MEMPHIS, Tenn. — New details are being uncovered about Ashton Place this evening, days after an elderly man from the nursing died after he was found laying in his own waste with maggots living in his amputated leg last week.
It was the latest incident in a pattern of problems for the nursing home.
Federal regulators denied payments for 15 days at Ashton Place earlier this year.
This was around the same time state surveyors found problems with a patient who had bad, pressure sores, plus they were investigating a complaint after a resident suffered several unwitnessed falls and died. A month later, there was a reported sex assault inside the home.
The state is looking into this latest incident and so is the medical examiner.
Administrators at Ashton Place once again refused to talk to WREG. And the owners, Skyline Healthcare, don’t even have a working website.
A local attorney says Ashton Place has had problems for a long time.
“It doesn’t shock me that much,” said local attorney Cameron Jehl. He says he’s seen similar problems in other nursing homes.
He’s also sued Ashton Place and has four open cases against the home.
“Falls, pressure sores, wounds that develop that shouldn’t have developed, a whole gamut of things and we generally relate it back to lack of staffing.”
He says when nursing homes are hit with deficiencies, they’re supposed to make changes, but that doesn’t always happen.
“They`ll submit a plan of correction but then fail to follow it, so you’ll see the same problems again and again.”
Jehl says if family members have loved ones at nursing homes that have serious problems, it’s important to ask lots of questions.
“I would visit at different times, I would look at anything out of the ordinary, if they’re competent I would communicate about the quality of care they’re getting if they’re not able to communicate I would be concerned about the quality of care they’re receiving.”