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At least 5 Iowa care facilities face fines for alleged sexual exploitation or physical abuse of residents

News

August 28th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Des Moines, Iowa)  – Several Iowa nursing homes are facing fines of $500 or more as the result of the alleged exploitation or physical abuse of residents. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports the incidents include a situation at the Living Center West nursing home in Des Moines, which was cited for failing to prevent the sexual exploitation of a resident.

According to state inspectors, early this year the management of Living Center West had learned of a relationship between its activities director and a male resident of the home who has been diagnosed with dementia. On Feb. 29, 2024, inspectors’ reports allege, the resident’s guardian had emailed the home’s then-administrator to report that the resident had declared his love for the home’s activities director, who was married, and had explained to the guardian that the two were attempting to “figure out how to go out on dates together.”

The administrator responded to the email the next day, promising to address the matter, according to inspectors’ reports. The inspectors subsequently determined there was no evidence the home investigated the matter or reported the allegation to the state as required. Months after the email was sent, on May 7, a certified medication aide was looking for the resident when she noticed the door to the activities room was slightly ajar. Inspectors’ reports allege that she looked inside and saw the activities director sitting on the knee of the resident with the two engaged in a long kiss on the mouth.

The aide reported that she gave the resident his medication and then quickly left the room. She told inspectors the activities director later approached her and asked her not to say anything to others. The aide then informed a registered nurse at the home that she’d seen the activities director “making out” with a resident, according to state reports.

According to the aide, the nurse told her not to tell anyone else, according to inspectors’ reports. However, the nurse told facility’s management that she had instructed the aide to report the matter to the home’s director of nursing. In early June, the activities director gave a written statement in which she acknowledged a relationship with the resident had existed for about six months and was continuing. According to the inspectors’ written reports, the activities director denied any sexual contact or intimate relationship, but during an interview she “admitted to the allegations and walked out of the facility.” She was fired on June 17.

When contacted by state inspectors, the home’s former administrator allegedly said she didn’t recall receiving the Feb. 29 email from the guardian. According to state inspectors, the resident of the home has been tearful, depressed and withdrawn since the activities director was fired. As a result of the alleged abuse, the state inspections agency has proposed, but held in suspension, fines totaling $28,500.

Other Iowa nursing homes recently cited for abuse include:

— One Vision Cedar House of Fort Dodge, which is an intermediate care facility for people with intellectual disabilities. The home was cited for failing to promptly identify, investigate and report two occurrences of potential physical abuse by one of its employees.

— Oakview Nursing and Rehabilitation of Marion, which was fined $500 for failing to ensure residents remained free of physical abuse. According to inspectors’ reports, a resident, who was known to be combative at times, struck a female nurses aide, after which the aide punched the resident in the shoulder with a closed fist and allegedly said, “If you punch me, then I will punch you. Next time I’ll give you a black eye and tell everyone I don’t know how it happened.”

— Ramsey Village of Des Moines, was fined $500 for resident abuse.

At the Good Samaritan Home of Holstein, at least three employees were suspended due to an incident involving the alleged abuse of an elderly female dementia patient. The state proposed, but held in suspension, a $500 fine for resident abuse and a $500 fine for failing to report abuse.

College Savings Iowa gets a new name

News

August 28th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – The longtime state operated fund used to help parents and students save for college is getting a new name. State Treasurer Roby Smith oversees the College Savings Iowa plan. “It’s been around for almost three decades, and the College Savings Iowa, which is the old name, kind of focuses on college, and there’s been a number of changes over the years. And so we wanted to take a look at this and get a new name out there to let people know. So it’s ISave 5-2-9,” Smith says. He says you will still be able to save money for K-12 tuition, or a two or four-year college, but there’s more to save for.

“Graduate Schools and then apprenticeship program. So you know, if it’s electric, H-VAC, plumbing, if someone decides to go into the trades, then they can pay for their apprenticeship program from the 529 program,” Smith says. He says the name change reflects the changing ways people look at education after high school. “We’ve heard through the years is people say, ‘Well, I don’t know if my child’s going to go to college or not.’ This is a way to where we can expand it and have people know that it can be used for multiple things,” he says. Smith says the plan itself is tailored to fit different stages of savings. “We have different age tracks. So someone can go a little bit more aggressive if they want, someone can go a little bit more conservative if they like. But we’ve had great returns depending on the year, but nearing that seven, eight, nine, percent in some years, other years, it’s less,” he says.

You can deduct contributions to the plan from your state income taxes, and there are other benefits as well. “The federal government and the state of Iowa has said that if there’s extra money left in there when you’re done with your education, you can actually roll it over into your children’s Roth I-R-A to help them save for retirement,” Smith says.

