DPW Revokes Quadrangle’s Operating License

The commonwealth’s Department of Public Welfare (DPW) has revoked the operating license of the Quadrangle Retirement/Nursing Home Facility on Friday where authorities have alleged that three former staff members abused a 78-year-old female resident with severe dementia.

Michael Race, director of communications of DPW, issued an email to the media on Friday afternoon announcing that the department would be shutting down the facility located on the 3300 block of Darby Road in Haverford due to the alleged abuse of the patient. 

“This revocation was the result of a DPW investigation that revealed gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct on the part of officials at Quadrangle and its parent organization, Sunrise Continuing Care,” Race wrote in the email, where he attached DPW’s 58-page investigative report into Quadrangle’s role in the alleged abuse. The report accompanies this article. “This type of conduct, or a management culture that allows it, is simply appalling and unacceptable. It shocks the conscience.” 

Authorities alleged that former Quadrangle care staff , and forced the severe dementia patient to go topless and mocked and abused her in one incident on March 31 of this year. 

The three, who were charged with assault and related charges, were secretly recorded by a hidden camera that the woman’s son-in-law placed in her room after she told him that she was being abused, according to District Attorney of Delaware County Mike Green in an April 6 press conference. Video of that incident .

In a phone interview with the Haverford-Havertown Patch on Friday afternoon, Race said that Quadrangle did not report the alleged abuse of the 78-year-old resident as required by law.

“If DPW had known of the abuse, possibly this horrific abuse, which was caught on video tape, could have been prevented,” he said.

The report states that Quadrangle was being uncooperative with DPW’s investigation into the alleged abuse.

“Although the failure to make Staff person A available was discussed with the Executive Director at 9:00 on April 7, 2011, staff person D was interviewed and terminated from employment by the home's Executive Director and left the premises sometime after 9:00 AM and before Department staff could interview the staff person,” the report states. “These events are indicative of a culture of abuse and intimidation inconsistent with Sunrise's agreement to implement and promote an active, ongoing, resident-first program of culture change.”

Race stated that it was a culture of abuse that Quadrangle did not report the alleged mistreatment sooner to DPW.

Sunrise has 11 days to file an appeal, in which case the Haverford facility would remain open during the appeal process, Race said.

But if an appeal is not filed and after 11 days, the facility would be shut down and any remaining residents would be moved to “care settings” by the DPW, Race stated.

However, Meghan Lublin, Sunrise’s vice president of Corporate & Investor Communications, wrote in an email statement to Patch that the company would file an appeal and is working closely with DPW.

“Our number one concern, above all else, is the safety of our residents and we have cooperated closely with the DPW, and other regulatory and law enforcement authorities, as they have reviewed the actions of the three individuals at the Quadrangle,” Lublin wrote. “Recently, we filed a detailed operations plan with the DPW in response to the situation. We have now filed an appeal of the DPW order and we are hopeful that we can quickly resolve this unfortunate matter as we continue to fulfill our mission of delivering the best in quality care to seniors.”

However, Denise Miller, executive director of the Quadrangle, has not returned a phone call left by Patch.

Race did say that in abuse cases such as this alleged one, family and residents may come forward with new allegations.

“People start to sort of connect the dots,” he said.