Nursing Home Workers Fired For Snapchat Movie Mocking Elderly Resident (Movie)
Nursing Home Workers Fired For Snapchat Movie Mocking Elderly Resident (Movie)
Two nursing home employees have been fired for allegedly taking a Snapchat movie mocking an elderly woman at the facility and posting it online (movie below).
Two licensed care providers at LifeHouse Vista Healthcare Center in Vista, California, have been terminated after taking a movie of themselves laughing at the woman as she gets ready to take a shower and posting it on Snapchat, KGTV reports.
The movie very first surfaced in October when an anonymous tipster took a screenshot and collective it with investigative reporters at KGTV. The news staff then brought it to the attention of the director of the LifeHouse facility where the movie was reportedly filmed.
The screenshot depicts two female employees standing behind a partially nude elderly woman, shown from the shoulders up, and laughing at her as she prepares to get into the shower. The patient, who has been identified only as "Mary," reportedly suffers from dementia.
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"The conversation was we’re going to get the client ready for the shower and she hates taking showers and they embarked laughing," the tipster who found the movie told KGTV.
One of the employees in the picture reportedly shot the footage on her cellphone and posted it online. Because movies collective on Snapchat vanish within twenty four hours, the footage is no longer available online.
After the LifeHouse director confronted the employee who posted the movie, she admitted to helping the woman take a shower but denied taking any movies or pictures of the patient.
The employee, who had worked at the facility for a year, reportedly deleted her Snapchat account instantly after being questioned about the incident.
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The two workers depicted in the movie were originally suspended pending an internal investigation by the nursing home, according to another KGTV article.
Both of them have since been fired, an attorney for LifeHouse confirmed to KGTV in an email on Dec. 8.
The California Certified Nursing Assistant board has also revoked the license of one of the caretakers and suspended that of the other for thirty days.
Both the state’s Department of Health and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department are conducting their own investigations into the incident, which has been reported as possible elder manhandle and a computer crime.
The patient involved is reportedly still at the home.
The Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services database gave LifeHouse Vista Healthcare Center a below-average rating of two starlets out of Five. The total number of health deficiencies found at the facility is listed at Nineteen, while the average for all facilities in California is Ten.Five.
The nursing home also came under fire in two thousand fourteen after a resident was allegedly hit and killed by a food cart. The deceased patient’s family has since won a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility over the incident.
LifeHouse reportedly appealed the verdict, but the case was lodged out of court before a decision was made on the appeal.