Agency imposes $77,000 fine on Timely Mission

     The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have imposed a $77,462 fine against Timely Mission Nursing Home in Buffalo Center, following an investigation by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals (IDIA).

     The IDIA investigation found failures to provide adequate care for three residents at the nursing home in February of this year. According to the department’s report dated June 6, nursing home staff failed to address symptoms of the three residents, and they also failed to notify the residents’ physicians about changes in their conditions.

     Two of those residents died one day apart at the end of February, and both experienced significant weight loss following a decline in food and fluid intake that went unreported to their physicians. One of those residents was 87-year-old Virginia Olthoff, who also complained of pain in the days before her death. The IDIA report says staff did not adequately address her pain symptoms.

     On the day she died, staff reported that Olthoff’s eyes looked sunken and dark, and her feet were cold and blue, but they did not call an ambulance for more than two hours. She was given fluids at the hospital for severe dehydration, but she died later that day back at Timely Mission.

     The third resident noted in the IDIA report experienced loose stools and abdominal pain for two weeks before she was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with colitis. She was treated at the hospital for two days, where staff identified a rash that was not documented at the nursing home.

     As a result of its investigation, the IDIA originally recommended fines against Timely Mission Nursing Home totaling $29,750, but those fines were held in suspension while CMS, a federal agency, looked into the matter.

     In a report sent to Timely Mission on August 3, CMS says the conditions identified by the IDIA constituted immediate jeopardy to resident health and safety, and Timely Mission was not in substantial compliance with the participation requirements for the Medicare and/or Medicaid programs.

     CMS issued the $77,462 fine against Timely Mission based on deficiencies in quality of care and pain management for residents. CMS says the nursing home made necessary corrections to achieve substantial compliance with its requirements on June 7, which is one day after the IDIA completed its survey.

     Lorie Bierle, Board President of Timely Mission, says the nursing home is dealing with this as a private matter, and she declined to comment on the fine from CMS. Bierle says Timely Mission aims to have a new administrator and director of nursing in place on August 27.