(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Woman dies at Iowa nursing home recently acquired by private equity firm • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2024-12-05
A Waterloo nursing home recently acquired by a private equity firm has been fined $10,000 for the death of a 45-year-old resident who choked on a sandwich.
According to state records, a long-time female resident of Waterloo’s Harmony House Health Care Center, Christine Beenken, died on Oct. 21, 2024. The 45-year-old Beenken had a moderate intellectual disability and, according to state inspectors, had special dietary restrictions that limited her food intake to soft, bite-sized items.
The states alleges Beenken also had a well-documented history of frequently collecting food from various sources in the building, including other residents’ plates. However, the state alleges the staff at Harmony House failed to develop and put in place an effective behavioral intervention plan that might have discouraged such behavior.
State inspectors allege that on Oct. 18, 2024, workers at the home reported seeing Beenken “stuffing an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich in her mouth.” She began choking and a staff member initiated the Heimlich maneuver before Beenken became unresponsive and showed no signs of a pulse.
Beenken was then transported to a hospital where she died three days later. In her obituary, Beenken was remembered as a music lover who enjoyed snuggling her stuffed animals while watching “Barney & Friends” and “Looney Tunes” on television.
The state has imposed a $10,000 fine in the case.
The Iowa Department of Inspections Appeals and Licensing’s website indicates Harmony House is owned by ABCM Corp. of Hampton. However, that information appears to be out of date.
Harmony House is one of the 29 Iowa care facilities that ABCM reportedly sold last summer to a private equity firm, Cascade Capital Group, for $85 million. County real estate records show the deed to Harmony House was transferred in August from ABCM to a limited liability company that shares the same Skokie, Illinois, mailing address as Cascade Capital.
Six weeks ago, the nonprofit Center for Medicare Advocacy reviewed federal data and compared the regulatory history of ABCM’s 29 Iowa facilities with the 57 other care facilities owned and operated by Cascade Capital and its affiliate, Legacy Healthcare.
The data indicates the Cascade Capital facilities performed more poorly than homes under ABCM’s management, with the Cascade Capital facilities being fined 17 times as much as their ABCM counterparts. Each ABCM facility had, on average, incurred $4,815 in federal fines over the past three years, while the Legacy facilities averaged $83,994 in federal fines.
Cascade Capital is run by its two managing directors and founders, Chaim Rajchenbach and Menachem “Nachy” Shabat. Officials at Cascade Capital and Legacy Healthcare did not respond to messages left Thursday by the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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