Good Shepherd Health Center in Mason City cited for insufficient staff after resident death

MASON CITY — A Mason City nursing home has been cited once again for having an insufficient level of staffing after a resident death earlier this year.

As first reported by the Iowa Capital Dispatch, state records show a resident at Good Shepherd Health Center died in August after sustaining numerous injuries that doctors described as suspicious in nature. The nursing home as a result has been cited by the state for failing to provide residents with adequate nursing services as well as insufficient staffing.

State records show a male resident fell to the floor in the early evening hours of August 13th and immediately complained to staff of pain in his ribs. A state inspector’s report states the registered nurse who was on duty failed to immediately evaluate the man and opted not to have him sent to the hospital for an evaluation. The report says the nurse told inspectors that although nursing supervisors typically assess residents after a fall, at times that doesn’t happen because there’s only one supervisor in the building and 165 residents.

When eventually taken to the hospital three hours later, doctors found the man had: fractures in his vertebrae, left clavicle and shoulder; 14 separate fractures among his ribs; a punctured and collapsed lung; and trapped air in his chest, neck and the sac of tissue surrounding his heart.

Inspectors say an emergency room doctor said he had never seen someone who had a ground-level fall sustain those types of injuries and was concerned about the three-hour delay in medical treatment, adding that he’d never seen an injury so severe and it struck him as suspicious.

The man died four days later on August 17th.

A proposed state fine of $8750 is being held in suspension by the state, but Good Shepherd officials told the Iowa Capital Dispatch that the facility is appealing the state’s recent findings.

Good Shepherd’s staffing levels were also an issue in a 2016 wrongful death case that resulted in a $900,000 judgment against the facility.