Island Bay Family Home loses license;

residents moved.

The state Department of Social and Health Services has revoked the license of Island Bay Family Home – an adult group home located in Lynwood Center – after inspectors recorded numerous violations by management and staff.

Violations included the misapplication of medication and failure to keep certified caregivers on site.

The Emerald Way facility has been closed and its two residents have been relocated. According to a DSHS release, Island Bay Family Home was opened in June 2006, and licensed to Frances Fladoos and Tanjot Bajwa. According to the Office of Administrative Hearings in Olympia, an appeal of the license suspension has been filed by Island Bay Family home. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 5. The home’s operators could not be contacted by phone or at the facility on Monday.

On Oct. 28, inspectors from DSHS visited Island Bay Family Home in response to a complaint regarding financial exploitation, and noted several violations. The home’s license was suspended on Nov. 7. Inspectors returned for monitoring a week later and found that the violations had not been corrected. The decision was then made to remove residents from the home, said Elaine Odom, regional administrator for DSHS Residential Care Services.

“When we went back in we found that nothing had changed, and we had concerns for the safety of the residents,” Odom said.

Those concerns were laid out in a report by inspectors that was submitted to the home on Nov. 14.

According to the report, inspectors found two staff members present at Island Home when they visited on Nov. 13, neither of whom were certified caregivers. The inspectors found the home’s operation wasn’t properly caring for the residents, especially in its application of prescription medications.

“(T)he adult family home failed to have a system in place to ensure these residents got medication as prescribed.” the report said. “This failure put residents at risk of deterioration in their physical and mental health from not receiving medications as prescribed.”

After interviewing the home’s staff and residents, and reviewing its medical logs, inspectors reported that staff had been inconsistent in following prescription instructions, sometimes not administering medication frequently enough or in one instance administering a prescription drug after a physician had ordered that it no longer be used.

One resident had been prescribed anti-seizure medication after being hospitalized in October, but inspectors could find no evidence that the resident had received the medication, which left the resident at risk for further seizures, the report said.

The report said it was unclear which staff members had been administering medications and that the home’s medication logs were not properly updated.

DSHS also cited the home for not cooperating with the inspectors. According to the report, the staff members contacted Nov. 13 told inspectors that they had been instructed not to talk to DSHS representatives and gave conflicting information. Inspectors reported that one of the home’s operators was evasive during phone interviews and said the home’s staff were “(expletive) idiots. They don’t know what they are doing. You need to talk only to me, not to them.”

The report said inspectors contacted the home’s second licensed operator, who told them he was estranged from the business and had not been to the home in months.

According to Odom, Island Bay Family Home had been subject to a string of violations findings and complaints, but the home had been responsive to addressing issues until this Fall. Inspections in March 2007 and March 2008 found the facility deficient in care planning and problems with its medication administration.

In October 2007 DSHS investigated a complaint that the home had not given back personal items belonging to a discharged resident or refunded money owed to the resident.

Odom said the home had been back in compliance with state law before the inspection in October 2008.