Table of Content
- Lancaster County's 2005 sale of Conestoga View mandated quarterly reports, meetings — but few happened
- Police searching for suspect in Tacony arson fire
- residents dead at a Lancaster County nursing home following COVID-19 outbreak
- Owner of Ex-Conestoga View sentenced to probation for Delco nursing home deaths
- AG Shapiro: Nursing Home Manager Pleads To Recklessly Endangering Three Residents
Steg has become part-owner in at least 11 other Pennsylvania nursing homes, most of them in the Philadelphia area, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. According to property records, the seller, S&P Real Estate Company, is an affiliate of Montgomery County-based Complete HealthCare Resources-Eastern Inc., the company operating the facility since 1993. “We have several criminal investigations ongoing into nursing homes during the time of COVID, and we will be making the announcements that we can make relatively shortly on that,” Shapiro said. The Wolf administration was repeatedly warned of dangerously low minimum staffing and weak and inconsistent inspections, all problems that could have made the outbreak worse.
Steg also has had an ownership interest in Newport Meadows Health and Rehabilitation Center in Christiana since January 2020, according to CMS data. The federal agency’s star-rating system aggregates nursing home inspection reports and other measures to give consumers a sense of a facility’s quality. As part of the plea agreement, Steg will be sentenced to 6 to 23 months of house arrest followed by three years of probation.
Lancaster County's 2005 sale of Conestoga View mandated quarterly reports, meetings — but few happened
The initial investigation began in August 2017, after staff at the Mercy Catholic Medical Center’s Mercy Fitzgerald Campus notified the Delaware County Office of Services for the Aging of concerns they had for the poor condition of several residents transferred from St. Francis. The nursing home has agreed to maintain a sufficient number of employees and to be audited every three months for a year by the state Health Department. Since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 last year, 233 Conestoga View residents have contracted the virus, and 81 residents have died from it, according to the latest self-reported data to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Lancaster County built Conestoga View in 1969, continuing a tradition of providing nursing care for its poorest residents that began in 1799.
These payments are in addition to fines of $504,325 already paid to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and the Department of Health as a result of the violations that launched this investigation and are acknowledged by the settlement agreement. The attorney general's office said it was called in to investigate in August 2017, when local police and the state Health Department notified it about issues at the facility. Chaim "Charlie" Steg, 40, of Lakewood, New Jersey pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless endangerment. According to Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the poor staffing at the 273-bed facility was not the result of financial hardship; on the contrary, Shapiro said, the nursing home had been profitable under Steg’s control. In spite of several communications that the home was understaffed—a single staffing coordinator reported employee shortages 40 times, said the article—Steg made no move to remedy the crisis. One former nursing director, desperate to assuage the situation, hired nurses despite Steg’s orders not to do so.
Police searching for suspect in Tacony arson fire
A new owner of the former Conestoga View nursing home in Lancaster Township pleaded no contest to three counts of reckless endangerment of residents at a Delaware County nursing home, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office has announced. The attorney general’s office said it was called in to investigate in August 2017, when local police and the state Health Department notified it about issues at the facility. Staff at Mercy Catholic Medical Center had told the Delaware County aging office that several residents from St. Francis arrived there in poor health. According to the attorney general’s office, St. Francis has agreed both to maintain adequate staffing and to be audited by the state Health Department at three month intervals for a year.
Your loved one’s Philadelphia/PA or NJ nursing home is required to meet every health and safety standard, including the physical, mental, and psycho/social well-being of their residents. A review of the CMS data by LNP
residents dead at a Lancaster County nursing home following COVID-19 outbreak
LancasterOnline that they are worried for the safety of residents due to staff cuts and departures. All were granted anonymity due to their fear of professional retaliation for speaking. Steg has been known in Philadelphia’s nursing home sector for several years, according to Diane Menio, executive director at CARIE, an advocacy group for the elderly based in Philadelphia.
The operating company of the home, 1412 Lansdowne Operating LLC, and Catholic Facilities Operating LLC, will pay over a half million dollars toward caring for St. Francis’ residents and will also give $100,000 to the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly. Steg, the former regional director of operations at St. Francis Center in Darby, faces up to 23 months of house arrest, three years of probation, and a five-year ban on interacting with health care facilities. On top of that, Steg will be forced to pay a $15,000 fine and restitution to the families of the victims. St. Francis will be audited by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and, as a result of a civil settlement, be required to maintain a higher minimum-staffing level.
The residents suffered conditions including, pressure wounds, sepsis, dehydration, and bowel obstructions. The evidence showed these outcomes were the result of systemic failures in St. Francis primarily driven by inadequate staffing practices. Steg’s employees repeatedly warned him that St. Francis’ chronic staffing problems endangered the residents. He ignored their warnings and his reckless decision making caused these three Pennsylvanians serious bodily injury and ultimately led to their death.
LancasterOnline files and county records.
The Grand Jury heard from 22 witnesses, several of whom testified that they tried to fix staffing issues at St. Francis and were denied by Steg. Investigators concluded there had been “systemic failure,” mostly tied to inadequate staffing, the attorney general's office said. Shapiro said at the news conference that his office also has several criminal investigations pending of how nursing homes responded to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, and said he expects to make announcements "relatively shortly."
Another witness testified the conditions were so poor that she filed a complaint with the Department of Health citing concerns over the ratio of nurses to patients. A former staffing coordinator testified that St. Francis was understaffed on a daily basis and she received constant complaints from staff and family members of the residents. The investigation into St. Francis began after the Office of Attorney General received dual referrals from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Darby Borough Police Department.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, he will be sentenced to six to 23 months of house arrest followed by three years probation. His probation also has the condition that he cannot staff, manage, own, or operate the nursing, clinical, or medical services of any skilled nursing facility for five years. He will also be required to pay a $15,000 fine and restitution to the families of the victims.
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