A Buffalo, N.Y.-based nursing home was fined $20,580 after a cognitively impaired patient went missing for nearly two hours, The Buffalo News reports.
A Terrace View Long-Term Care resident pushed her wheelchair through the second-floor stairwell door at 6:02 a.m. on May 25, 2019. A nurse realized the woman wasn't in her bed at 7:30 a.m. and found the resident 12 minutes later. The resident was disoriented but unharmed sitting on the floor at the bottom of the stairwell.
The day before, a maintenance worker discovered an alarm on the stairway door wasn't working, but did not inform nursing staff about the faulty technology.
The facility, owned by Erie County Medical Center, was cited by the state for failing to ensure adequate supervision of residents and failing to investigate why a resident was able to wander off. Though the fine was issued Aug. 27, it did not become public until January.
Terrace View achieved its first five-star CMS rating in July 2019, but the rating quickly dropped to two stars this January. Staff members are working to get the overall rating back up to five stars, Peter Cutler, ECMC vice president of communications and external affairs, told The Buffalo News.