An Arizona nursing facility where awoman in a vegetative state gave birthlast month was earlier faulted for failure to protect residents’ privacy while they were naked in the shower.
The resident reported that “it made him feel uncomfortable,” according to the state records. “He stated that he does not know why staff come and go in the shower room, when he does not have any clothes on. He stated it has happened on many occasions.”
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The second staff member, who acknowledged her interruption of the naked male resident, said she had seen had seen “many” other staffers do the same sort of thing.
The second staffer, along with the facility’s director of nursing, said such incidents typically occurred because of the need to access supplies or trash receptacles stored in the shower room, or because staff members were crossing through the shower area from one resident’s room to another.
A patient is considered in a vegetative state when he or she is awake but not showing signs of awareness, according to theMayo Clinic.
In a statement to PEOPLE on Friday, Hacienda HealthCare spokesman David Leibowitz said the organization, which runs the facility, was cooperating with law enforcement, but declined to divulge the exact nature of the underlying incident.
TheNew York TimesandNBC Newsreported that Phoenix police had opened an investigation into allegations involving the facility but the agency would not discuss the details of the case or how long they had been looking into it.
The Phoenix Police Department did not return PEOPLE’s calls for comment.
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The state Department of Health Services, which licenses the facility, said in a statement that it was “actively working with local law enforcement in their criminal investigation.”
Hacienda HealthCare spokesman Leibowitz said the organization “stands fully committed to getting to the truth of what, for us, represents an unprecedented matter.”
The company, he said, is conducting a “comprehensive internal review of our processes, protocols, and people to ensure that every single Hacienda resident is as safe and well cared for as possible. Anything less than that is unacceptable to our team, our company’s leaders and the communities we serve.”
source: people.com
