The administrator of two long-term-care facilities in Mississippi released this statement in response to Jeff Rossen's report about theft in nursing homes:
"In September 2011, our company initiated an investigation of accounting discrepancies involving resident accounts at two Vicksburg-area long-term care facilities — Shady Lawn Health and Rehabilitation and Vicksburg Convalescent Center. Our investigation revealed fraudulent activity by one of our employees responsible for managing these resident accounts. The employee in question, Lee Martin, admitted to this major breach of our company policy and was terminated from employment.
"The company immediately contacted the appropriate law enforcement agencies, the Attorney General’s office and state regulatory officials responsible for the oversight of long-term care facilities. Our company cooperated fully with all government authorities in the investigation and resulting criminal charges against Ms. Martin. The company also took immediate action to reimburse all resident accounts which were negatively impacted by the fraudulent activity.
"Since that time, the company has implemented additional management controls to ensure that such fraudulent activity does not occur again. Our actions include:
- Resident trust accounts are now reconciled and approved weekly
- Resident or power of attorney (POA) signatures are required on all receipts and vouchers
- Computer generated checks (versus manual check book and register) are now required
- Segregated the duties between employees responsible for deposit and payment of resident funds."