Of the 20 nursing homes in the country with the most government fines, five of them are in Kentucky. Kentucky also has three nursing homes listed among the top 20 in the nation that were cited for the most serious deficiencies.
The list is compiled by ProPublica, which is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism. The data is drawn from government databases, and includes deficiencies cited by regulators and the penalties imposed over the past three years.
Nursing Homes with the Most Fines
The Kentucky nursing homes found to have received the most fines over the past three years are:
- #5 – Somerwoods Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Somerset, KY: $564,000
- #7 – Princeton Health & Rehab Center, Inc. in Princeton, KY: $560,000
- #9 – Brownsboro Hills Health Care and Rehabilitation in Louisville, KY: $541,000
- #13 – Tradewater Pointe, in Dawson Springs, KY: $484,000
- #18 – NHC Healthcare, in Glasgow, KY: $436,000
The two homes nationwide with the most fines overall were Bradley Health Care & Rehab, in Cleveland, Tennessee, with $693,000 in fines, and the Siler City Center, in Siler City, North Carolina, with a total of $680,000 in fines.
Nursing Homes with the Most Serious Deficiencies
The Kentucky nursing homes among the worst in the country for most serious deficiencies over the last three years are:
- #10 – Fountain Circle Care & Rehabilitation Center, Winchester, KY: 14 serious deficiencies
- #11 – Signature Healthcare of Pikeville, Pikeville, KY: 13 serious deficiencies
- #15 – Hearthstone Place, Elkton, KY: 13 serious deficiencies
The worst levels of deficiencies in the U.S. were found at Graceland Nursing Center in Memphis, Tennessee, which had 28 serious deficiencies, the Care Inn of Abilene, Texas, which had 23, and the Courtyards at Fort Worth, Texas, which had 21.
An example of the types of problems leading to such serious levels of citations can be seen at the Princeton Health & Rehab Center. Many of its violations were found in 2012. In one case that lead to a resident’s death, records show that a nurse gave the resident pain medication at 2:00 a.m. Then two hours later at 4:00 a.m., staff helped the resident sit up at the side of the bed, and left the resident sitting alone in the room. The resident fell off the bed, suffered a head injury, and later died from internal bleeding.