Health Dept. blames nurse, Roseville care franchise for client's death at 80 pounds

A registered nurse and her Roseville employer are being blamed by state investigators for the death of a client who complained of having a poor appetite and whose "profound malnutrition" went undiagnosed.

In findings from a report released by the state Health Department last week, the agency said the in-home client's weight dwindled to 80 pounds this summer and he died after two weeks in hospice care.

"Although a registered nurse visited the patient on a weekly basis, the nurse failed to adequately assess, identify and intervene for the patient's declining condition," the Health Department concluded.

Further, investigators found, for-profit Interim Home Care of the Twin Cities "failed to provide supervision and oversight" of its nurse.

As is practice, the Health Department released no identifying information about the client or the nurse.

Thomas Geary, owner of the Florida-based Interim Home Care's franchise in Roseville, said Tuesday that his care service has met the government requirements to be recertified. He would not say what was required of his for-profit franchise to regain recertification. He also would not say whether the nurse remains on his staff.

According to the Health Department's investigation:

The client was admitted to a hospital emergency room weighing 80 pounds, down from 105 a year earlier, and suffering from "multisystem atrophy and profound malnutrition." He also had a pressure ulcer on his skin and a severe blood infection.

On July 1, the client went on a ventilator, then he was placed in hospice before dying on July 15 from what the death certificate listed as pneumonia and multisystem atrophy.

The nurse was assigned to the client for the entire two years and said his eating habits were monitored by "looking at the client and checking for food in the home," the report read. She added that she never saw any open sores on the man.

The client was never weighed at home, where there was no scale, despite "his diagnosis of failure to thrive and concerns about [his] difficulty swallowing," the report said.

In June 2013, the client's doctor raised concerns about nutrition and noted the patient weighed 105 pounds. Even so, no calls were made to the doctor about the patient's nutrition or quality of in-home care.