(Des Moines, Iowa) – The state of Iowa has suspended $47,500 in fines against a southwest Iowa nursing home cited for inadequate staffing and the physical and verbal abuse of residents. The Iowa Capital Dispatch says according to state inspectors, although the Garden View Care Center in Shenandoah has insufficient staff on hand, the home’s director of nursing recently informed them she was being pressured by management to make further cuts in staffing due to budget constraints — adding that she felt doing so was “unrealistic and unsafe.”

Garden View is owned by an out-of-state real estate investment trust that is designed to provide investors with returns tied to the profits generated by dozens of nursing homes in Iowa and other states. State inspectors recently investigated four separate complaints pertaining to Garden View and substantiated each of them. The home was cited for 10 violations of federal regulations and four violations of state regulations. Just three weeks before that investigation was completed, state inspectors cited the home for nine federal violations and one state violation as part of a routine inspection at Garden View.

As a result of the two inspections, the Iowa Department of Inspections Appeals and Licensing has proposed, but held in suspension, a total of $47,500 in state fines. As it has in the past, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may yet impose fines for the violations of federal regulations cited by the state inspectors.

The Garden View Care Center in Shenandoah, Iowa. (Photo via Google Earth)

According to the inspectors’ reports, employees of Garden View reported that a colleague of theirs had cursed at, threatened, and physically abused at least two residents of the home. Although the report identifies the job titles of most of the workers who allegedly witnessed or investigated the incidents, the job titles of the accused worker and a colleague who fielded internal reports of the alleged abuse – both of whom were reportedly fired — are not disclosed.

In the past three years, CMS has imposed $145,906 in federal fines against Garden View. The home has the lowest possible ratings from CMS — one star on a five-star scale — on all three criteria used by the federal agency: staffing levels, inspection results and overall quality.