You can learn more about the plan and how to create an account at ISave529.com.

Shrinking rural Iowa loses maternity units

News

August 28th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(An Iowa News Service submitted story) – Rural regions like the one surrounding this southern Iowa town used to have a lot more babies, and many more places to give birth to them. At least 41 Iowa hospitals have shuttered their labor and delivery units since 2000. Those facilities, representing about a third of all Iowa hospitals, are located mostly in rural areas where birth numbers have plummeted. In some Iowa counties, annual numbers of births have fallen by three-quarters since the height of the baby boom in the 1950s and ’60s, when many rural hospitals were built or expanded, state and federal records show.

Similar trends are playing out nationwide, as hospitals struggle to maintain staff and facilities to safely handle dwindling numbers of births. More than half of rural U.S. hospitals now lack the service. “People just aren’t having as many kids,” said Addie Comegys, who lives in southern Iowa and has regularly traveled 45 minutes each way for prenatal checkups at Oskaloosa’s hospital this summer. Her mother had six children, starting in the 1980s, when big families didn’t seem so rare. “Now, if you have three kids, people are like, ‘Oh my gosh, are you ever going to stop?’” said Comegys, 29, who is expecting her second child in late August.

These days, many Americans choose to have small families or no children at all. Modern birth control methods help make such decisions stick. The trend is amplified in small towns when young adults move away, taking any childbearing potential with them. Hospital leaders who close obstetrics units often cite declining birth numbers, along with staffing challenges and financial losses. The closures can be a particular challenge for pregnant women who lack the reliable transportation and flexible schedules needed to travel long distances for prenatal care and birthing services.

The baby boom peaked in 1957, when about 4.3 million children were born in the United States. The annual number of births dropped below 3.7 million by 2022, even though the overall U.S. population nearly doubled over that same period. According to federal data, Iowa’s births dropped 43% over that period. Of the state’s 99 counties, just four — all urban or suburban — recorded more births. Births have increased in only 13 states since 1957. Most of them, such as Arizona, California, Florida, and Nevada, are places that have attracted waves of newcomers from other states and countries. But even those states have had obstetrics units close in rural areas.

Labor and Delivery Doctor Taylor Schwartz talks with a pregnant patient & her husband at Mahaska Health Hospital in Iowa (Tony Leys/KFF Health, photo)

In Iowa, Oskaloosa’s hospital has bucked the trend and kept its labor and delivery unit open, partly by pulling in patients from 14 other counties. Last year, the hospital even managed the rare feat of recruiting two obstetrician-gynecologists to expand its services. The publicly owned hospital, called Mahaska Health, expects to deliver 250 babies this year, up from about 160 in previous years, CEO Kevin DeRonde said. “It’s an essential service, and we needed to keep it going and grow it,” DeRonde said.

Many of the U.S. hospitals that are now dropping obstetrics units were built or expanded in the mid-1900s, when America went on a rural-hospital building spree, thanks to federal funding from the Hill-Burton Act. “It was an amazing program,” said Brock Slabach, chief operations officer for the National Rural Health Association. “Basically, if you were a county that wanted a hospital, they gave you the money.” Slabach said that in addition to declining birth numbers, obstetrics units are experiencing a drop in occupancy because most patients go home after a night or two. In the past, patients typically spent several days in the hospital after giving birth.

Dwindling caseloads can raise safety concerns for obstetrics units. A study published in JAMA in 2023 found that women were more likely to suffer serious complications if they gave birth in rural hospitals that handled 110 or fewer births a year. The authors said they didn’t support closing low-volume units, because that could lead more women to have complications related to traveling for care. Instead, they recommended improving training and coordination among rural health providers.

Stephanie Radke, a University of Iowa obstetrics and gynecology professor who studies access to birthing services, said it is almost inevitable that when rural birth numbers plunge, some obstetrics units will close. “We talk about that as a bad event, but we don’t really talk about why it happens,” she said. Radke said maintaining a set number of obstetrics units is less important than ensuring good care for pregnant women and their babies. It’s difficult to maintain quality of care when the staff doesn’t consistently practice deliveries, she said, but it is hard to define that line. “What is realistic?” she said. “I don’t think a unit should be open that only delivers 50 babies a year.” In some cases, she said, hospitals near each other have consolidated obstetrics units, pooling their resources into one program that has enough staffers and handles sufficient cases. “You’re not always really creating a care desert when that happens,” she said.

The decline in births has accelerated in many areas in recent years. Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of New Hampshire, said it is understandable that many rural hospitals have closed obstetrics units. “I’m actually surprised some of them have lasted as long as they have,” he said. Johnson said rural areas that have seen the steepest population declines tend to be far from cities and lack recreational attractions, such as mountains or large bodies of water. Some have avoided population losses by attracting immigrant workers, who tend to have larger families in the first generation or two after they move to the U.S., he said.

