Repeat Offenders

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported  the criminal charges against management for cutting staff.  If this is a new trend, the prisons will be full. Not many nursing homes maintain safe sufficient staffing to meet the needs of the residents. Short-staffing affects the quality of care and harms the health, safety, and well-being of the residents.

Chaim “Charlie” Steg managed St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation & Health Care. Steg pleaded no contest to recklessly endangering residents by cutting staff. He will get house arrest and probation.

“They should require him to serve his house arrest at St. Francis,” said Martin S. Kardon, an attorney who represents victims of nursing-home neglect and their families. An inspection found severe neglect of patients, including one with “wounds that went down to the bone with exposed tendon.” Since 2018, he and partners have bought at least a dozen Pennsylvania nursing homes, including the former Abramson Center in Horsham.

The facility’s owner, Charles-Edouard Gros, agreed to pay $700,000 to care for residents and to give money to an advocacy group for the elderly. St. Francis was among seven nursing homes that Gros bought in 2014 from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for $145 million.

The charges against Steg are the first criminal reckless endangerment charges based on inadequate staffing levels and practices. Hopefully, it will not be the last.