Florida

A Florida assisted living community where staff members reportedly watched a resident die instead of administering CPR, despite the fact that the resident did not have an order to withhold CPR, was ordered to stop admitting new residents on Friday.

The affected community, Floridian Gardens Assisted Living Facility in Miami, is related to the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in Hollywood Hills, FL, now closed, where a Hurricane Irma-related air conditioner outage led to the deaths of a dozen residents in September. Both are owned by Larkin Community Hospital.

“The residents are currently living in an environment where a systemic process to ensure that residents are free from abuse and neglect, and that medical attention is appropriately provided, has not been devised and implemented,” the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said in its emergency order against Floridian Gardens. The order followed a survey conducted the previous day.

Florida AHCA Secretary Justin Senior cited an April 4 video that he said showed that staff members, including a supervisor, watched a resident die and did not administer CPR despite the fact that the resident did not have an order to withhold CPR.

Seven staff members who had been in the facility at the time, including four CNAs, could not describe how to determine when to perform CPR or describe how to perform it, Senior said, and personnel records did not contain documentation that they had received CPR training or certification.

“Since the above-described event, the respondent has taken no action to determine the qualifications and skills of its personnel to ensure that, in the event of a resident losing breath or pulse, that [CPR] would promptly be initiated,” he wrote.

Ninety-five Floridian Gardens residents do not have an order to withhold CPR, Senior said. The facility is licensed for 180 beds but had 109 residents as of Friday, according to the order.

The order also noted that since December, four residents have fallen. “Despite this, the respondent took no action or inadequate action to assess, evaluate and respond to these falls in a manner designed to recurrence or further injury,” Senior stated.

Florida AHCA previously had issued a moratorium on admissions at the community from December 2016 to August 2017, according to agency records. The agency tried to shutter the facility in October, but its licensure status is being challenged in court.

The owners have not responded to media requests for comments.