Florida Center Bloodied Patients as Staff Laughed

[unhappycamper]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-12-14/caregivers-bloodied-patients-as-complaints-drew-laughter#r=bloomberg



The grounds of The Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation in Wauchula, Florida, are seen on April 27, 2010.

Florida Center Bloodied Patients as Staff Laughed
By David Armstrong on December 14, 2012

Caregivers at a Florida center for the brain-injured beat patients, goaded them to fight each other and fondle female employees and in one instance laughed at complaints of mistreatment, according to investigative reports released under a court order to Bloomberg News.

The center, the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation, is fighting a state directive that it move about 50 patients to other facilities. That order followed a Bloomberg story revealing a history of violence at the center southeast of Tampa. At least five patients have died from alleged abuse or neglect there since 1998, two in the last two years.

~snip~

The Wauchula-based facility, known as FINR, draws patients from across the U.S. and abroad and is said by competitors to be the largest such rehabilitation center in the country. It often finds customers among the relatively few brain injured with legal settlements or insurance payments that enable them to pay premium prices. FINR charges some of them $300,000 a year.

In all of the 15 cases summarized in the reports -- involving 17 patients and 20 staff members -- the allegations were classified by investigators as verified, meaning they were supported by a "preponderance of credible evidence."

[mfcorey1]

1. Flori-duh again!!!

[HiPointDem]

2. "caregivers"?