Family members say changes at Peachtree Estates not enough

Published 9:00 am Monday, August 6, 2012

Two months ago the CEO of the company that runs Dalton’s Peachtree Estates came to town and promised “to find the problems and fix the problems” at the troubled assisted living facility.

But families of some of the residents at Peachtree Estates say the changes have been far too few and far too slow.

 The state Department of Community Health’s Healthcare Facility Regulation Division (DCH) sent a certified letter in March of this year to Peachtree Estates giving the facility notice of intent to revoke its license to operate a personal care home. Conditions there “pose an imminent and serious threat to the physical and emotional health and safety” of the residents, DCH said. Division Chief Brian W. Looby wrote that a Feb. 17, 2012, “complaint” investigation uncovered 22 violations of rules and regulations for personal care homes.

Assisted Living Concepts (ALC), the Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based firm that runs the facility, has appealed that decision. The state is currently holding an administrative hearing on that appeal but a decision isn’t expected until this fall.

The ALC board fired former president and CEO Laurie Bebo in late May, reported Bloomberg Businessweek, and appointed retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles H. Roadman II as interim president and CEO.

In a June visit to Peachtree Estates, Roadman said his goal is to “regain the trust” of residents of the facility and their families. He said he’d already approved beefing up the staff of the facility and was hiring independent agencies to review its operations.

Family members say the facility has added some staff, but they say service still isn’t what they believe they have been promised. For instance, relatives have long complained about the quality of food at the facility, and when he came to Dalton, Roadman said that those complaints would be addressed.

But Frances Hand, whose mother was a resident, said the food didn’t get better.

“It got worse,” she said.

Hand’s mother is a diabetic and has congestive heart failure and is supposed to be on a special diet, but she says Peachtree Estates never provided that diet.

“On July 7, we went to the ER, and she stayed in the hospital for nine days,” Hand said. “I brought her home, and this is where she will remain. So she can get the proper care.”

Denise Kinnamon, whose mother has dementia and is still a resident at Peachtree Estates, says food isn’t the only issue.

“They’ve added more staff. But service isn’t any better,” she said. “This is embarrassing, but she had an accident in the bathroom and had something all over her shirt, under her fingernails and on her hands, and she was going to go to dinner like that.”

Peachtree Estates has added an activity director.

“But nothing has picked up. All we have is still a volunteer that comes in for bingo and if a church comes in to sing,” Kinnamon said. “They’ve supposedly hired a cleanup person, but I’m still cleaning my mom’s room.”

Asked about changes that have been made since Roadman came to Dalton, ALC representative Josh Silberberg said in a statement, “ALC is committed to the highest standards of senior care in the country, and we will continue to carry out our mission by working with our residents and the families to make sure that their needs are being met.”

Connie Corbin says she hasn’t seen change in the quality of service and was looking at moving her father, who has been in Peachtree Estates more than a year, to a facility in Calhoun.

“But the home-health nurse said that after he has been in there this long it would be traumatic to move him. And my mother is 74 years old. She’s there to see my dad every day, and she doesn’t want to drive to Calhoun every day. She doesn’t drive on the interstate,” said Corbin.

A state administrative judge is hearing ALC’s appeal of the state’s attempt to revoke its license. The hearing has been taking place one or two days at a time since late July and isn’t expected to end until the first week of October. Kevin Westray, a spokesman for the Office of State Administrative Hearings, says that isn’t unusual.

“If it’s two or three days, we try to group them together. But this is scheduled for seven to 10 days, and it is hard to get seven to 10 consecutive days when the judge, attorneys and witnesses are all available,” Westray said.

Westray said that after the hearing concludes the judge will have 30 days to issue a ruling.