(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Nursing home operator denies retaliating against alleged whistleblowing nurse • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2025-06-12
One of Iowa’s largest nursing home chains is denying allegations that it fired a nurse in retaliation for her quality-of-care complaints to state regulators.
The chain, Care Initiatives of West Des Moines, is currently facing three separate whistleblower lawsuits stemming from unrelated incidents. The company operates 44 care facilities in Iowa.
In the most recent case, Tina Weber of Clemens states that from May 2021 through October 2024, she worked as a registered nurse at an unspecified Care Initiatives facility in Marshall County.
Weber claims that on Oct. 5, 2024, she witnessed an incident involving a resident with schizophrenia, using a wheelchair, and a human resources worker. According to the lawsuit, the two were engaged in an argument and when the resident attempted to leave in his wheelchair, the human resources worker grabbed the handles of the wheelchair, causing the resident to fall out of the wheelchair to the ground.
Weber reported the incident to the assistant director of nursing and recorded the incident in the resident’s chart. The next day, Weber alleges, the home’s director of nursing texted Weber, writing, “Could you strike out original note and when putting in about the wheelchair say she was assisting with the wheelchair and he put himself on the ground as she tried to de-escalate him and explain that he was not allow to smoke and the policy?”
Weber allegedly responded, “So not the truth?”
On Oct. 11, 2024, an administrator allegedly asked Weber to change her account of the incident in the resident’s chart. Weber refused. Later that day, the lawsuit alleges, a corporate employee of Care Initiatives instructed Weber to change the resident’s chart so it didn’t indicate the resident’s fall was the result of an altercation with the staff. Weber again refused and, the lawsuit claims, she then reported the incident to state regulators who forwarded it to the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing, which oversees nursing homes.
Five days later, a state inspector visited the nursing home to investigate the matter, the lawsuit alleges. The next day, the lawsuit alleges, Care Initiatives fired Weber.
The lawsuit claims the company fired Weber due to her reports and complaints regarding the health, safety, and well-being of one of its residents. The lawsuit seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages for Weber’s firing.
In its response to the lawsuit, Care Initiatives says it “did not terminate or take any adverse action at any time against (Weber) for participation in any alleged protected activity, including her alleged reports/complaints-both internally and externally.” The company says that it acted in good faith, without malice or disregard of Weber’s rights.
A trial is scheduled for June 9, 2026.
‘Keep your mouth shut’
Care Initiatives is currently the target of two other lawsuits alleging a form of whistleblower retaliation.
In one of those cases, Tylene Schultz states that in the summer of 2022, she was hired at Fonda Specialty Care by its then-administrator, Jennifer Blair, to work in the home as a certified nursing assistant.
On Feb. 18, 2023, the home allegedly scheduled a temp-agency nurse, Becky Manning, to work the overnight shift due to a shortage of staff nurses. During the shift, a resident with a tracheostomy passed away about 2:25 a.m., according to the lawsuit.
State records indicate the resident who died was 87-year-old Marvin “Pete” Jacobs, who had undergone a tracheostomy and needed regular suctioning of his airway. The lawsuit claims Jacobs died because throughout the shift, Manning refused to numerous requests to suction Jacobs’ airway.
“Despite multiple requests by Schultz to suction the resident — over 10 times, from 6 p.m. on Feb.18, 2023, to 2:25 a.m., Feb.19, 2023 — Manning would not suction the resident, nor did she attempt to use the suction machine,” the lawsuit claims.
According to the lawsuit, after Schultz left the home at the end of her shift, she received multiple text messages from Blair that said, “Keep your mouth shut and keep your opinions to yourself,” along with instructions that she should not communicate with Jacobs’ family.
Later that day, Schultz was summoned to a meeting with Blair at Fonda Specialty Care. During the meeting, the lawsuit claims, Blair — who was allegedly was aware Schultz planned to call state regulators and report her concerns with Jacobs’ care — informed Schultz she was being fired due to “resident complaints.”
Manning was charged with felony wanton neglect of a resident of a health care facility and later was sentenced to two years in prison on a reduced charge of misdemeanor wanton neglect. Manning also entered into an agreement with the Iowa Board of Nursing in which she agreed to indefinitely suspend her practice of nursing.
Schultz’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for wrongful termination. Care Initiatives has denied any wrongdoing and alleges that Schultz’s dismissal was based on legitimate, nondiscriminatory, and nonretaliatory business reasons.
A trial is scheduled for Aug. 4, 2026.
Caregiver helped resident call 911
The third current whistleblower case against Care Initiatives involves Kandus Jellison, who worked at the company’s Oakwood Specialty Care in Albia. Jellison has alleged she was fired in June 2022 after she intervened on behalf of a resident who was refused hospital care and then helped the man call 911.
Jellison sued Care Initiatives in part for allegedly violating the Iowa law that bars employers from taking action against workers for reporting dependent adult abuse or assisting with an abuse-related complaint or investigation.
Care Initiatives has argued that while it’s a crime for a company to retaliate against workers who assist with abuse investigations, the Iowa Legislature didn’t intend for workers to use such a violation as the basis for a civil lawsuit. A judge agreed and dismissed one element of the lawsuit, but let the remainder of the case proceed.
Care Initiatives has denied any wrongdoing in the matter, and a trial is scheduled for March 30, 2026.
A fourth whistleblower case against Care Initiatives was settled several months ago. In that case, Stephanie Schlegelmilch sued the company, alleging that while working as the director of nursing for the chain’s Avoca Specialty Care, she was terminated in violation of public policy.
Schlegelmilch alleged she was fired shortly after she confronted a regional nurse for Care Initiatives and questioned why she wasn’t wearing a mask during a COVID-19 outbreak in the home.
Care Initiatives denied any wrongdoing in the case, and the case was dismissed in December 2024 after an out-of-court settlement was reached.
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