Bayshore 'deficiencies' corrected, administrator says
Bayshore Residence and Rehabilitation Center at 1601 St. Louis Ave. in Duluth. (file photo / News Tribune)A Duluth nursing facility whose residents were found to be in "immediate jeopardy" by state officials last Aug. 31 should be back in the state's good graces by the end of the week, its administrator said.
"They'll want to get us back into substantial compliance," the standard that would mean sanctions would be removed, administrator David Uselman said on Tuesday. "I feel that they'll be visiting us soon."
The "immediate jeopardy" finding stemmed from a salmonella outbreak at the facility on Park Point in mid-August, Uselman said. The Department of Health reported in September that 11 residents and four staff members became ill during the outbreak. Two were hospitalized, but there were no deaths.
According to a report posted on Tuesday on the department's website, Bayshore wasn't notified of the finding until Sept. 14, and the immediate jeopardy "tag" was removed five days later. But in a standard survey on Nov. 17, state investigators again found deficiencies and determined that a complaint about the facility was substantiated.
Because of the finding, Bayshore was denied Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements for new residents as of Jan. 19.
Aside from the fact that he doesn't expect the sanction to last long, Uselman said it has little practical effect.
"We actually don't have a large population of Medicare (clients)," he said. "So it really doesn't change our daily business at all. And we don't have a lot of turnover because most of our folks are long term."
Bayshore made the corrections the state Department of Health required, and the state is still within the 10 business days it has to make a return visit and confirm that the changes were made, Uselman said.
The nursing facility, which has 140 beds, has had other problems identified by state inspectors in recent years.
In early 2014, Bayshore was given three months to avoid sanctions being imposed after an inspector found a variety of shortcomings, including the way some residents' bedsores and incontinence were treated.
In 2015, Bayshore was cited for neglect in the case of a resident who died after falling from a wheelchair the year before.
Also in the 2015 state inspection, Bayshore was tagged for 32 "deficiencies" — more than any other Minnesota facility, and more than four times both the national and state averages.
The 2016 inspection went much better, Uselman said, with 11 deficiencies listed. His goal was to reduce that even further in 2017, but in fact inspectors found 12 deficiencies. He noted, however, that none of those involved what the state calls "actual harm" or "substandard care."
"We didn't meet the goal, but it was still a very positive survey," he said.
In spite of the spotty record, Uselman said people can be confident they or their loved ones will receive good care at Bayshore.
"All one needs to know is by taking a visit at Bayshore," he said. "And they will see the compassionate people that we have. We have 40 staff people who have been here for 10 years or longer, and we have 20 people who have been here for 20 years or longer. So we have a great, committed group of people who are consistently here giving their love and affection to the residents."