MACCLENNY, Fla. – The Baker County nursing home where two certified nursing assistants were accused of abusing an 85-year-old patient has been cited several times in the last four years, according to inspections from the Department of Heath and Human Services.
Arrest reports from the Baker County Sheriff's Office show the two nursing assistants worked at the Macclenny Nursing and Rehab Center. The Sheriff's Office said surveillance video shows Rikki Davis, 21, and Trestany Wilkerson, 20, forcefully push the woman onto a bed. Investigators said the woman was pulled up by a shirt that was wrapped around her neck.
The Sheriff's Office said the woman was then thrown into a wheelchair. When the woman tapped Davis' arm, police said, Davis slapped the woman and yelled, "Quit hitting!" Investigators said Wilkerson was then seen covering the camera with a cloth.
According to the Sheriff's Office, the patient is legally blind, has osteoporosis and was being treated for a spinal injury.
RELATED: Nursing home workers accused of abusing 85-year-old patient
Tiffany Mercer, who lives in Macclenny, said she's never heard of something like this happening in their small town.
"You just think that your family is safe. It's just a basic everyday routine and they are getting, you know, mistreated," Mercer said.
Both nurses were suspended and banned from the building, the Sheriff's Office said. The facility told News4Jax "The care, safety and dignity of all residents is of the utmost importance to the staff and management of Macclenny."
The News4Jax I-TEAM found that in the last four years, the Macclenny Nursing and Rehab Center has been inspected 29 times by the Department of Health and Human Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Of those inspections, the facility was cited in eleven.
In a report from an April 2011 inspection, inspectors wrote: "Based on record review and staff interview, the facility failed to implement their policy and procedure to thoroughly investigate and protect after a reported resident to resident physical aggression."
The inspector wrote: "It was revealed the family member informed the staff on (redacted) at 6 p.m. that the (redacted) had grabbed her mother by the mouth and told her to shut up."
Inspectors wrote in 2011 that the facility learned a staff member was told by one of the patients about the incident, but did not remove the alleged aggressor from the area. The inspector wrote, the social services director did not learn of the problem until a family member reported the alleged incident and that is when the state hotline number was called and the resident was relocated.
The state wrote that a letter for a plan of correction for the deficiencies had to be submitted within 10 days.
In a November 2018 report, inspectors wrote: "The facility failed to provide care consistent with professional standards of practice" after observing a patient with a stage 4 ulcer.
Inspectors went on to say: "The facility failed to prevent pressure ulcers for one (resident #1) of the sampled residents with pressure ulcers by failing to obtain orders for the use of the immobilizer, and by monitor and assess the condition of the skin beneath an immobilizer, resulting in a Stage 4 pressure ulcer."
In January 2019, inspectors wrote the deficiencies were corrected at the facility. The News4Jax I-TEAM found the facility has not been cited in the last three inspections of 2019.
A request for an interview with the Macclenny Nursing and Rehab Center was not immediately returned Monday.