(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Fired nurse and aide sue Iowa nursing home operator [1]
['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- June']
Date: 2023-06-20
A company that manages a Dallas County nursing home is being sued by two former caregivers who allege they were wrongly accused of falsifying patient records and financially exploiting a resident.
The two lawsuits involve Rowley Memorial Masonic Home in Perry and the Ankeny company that was hired by Rowley to manage its operations, Continuum Health Care Services.
The first of the two cases alleges that Inge Smothers had worked for the Perry nursing home for 15 years as a nurse aide, medication aide and phlebotomist before being forced to resign in 2018.
According to Smothers, the home had launched an investigation into allegations of conflicts of interest and the financial exploitation of a resident. Smothers alleged that she had worked for the resident in question for five to six years and that her employment with the man predated his admission to the home.
In her lawsuit against Rowley, she alleged that even after the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals concluded there had been no financial exploitation she remained on indefinite suspension at the home and eventually quit.
She sued the care facility, claiming she had been the victim of discrimination based on her age – she was in her 60s at the time of her suspension – and her German heritage. In April, after that lawsuit was dismissed by a judge who ruled there was little or no evidence to support such claims, Smothers sued Continuum for interfering with her employment by Rowley.
Continuum’s insurer, West Bend Mutual Insurance, recently filed a petition in federal court seeking a declaratory ruling that says the company is not obligated to fund a defense to Smothers’ lawsuit since its policy with Continuum covers only bodily injury or property damage. The court has yet to rule on that issue.
West Bend is seeking a similar declaratory ruling in a newer case involving Continuum and a second former employee of the Rowley home.
Earlier this year, Kayla Jean Riesberg sued Continuum in state court, alleging the company had interfered with her employment by Rowley. Riesberg alleges she began working at the home in 1989 as a registered nurse and plan care coordinator. Her lawsuit alleges that shortly after Continuum began providing management services at Rowley, one of the company’s managers asked her to review and sign resident care plans. After doing so, she alleges, she was immediately fired and escorted from the facility for allegedly falsifying medical records.
Riesberg alleges that during her 28 years of service at Rowley she had never been subjected to any form of discipline for misconduct.
Continuum has not filed a response to the lawsuits brought by Smothers and Riesberg, but has filed motions to have the two cases dismissed on legal grounds. Rulings on those motions have yet to be issued by the court.
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https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023/06/20/fired-nurse-and-aide-sue-iowa-nursing-home-operator/
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