Westmoreland County pays $75,000 for violations at Westmoreland Manor
Westmoreland County commissioners approved the payment of nearly $75,000 in state and federal fines for violations at the county-run nursing facility, Westmoreland Manor.
The payments were $4,500 to the state Department of Health and $70,089.50 to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
County solicitor Melissa Guiddy said the fines were for an “isolated incident” that occurred at the facility by a former employee. She declined to discuss in detail what occurred.
Once discovered, the violations were reported to the appropriate agencies. Guiddy said in all there were five violations connected to the incident.
Commissioner Ted Kopas said that once it was discovered management acted promptly and that employee is no longer working there. However, due to privacy concerns, they could not disclose whether the employee was terminated or resigned.
Kopas added that it’s important to understand this was a “rogue” employee, who was trained on proper procedures, but simply did not follow them. Also, the violations aren’t indicative of operations at the facility, officials said.
“This is in no way reflective of the quality of care at Westmoreland Manor or the dedication of the staff there,” said Kopas.
Unlike past violations, the county will be taking responsibility for the fines and won’t ask the management company at the facility to pay the fines. Past violations were due to overall inadequacies at the facility.
Ultimately, Kopas said he feels the individual should be the one responsible for the fines, but understands that probably won’t happen. The county could file a lawsuit against the former employee, but the county commissioners don’t believe that it would be worth it.
“The juice isn’t worth the squeeze,” said Kopas, referring to the cost of litigation versus the amount of the fines. “It would be challenging to ever recover anything.”