Katy Kozhimannil, a University of Minnesota health policy professor who studies rural issues, said declining birth numbers and obstetric unit closures can create a vicious cycle. Fewer babies being born in a region can lead a birthing unit to shutter. Then the loss of such a unit can discourage young people from moving to the area, driving birth numbers even lower. In many regions, people with private insurance, flexible schedules, and reliable transportation choose to travel to larger hospitals for their prenatal care and to give birth, Kozhimannil said. That leaves rural hospitals with a larger proportion of patients on Medicaid, a public program that pays about half what private insurance pays for the same services, she said.

Iowa ranks near the bottom of all states for obstetrician-gynecologists per capita. But Oskaloosa’s hospital hit the jackpot last year, when it recruited Taylar Swartz and Garth Summers, a married couple who both recently finished their obstetrics training. Swartz grew up in the area, and she wanted to return to serve women there. She hopes the number of obstetrics units will level off after the wave of closures. “It’s not even just for delivery, but we need access just to women’s health care in general,” she said. “I would love to see women’s health care be at the forefront of our government’s mind.” Swartz noted that the state has only one obstetrics training program, which is at the University of Iowa. She said she and her husband plan to help spark interest in rural obstetrics by hosting University of Iowa residency rotations at the Oskaloosa hospital.

Comegys, a patient of Swartz’s, could have chosen a hospital birthing center closer to her home, but she wasn’t confident in its quality. Other hospitals in her region had shuttered their obstetrics units. She is grateful to have a flexible job, a reliable car, and a supportive family, so she can travel to Oskaloosa for checkups and to give birth there. She knows many other women are not so lucky, and she worries other obstetrics units are at risk. “It’s sad, but I could see more closing,” she said.

6 injured in a chain-reaction crash in Red Oak Tuesday afternoon

News

August 28th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A chain-reaction accident in Red Oak early Tuesday afternoon involving four vehicles, resulted in six people, including three juveniles, being transported to the Montgomery County Hospital, in Red Oak for treatment of minor injuries. According to the Red Oak Police Department, a 2005 GMC Yukon SUV driven by a 16-year-old Red Oak female, was traveling south on 8th Street a little after 12-p.m., Tuesday. The vehicle was stopped, waiting to cross Highway 34. When the teen driver pulled away from the stop sign, she entered the path of a 2012 GMC Sierra pickup that westbound on Highway 34 pulling a trailer, and was driven by 51-year-old Barry J. Martinson, of Lincoln, NE.

The Sierra struck the SUV in the front fender, causing the pickup to cross the center line of the road before striking a 1997 Ford F-250 pickup that was stopped eastbound, waiting to turn north. The Ford was driven by 31-year-old Nathan John Hossle, of Emerson. His pickup then struck a 2022 Ford panel van that was eastbound and driven by 45-year-old Dustin Meader, of Fremont, NE.

The Sierra and Ford pickup’s ended-up in the south ditch. The SUV ended-up in the north ditch. The van stopped on the road. The driver of the SUV and two juvenile passengers were transported by private vehicle to the Montgomery County Hospital. Martinson and his passenger, Pamela Wheeler, along with Nathan Hossle, were transported to the hospital by Red Oak Rescue. Dustin Meader was not injured in the crash.

The driver of the SUV was cited for Failure to Yield upon entering a through highway. Red Oak Police were assisted at the scene by Red Oak Rescue, the Red Oak Fire Dept., the Montgomery County EMA, Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies, the City of Red Oak Street Dept., and Montgomery County Communications.

Altoona man arrested after admitting to purchasing child porn; Creston woman & Indianola man arrested for attempted Enticement of a Minor

News

August 28th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

A central Iowa man faces a felony charge of possession of child pornography after he walked into a police station to confess to the crime. KCCI reports 18-year-old Jack R. Conner, of Altoona, is charged with one count of purchase/possess depiction of a minor in a sex act, first offense, a Class D felony.

According to court records, on Monday evening, Conner walked into the Altoona Police Department and told them he wanted to confess to criminal activity. Conner was interviewed by a detective and admitted that he had been purchasing “child sexual abuse material” on a smartphone app for several years.

The court records say Conner consented to a search of his phone during the interview, where a photo of genitals belonging to a 15-year-old girl was found. Conner allegedly told the investigator that he knew the girl in the photo was 15 and he knew her through the app. He said he spent approximately $600-$700 on child pornography since he started seeking it.

