(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley calls allegations of abuse and neglect at at northern Iowa nursing home, “heartbreaking.” Grassley demanded more information about the case last week after no action had been taken since the woman’s death in February. In a conference call with reporters this (Tuesday) morning, Grassley was asked if the fine is sufficient. “I wouldn’t want to say that it’s enough or not enough,” Grassley says. “The trouble is, a lot of this is just the cost of doing business and that’s the way some people see it.”

Eighty-seven-year-old Virginia Olthoff died in February at the Timely Mission Nursing Home in Buffalo Center. A state inspection report says Olthoff was in severe pain for days before she died, and that she went several days without water, suffering from critical dehydration. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) imposed the fine against the home on Friday. “Whether $77,000 is enough or not, I don’t want to say, but I do want to say that it’s never enough for the families and the loved ones of the victims,” Grassley says. “If you didn’t have any sort of government supervision, you can imagine how the quality of care would be.”

The state initially proposed fining the nursing home nearly 30-thousand dollars but did not do so in order for C-M-S, a federal agency, to investigate.  Grassley says, “It takes special people to work in nursing homes and everything we can do to make that a good place to deliver quality care, we ought to.”  Timely Mission officials have 60 days to appeal the fine. Reports say the C-M-S gave Timely Mission its highest five-star rating, despite the home being fined for multiple violations last year. At least eight residents at the Winnebago County facility claimed they were physically and verbally abused by staff.