More nursing home abuse reported in state

A teenage staff member at Glenwood Village in western Minnesota has been let go after reports that she physically and emotionally abused frail residents.

By WARREN WOLFE, Star Tribune

Last update: September 18, 2009 - 9:07 AM

State investigators say a teenage aide at a west-central Minnesota nursing home physically and emotionally abused two frail residents -- getting one to cry by telling her she soon could see her dead husband and threatening to send the other to jail, where she might be raped.

The aide at Glenwood Village Care Center in Glenwood, Minn., denied the allegations but was fired the day after the incidents were reported in June. She was not identified in the report.

The case represents the fourth time in just over a year that Health Department investigators concluded that aides emotionally and physically abused frail residents of residential facilities. Two of the cases have resulted in criminal charges.

"I don't think there's an increase in these cases," said Stella French, who heads the investigative Office of Health Facility Complaints. "But we're seeing more media scrutiny, and facilities, residents and families are more watchful for abuse than they used to be."

At Glenwood Village, the aide was hired Jan. 30 and trained in residents' rights, care of vulnerable adults and how to prevent and report abuse. She was about age 18, said administrator Mary Krueger.

Many of the aides implicated in the other abuse cases also were teenagers.

"I don't think the issue is age. I think it's about compassion," said Krueger, who herself began work as an aide at age 16.

Krueger said her staff has supplemented formal training sessions with coaching and discussions about how to recognize and report unacceptable staff actions.

'I just wanted to smash her'

Another Glenwood Village employee told administrators June 22 that on the previous evening, a resident struck the aide and the aide threatened to hit her back, telling her coworker, "I wouldn't really hit her, but believe me, I want to. I just want to smash her."

A different employee later told investigators that the aide said she had told the resident, "If you hit me, you are going to go to jail, and do you know what happens to people in jail? They get raped."

Later that evening, the aide began lifting another resident's leg and continued moving it when the woman cried out in pain, telling her, "Cry if you want to cry."

Investigators concluded that the home acted appropriately, but reported the aide to nurse aide registry, which may bar her from future employment in a similar position.

The string of high-profile abuse cases began in Albert Lea on Aug. 29, 2008, when the Health Department found that four aides had abused 15 residents with dementia over five months by poking and groping residents' genitals, sticking fingers in their mouths and noses and taunting them until they screamed. Two teenagers who worked at the home were charged as adults. Trial for the first has been set for April 12.

In Montevideo, an aide pleaded guilty this summer to charges that she abused four residents. This month, three aides at a Virginia assisted living facility were found to have pinched and slapped several elderly residents.

Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253

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