In an unrelated incident, Police in Indianola said they arrested two suspects after an investigation into a report of attempted sexual abuse of a minor. A search warrant was executed at a residence in the 1600 block of West 3rd Avenue early Tuesday morning. As a result, 41-year-old Jason Witzke, of Indianola, was arrested and taken to the Warren County Jail. Police say 39-year-old Valerie Cross, of Creston, was also charged after being taken into custody in Greenfield Tuesday morning. She was also booked into the Warren County Jail.

Authorities allege Witzke and Cross attempted to entice a minor for sexual contact in Indianola. Witzke faces several charges, including conspiracy to commit forcible felony and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Cross is charged with enticing a minor, child endangerment and conspiracy to commit forcible felony, along with other charges.

Strong storms pound parts of SE Iowa w/intense winds Tue. night

News

August 28th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

(Burlington, Iowa) – A strong storm that swept through parts of southeast Iowa late Tuesday caused significant tree damage and power outages. The National Weather Service office in the Quad Cities issued a Special Weather Statement at around 10-p.m., warning about storms that extended from near West Branch into parts of far western Illinois. The storms were sad to pack winds of up to 50-mph, but social media reports seemed to indicate they were much stronger.

Burlington (IA) Police took to social media to ask residents to be patient tonight with first responders, Alliant Energy and Street Department crews, as there were “multiple trees down, lines down, roads flooded and alarms going off due to the storm.”

Some residents reported the storm appeared without warning, and toppled trees, a flag pole, and power lines down across vehicles parked on the street. The NWS said at around 10:30-p.m., Tuesday, that “Clusters of thunderstorms will continue into the late night, especially along and south of Interstate 80.” They said also, “some of the stronger storms were capable of producing gusty winds, small hail, frequent lightning, and heavy rainfall. Ponding of water and urban flooding may be possible into the early morning hours.”

As of early this (Wednesday) morning, there was no official word on any damage from the Weather Service.

Skyscan Forecast for Atlantic & the KJAN listening area: Wed., Aug. 28, 2024

Weather

August 28th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Today: Patchy fog this morning; Otherwise sunny. High near 89. S/SE winds 5-10 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 71.
Tomorrow: A chance of showers & thunderstorms, otherwise mostly sunny. High 89. S winds @ 10-20 mph.
Tom. Night: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Low around 62.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 55.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 83.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 75.

Tuesday’s high was 91 degrees. Our low this morning was 67. Last year on this date the high was 84 and the low was 55. The record high for August 28th in Atlantic was 100 degrees, set in 1984. The record low was 35 in 1967. Sunrise today: 6:41-a.m., and Sunset is at 8-p.m..

Trojan XC sees a plethora of new faces for 2024

Sports

August 27th, 2024 by Asa Lucas

This week the Atlantic Trojans Cross Country regular season begins. The 2024 season brings a mixed bag of returning runners and a multitude of new faces for a total of 32 athletes. Atlantic Head Cross Country Coach Dan Vargason commented that this year’s combination has a greener group who are quickly picking up the completive culture of Trojan Cross Country.

Junior Katrina Williams is one of the Atlantic runners that has seen this steady stream of improvement for the Trojans.

Williams is not alone in her observations of this team continuing to build positive momentum. Senior runner Megan Birge is another runner who has seen her team unify and learn to better uplift one another.

On the boys side senior Luke Irlmeier is looking forward to Saturday’s season opener at Glenwood. Irlmeier is hoping that his teammates continue to clean up their times and strengthen the discipline of being focused throughout the entire meet.

Coach Vargason explained that the 2024 team has different goals than previous years, but are still determined to enhance their times at each meet.

The meet at Glenwood on Saturday will begin at 9:00 AM

Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz previews Illinois State

Sports

August 27th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says it will be business as usual for him in practice this week. Ferentz is suspended for Saturday’s opener against Illinois State for a recruiting violation and assistant head coach Seth Wallace will lead the team. Ferentz says the coaching staff always goes over game situations in a Thursday meeting.

Ferentz says while Wallace has the final call in the game a coaches role is most important in practice.

Ferentz is hoping to see progress from the offense under new coordinator Tim Lester.

Former Purdue defensive coordinator Brock Spack is the longtime coach at Illinois State. The Redbirds are ranked 20th in the FCS Coaches Poll.

Iowa State’s Matt Campbell previews North Dakota

Sports

August 27th, 2024 by Ric Hanson

Iowa State coach Matt Campbell says season openers make football unique. The Cyclones take lofty expectations into Saturday’s season opener against North Dakota.

Campbell says the opener always features a lot of question marks.

While excited by the season opener Campbell says the Cyclones should approach this game no different than the others.

Campbell says North Dakota will be a physical challenge.

Campbell says the Fighting Hawks won’t be intimidated.