A six bed Opa-locka assisted living facility has been fined $500 after it failed to notify the state that an 84-year old resident wandered off before eventually being returned by police in 2016.
Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Justin Senior issued a final order last week after Time is Care, Corp. was found to have a “Class III” violation, which covers conditions or occurrences at the facility that the state deems can harm the physical or emotional health of residents.
Documents in the case said the state discovered the violation during an Aug. 30, 2016 “complaint survey” of the facility, when an administrator acknowledged the 84-year-old woman had eloped “one or two months ago.”
She told the state the resident was gone for less than a day before being returned by police.
The facility did not report the incident, which would have occurred between May and July 2016, in the patient’s records, and nothing was filed with the state.
Facilities are required to submit an adverse medical-incident report to the state within a day of an event and a more-detailed adverse incident report within 15 days.
In an interview with the state, the 84-year-old resident said she had twice wandered off and was “very scared” in one of the situations, according to the state documents.
The ALF administrator said she didn’t file an adverse-incident report because she didn’t have a police report number.
The Agency for Health Care Administration cited the facility for a violation and ordered it to fix the situation. But when the state returned to inspect the facility on Nov. 8, 2016, the resident’s records hadn’t been updated, and nothing had been filed with the state regarding the resident’s elopement, according to the documents.
Senior’s final order requires the facility to pay $693.87, which includes costs in addition to the fine.
