Seattle-Area Nursing Home Linked to Dozens Of Coronavirus Deaths Faces $600,000 Fine

A Seattle-area nursing home connected to more than two dozen coronavirus deaths is facing more than $600,000 in fines and the possibility of losing federal funding after officials documented a series of flaws in the facility's handling of the outbreak.

The federal government set a September deadline for the Life Care Centers of Kirkland to comply with federal regulations.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday sent a letter to Life Care Center of Kirkland. It stated that during inspections of the facility last month, officials "found the most serious deficiencies to be widespread and constituting in Immediate Jeopardy to resident health or safety."

The facility, located in a suburb east of Seattle, no longer met the requirements to participate in the Medicare program, according to CMS, which is also assessing per-day fines of $13,585.

Those penalties, effective from Feb. 12 through March 27, resulted in a total of $611,325.

According to CMS documents dated last month, Life Care Center of Kirkland Executive Director Ellie Basham was notified about several "immediate jeopardy situations."

Those included failure to have emergency physician services available 24-hours a day or have an emergency plan in place when a physician is "unavailable to assist with a high volume of residents during a crisis situation."

The CMS documents also said the facility failed to have an infection control surveillance program that analyzes and takes steps to mitigate a crisis. It also said the Kirkland facil... (Read more)

Latest News