separate from the residents,” Dial said. “Mama doesn’t know I’m complaining; Mama doesn’t know her needs aren’t being met.”

She knows she has always had the option to move her mother to a new facility, but the nearest facility which can handle her Hatcher’s specialized needs is hours away.

Dial and her brother are scrambling to find accommodations for their mother but won’t be happy unless Hatcher is near them so they can check on her every day.

“We’re just grasping for straws at this point; we don’t know what to do,” Dial said. “I will take her home if I have to, but I’m not equipped to handle her needs; we just want a bed, her medical needs looked after and cleanliness.”

According to Cobey Culton, public information officer for North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services the nursing home must help Dial and Hatcher find placemnet for their mother if either home is not equipped to care for her.

The statute said the facility needs to have a discharge team in place to to assist with finding placement for a resident.

“Local departments of social services shall take the lead role for those residents whose primary unmet needs are related to health, including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, welfare, abuse, or neglect. When the adult care home resident discharge team is convened at the request of a facility, the adult care home resident discharge team shall consult with that facility, as well as the resident receiving the discharge notice and that resident’s legal representative.”

Dial has contacted a lawyer and is appealing the decision. She has been told that the home cannot displace her mother until the appeal process has been completed.

“If they don’t want to fix things, why don’t they just go away from there and let somebody who cares have it,” Dial said.

Deborah Dial and her brother James Hatcher share a moment with their mother Nellie Hatcher on what Dial calls “one of the good days.” Hatcher suffers from Alzheimer’s and is a resident at Willow Place Assisted Living and Memory Care.
https://www.laurinburgexchange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_Dial.jpgDeborah Dial and her brother James Hatcher share a moment with their mother Nellie Hatcher on what Dial calls “one of the good days.” Hatcher suffers from Alzheimer’s and is a resident at Willow Place Assisted Living and Memory Care.
Claim mother asked to leave after report to state

By Beth Lawrence

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Reach Beth Lawrence 910-506-3169