A Broward ALF nurse did little when a 90-year-old woman fell and became ‘unresponsive’
What a registered nurse at a Coral Springs assisted living facility didn’t do after she found out a 90-year-old woman suffered a fall got her fined and put on probation by the state this week.
According to the online Florida Department of Health profile of Eudoniphyr Esmie aka Susie Esmie, this is the first disciplinary action against the license Esmie has held since Feb. 2, 1994.
The final order from the Board of Nursing, posted Tuesday, said Esmie never responded to the Florida Department of Health’s administrative complaint. So, the board accepted the complaint’s version of as fact regarding what happened on Dec. 1, 2020 at Joan Lindsay’s Alternative Care, a six-bed ALF at 5783 NW 48th Dr.
The complaint said the “unwitnessed fall” by “F.S.” happened at 7 a.m. The Agency for Health Care Administration investigation into the matter said F.S. was found at 7:50 a.m. on the floor, with a head laceration and not “responsive to verbal/tactile stimulation.”
That’s when Esmie learned about the fall. But, the Department of Health complaint said she immediately fell short of “minimal standards of acceptable” nursing care, the complaint said, by not:
▪ “assessing F.S.;”
▪ calling 911 or having someone else call 911;
▪ telling F.S.’s physicians about the fall.
Around 11:50 a.m., the complaint said, Esmie was told that F.S. had become “unresponsive.” But, Esmie didn’t “assess F.S. due to her change in condition” until 12:15 p.m. — 25 minutes later — and, even then, didn’t perform CPR or tell F.S.’s doctors that the woman had become unresponsive.
Emergency medical services eventually were called at 1:20 p.m., the AHCA investigation found. Rescue workers administered CPR and took F.S. to a hospital.
Esmie was fined $1,000; assessed the Department of Health’s $3,850 of investigative costs; assigned to an eight-hour continuing education course in critical thinking and another eight-hour course in patient assessment; and put on probation for two years.
After an Agency for Health Care Administration investigation, Lindsay’s Alternative Care was fined $10,888.
This story was originally published January 21, 2023 at 1:46 PM.
