Gail Pratt says her mother’s stay at an Aurora rehabilitation center was supposed to help her heal. Instead, she says, her mother — a double amputee named Janice Hopson — came out with a broken shoulder and fractures throughout her body after a certified nursing assistant moved her without a lift in June.
Pratt told CBS Colorado that her mother was moved without the equipment required under her care plan, and that she had specifically warned staff at Highland Park Rehabilitation & Care Center that moving Hopson without multiple staff members and proper equipment was dangerous. The facility is located at 500 Geneva St. in Aurora, according to ProPublica’s nursing home records.
Highland Park staff later told Pratt that the nurse responsible for moving Hopson had been fired, the CBS Colorado report states. But the family’s attorney, Steven Flaxman, said the problems went well beyond one employee. He said failures contributing to the drop extended beyond personnel to corporate oversight, according to the same report.
State Regulators Cited the Facility Over Hopson’s Case
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment investigated the incident involving Hopson and cited Highland Park for failing to ensure supervision and monitor accident-prevention devices in her case, per the station’s report. ProPublica’s facility records separately show Highland Park was cited for failing to ensure nursing-home areas were free from accident hazards and for failing to provide adequate supervision to prevent accidents — a deficiency classified as causing actual harm that was not immediate jeopardy…