By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org, Special to SouthFloridaReporter.com, Nov 24, 2015 – Plaza Health Network, the embattled nursing home chain that six months ago agreed to pay $21.5 million to settle federal civil charges that it defrauded Medicare and Medicaid, has habitually violated state and federal healthcare regulations by providing inadequate, and at times negligent, care to residents at its facilities.
FloridaBulldog.org reviewed U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) records since 2012 and found 191 documented deficiencies at nonprofit Plaza Health’s seven nursing homes in Miami-Dade County. During the same time period, Plaza Health was hit with $24,820 in state and federal penalties for violations at three of its nursing homes in North Miami, North Miami Beach and the Overtown neighborhood of Miami.
The deficiencies ranged from improperly inserting a catheter into a patient and allowing a patient’s wound to fester without a physician diagnosing the injury for nearly three weeks.
