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State's details scant on shut living facility

By NICOLE JOHNSON
Published February 11, 2006

PALM HARBOR - The emergency closure of a North Pinellas assisted living facility Thursday was the first of its kind in west-central Florida, state officials said Friday.

Long Shadow Inn's inability to carry out a successful fire drill was the reason officials ordered the home closed and its 33 residents moved, said JoAnn Carrin, communications director for the Attorney General's Office.

The facility was closed as part of the attorney general's Operation Spot Check, which has made unannounced visits to such facilities for six years.

"Residents were trapped in wheelchairs, fire doors were blocked," Attorney General Charlie Crist said at a news conference Friday morning. "It was incomprehensible, deplorable."

But Long Shadow representatives said the facility is safe and well run and that complaints have arisen out of the personal vendetta of a volunteer state ombudsman.

Crist's staff provided few details about the other "poor conditions" that the Attorney General's Office cited in announcing the closure.

For example, the Attorney General's Office said employees were reportedly preparing food with open wounds on their hands. Carrin could not specify whether there was one or more employees, identify any of them involved, or provide information about the nature of the wounds. An attorney for the facility said one cook had a bandage on her hand and that it was covered by a glove.

Questions regarding specifics were directed to the Health Department and other state agencies involved in the investigation.

More than 30 residents had to be relocated Thursday after the closure.

Resident George Abraham was staying with his family Friday but was ready to return.

"Basically, I'm very happy there" at Long Shadow, said Abraham, 72. "I really don't want to go to another place, because then I'll have to get used to it all over again."

Abraham's sister, Patricia Goodman, placed him in the facility a year ago. Residents are charged $1,650 a month at Long Shadow Inn, owner Zlata Campara said.

"He has been treated better in that place than any other place," said Goodman, 63. "They are very caring to the people who live there, and I want to bring that out."

Campara, 39, said the closure was unfounded. She said in the last four months, she was visited by state inspectors more than 20 times.

The visits, she said, were sparked by complaints by Kathleen Johnson, a volunteer ombudsman with the Department of Elder Affairs, whom she did not get along with.

"She had the power, and she used that power," said Campara, who has owned the facility for seven years. "This is nothing else but something to destroy my business."

As a volunteer ombudsman, Johnson, 64, was responsible for investigating complaints submitted by or on behalf of residents of long-term facilities. Campara said instead of making the customary annual visit, Johnson came to the facility several times a week.

Johnson declined to comment Friday.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration's records regarding complaints and inspections at Long Shadow Inn were not available Friday.

But records kept at the facility indicate there have been past problems.

In early June, Palm Harbor Fire Rescue alerted Campara to four safety violations, including exposed extension cords. A few days later, Campara was granted a clean inspection by the fire department after fixing the problems. The facility passed the fire drill on that visit, Fire Rescue investigator Jim Fletcher said.

Fire Rescue officials issued another safety violation Dec. 19, which required Campara install new locks. A return visit Dec. 27 revealed the problems were corrected.

"Any time we've had an issue, they've been quick to correct the problems," Fletcher said. "The biggest problem is, those problems reappear."

In October, Campara was given 10 days to improve a menu that an investigator with the Agency for Health Care Administration said did not not meet "nutrition and dietary standards."

On Dec. 20, the agency indicated that the deficiencies had been corrected and recommended that Campara be granted a license renewal.

Campara's license was renewed in January, according to state records.

The fire department planned to conduct fire safety training for employees at the facility Friday evening so residents could begin returning as soon as officials are assured that proper emergency plans and procedures are in place.

--Times staff writer Will Van Sant contributed to this report.

[Last modified February 11, 2006, 01:14:11]