Winter Park nursing home defends itself

Chances are, if you live in Regents Park, you’ve met Evelyn Pines.

Whether she was your tour guide when you first arrived or she’s whizzed by you in her motorized wheelchair in the halls, Pines is prompt in welcoming and showing you around her home.

If you can keep up with her, in both wit and speed, she’ll show you the activities room where “Mr. C” — Andy Constantini — directs, as he calls it, the Regents Symphony Orchestra, with him leading on acoustic guitar and residents following along, shaking tambourines and tapping drumsticks.

She’ll let you peek into group therapy rooms, where she, her friends and neighbors go to work on their speech, physical and occupational skills — pedaling on stationary bike pedals, lifting light hand weights and working on puzzles.

She’ll speed down the long carpeted halls earning the flame decals that emblazon her chair’s wheels, waving and greeting neighbors along the way, until she reaches her home-away-from-home address: Regents Park, Room 108.

“If I can’t be at my home-home,” said Pines, an eight-year Regents Park Nursing Home long-term resident, “I’m glad to be here. This is my home.”

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Pines relocated to Regents Park eight years ago when affects of multiple sclerosis made her unable to remain at home. Executive Director Gayle Scarborough named her the Winter Park nursing home’s “goodwill ambassador,” and now she shows potential residents around.

She is also one of the first to respond when the quality of the living in her home is brought into question.

A full-page advertisement ran in the Observer earlier this month, in which a Tampa law firm, Wilkes and McHugh, cited multiple infractions of the home. It asked residents or their loved ones who had been affected by failures in care while living in Regents Park to contact the firm for a free consultation.

Pines was one of many to jump to the defense of the home.

The infractions listed on the ad as “failures” ranged from those regarding resident care and the home’s hiring practices. The infractions date from June 2008 to August 2010. Information on the national Medicare.gov website confirms that said infractions did occur, but Pines, along with other residents and employees, were upset about the way in which they were presented.

“To me, it is the distorted truth,” Scarborough said. “They made it sound worse than it is.”

Residents and Regents Park employees took to defend their home, sending in more than a dozen letters to the editor defending the quality of life and care they have experienced living at Regents.

Licensed nursing assistant Irlande Dor said she has had nothing but positive experiences working at Regents Park. She said though she’s the one providing care, coming to work every day is her own form of therapy.

“When I’m working here, you see my teeth always,” she said of her constant smile during her shifts.

“You can’t find those things they said here,” said Frank Sawyer, a resident for the past two and a half years, tears welling in his eyes and an oxygen tube resting under his nose. “It’s not nice (to say); it’s disrespectful. I’ve got everything I want here — this is my home.”

Meeting standards

Following Regents Park’s last review by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last August, the home was overall ranked two out of five possible stars on the national quality scale, which Medicare determines as “below average.”

The home was cited for 13 health deficiencies; the range reported by all nursing homes in the state of Florida was anywhere from zero to 33.

Regents Park, which houses 120 beds, received one out of five stars ranking in health inspections, two out of five for nursing home staffing, and five out of five for quality measures.

Bob Moos, public affairs specialist for Medicare, said that this star-rating system is only the beginning measure of the quality of a nursing home. For someone considering different nursing homes, he advises them to use this scale as a starting-off point, but that visiting the home is the only true way to gauge its ability to meet residents’ needs.

“I think a one-star rating, or a lower rankings, should just tell you that you need to do more research, visit the home and talk to the people who live there,” he said.

A lower-star ranking, he said, should serve as a flagged warning that those considering the home need to ask some pointed questions.

If a home reaches a level of habitual offenses and repeatedly failed inspections, it is listed as a “Special Focus Facility.” Regents Park is not listed as such.

Director’s defense

Scarborough, the executive director of Regents Park for the past 15 months, said the home has been working to address issues cited in its 2010 review and to get a better ranking following this year’s review, which is set for this month.

She said all deficiencies noted on last year’s review were cleared 30 days after the inspection — and that includes all infractions cited on the Wilkes and McHugh law firm advertisement, which is confirmed by Medicare.

“There are tons of things [the inspectors] are looking for,” Scarborough said, pulling out a 5-inch think red binder of regulations to defend her point. “We try real hard to be perfect, but it’s really hard.”

When discrepancies are noted, she said the home finds a way to fix it and get the necessary changes done to better care for its residents.

“No one wakes up in the morning and wants to come to a nursing home,” she said. “It’s our job is to make it as much a home as possible for them.”

Current claims

Jim Wilkes, of Wilkes and McHugh, said the purpose of the ad was just that: an ad to draw them more business. He said nursing home regulation and enforcement of policy is an area often ignored by the public.

“For a lot of places, it’s more about the business model and not about the care,” he said. Advertisements, like the one targeting Regents Park, he said, are made to draw attention to the possibility of the impact of these infractions.

A representative from the firm said that Wilkes and McHugh has no current or previous complaints or suits filed against Regents Park.

Scarborough said she has never had any contact with the firm.

Coming home

In her room, sedentary for the moment beside her visiting daughter Ashley and infant grandson, Pines reflects back eight years to when she first chose Regents Park to become her new home.

She said she and her daughter toured other nursing homes, but none were as “homey” as Regents Park.

“I’d walk in [others], and they’d smell like pee!” Evelyn said.

“That doesn’t happen here,” her daughter added.

“I just fell in love with the people here,” Evelyn said. “This is my home.”