Word: eagan
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...wishes he had looked a little more closely. Shortly after Dolores moved into the Eagan center in March 1999, at a cost of $3,450 a month, Peter's wife Bonnie, who visited regularly, noticed that Dolores' only "life enrichment" was watching television in her rocking chair. Nor was Dolores receiving the help she needed in visiting the toilet. On several visits, Bonnie found her mother-in-law's feces smeared on the bedroom floor and walls, in Dolores' hair, on her face, on her toothbrush. Then Dolores began to fuss incessantly with her feet. The Levangs thought they...
...summer of 1998, Alterra was opening a facility every three days, quickly becoming the largest U.S. assisted-living provider. The memory-care center in Eagan, a fast-growing suburb of St. Paul, Minn., opened that August; in 10 months it filled its 52 beds. Glossy brochures promised "peace of mind, for you and your loved one." Families said they were told there would be a 1-to-7 ratio of staff to residents. But the primary caregivers, who were often paid less than $9 an hour, didn't just have their seven or so residents to care for; they also...
Early in the evening of Jan. 1, 2000, a nearby hospital telephoned the Eagan center to inquire about a resident brought in earlier that day; no one answered the phone. The hospital called the police, who had become accustomed to dealing with the Eagan center. (According to police records, aides there had called for emergency assistance 58 times in the previous year, sometimes for simple patient-care issues.) An officer was sent to the facility, where an aide who spoke almost no English answered the door. She said she was a cook and had not been taught...
...could have done a better job," says Alterra president Steven Vick about what happened at the Eagan center. He says such problems are rare. "These events are disappointing, but we work every single day to correct them." Karen Wayne, president of the Assisted Living Federation of America, one of the industry's main trade groups, says problems such as those at the Eagan center have been exaggerated. "When you look at the number of people we serve," she says, "these are isolated accidents and tragic events...
Therein lies the dilemma for those who wish to regulate assisted living. The vast majority of residents pay for their own care, and according to industry surveys, most are satisfied. Even at the height of turmoil at the Eagan center, several families wrote thank-you letters for the "wonderful" and "tender" care and for providing a place "just like home." So how to justify government intrusion? Michigan decided it couldn't, and the state swiftly passed a law that allowed Cyphert and all other assisted-living residents to stay as long as they wish if the family, the doctor...