“People were emotional. It was really intense,” said one family member of a patient at Savannah Court of Lake Oconee (SCLO) senior care center who attended a meeting there last month. “Everybody that spoke reinforced over and over that it is not the staff that’s a problem. The staff is caring. It’s management that’s the problem. The lack of standards, the lack of policies. The lack of money. That’s what has been lacking all the time.”
In August last year, the Georgia Department of Community Health sent a letter to Senior Living Management (SLM), which runs the 72-bed center on Willow Run Road in Greensboro. The message said SCLO’s license to operate was being revoked.
SLM appealed the decision.
Hearings were heard in January of this year and as of last Friday, March 29, both sides had filed their final summations. Administrative Law Judge Charles R. Beaudrot will soon rule on the fate of the facility.
The meeting last month was designed by SLM to hear grievances from SCLO residents and their families who for seven months have been worrying if they will have to find another place to accept them if Savannah Court is shut down.
“We’ve looked at a lot of places around here,” one family member told the Lake Oconee News. “First of all, they’re a lot more expensive. That’s what a lot of people spoke up about, saying ‘We cannot afford another place around here.’ We don’t know what we’re going to do if we have to leave here.”
The August 2023 revocation notice was first reported on Jan. 3, by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The newspaper also revealed that in the 3.5 years since Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a bill designed to toughen standards for elder care, Savannah Court had been inspected “at least 16 times with 76 violations flagged.”
Some of the alleged violations were small, such as failing to provide nutritional snacks. Others were large, including cases of allegedly deficient staff training in the memory care center, patients leaving the building without staff knowledge, and inadequate care of patients, including two who died in 2022.
In March 2023, the GDCH, which licenses senior care centers, reached a financial settlement with SCLO regarding some of the violations. But following an onsite inspection starting July 31 that found seven more alleged violations, GDCH voided the March settlement in August and sent a letter of intent to revoke SCLO’s license.
Last month, GDCH filed a 28-page blistering closing argument summation of its case against SCLO. It listed what it said was Savannah Court’s failure to make the necessary changes required by the settlement and referenced SCLO’s “seemingly lackadaisical approach to correcting their violations.”
The report also said the “Department’s position on entering into another settlement agreement is underscored by the adage of ‘fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.’” Attorneys for Florida-based SLM submitted a detailed 65-page response as its closing argument, focusing on the specific accusations made by GDCH.
The SLM attorneys repeatedly claimed that testimony in the hearings failed to support the allegations made by the state. SLM further alleged that, in some cases, court testimony by GDCH officials refuted their allegations. The closing also pointed out what it said were cases when the evidence “fail(s) to satisfy the required criteria for the issuance of Category I, J-tag,” a requirement for revocation of a license.
This week, attorney Chesley McLeod of Arnall Golden Gregory LLC, who represented Savannah Court and Senior Living Management responded to a request for comment by the Lake Oconee News with a “response on behalf of the community.”
In part, it acknowledged there are legal differences between them and the Georgia Department of Community Health but added, “Savannah Court remains committed to providing high quality, resident-centered services that are not only in compliance with the rules and regulations governing personal care homes but also meet our residents and their family members’ unique needs and goals.“
Last week, residents and family members received a letter from Savannah Court of Lake Oconee telling what changes have been or will be made as a result of the meeting in March. They included a new alert system allowing residents to push a button on a pendant they wear, in case of emergency. The old system was removed eight months ago, and until the contentious meeting, some attendees wondered if it would have ever been replaced.
The letter also promised better food, training for kitchen personnel, more planned activities for residents, a suggestion box in the lobby, and monthly Town Hall meetings like the one last month. They also promised to have a “Manager on Duty” sign posted with contact information that will be updated daily so residents and visitors will know who to contact with “thoughts and ideas.”
All this is subject to the court’s imminent ruling on whether or not the facility can remain open.
One family member of a resident told Lake Oconee News it’s the first time they have seen an action plan and are hopeful management will deliver on the promises.
“We feel more positive than we have over the last few months," they said. "We do want somebody to hold them accountable for all of this.”
Including Savannah Court of Lake Oconee, Senior Living Management operates seven of the 194 senior facilities in 33 states that are owned by National Health Investors (NHI), a real estate investment trust. Emails to NHI seeking comment for this story were not answered by press time.