Chapel Hill Nursing Home Death and Illnesses Spark Investigation, Concerns

Administrators of a North Carolina nursing home have launched an internal investigation into the death of one patient and illnesses among several others in its Alzheimer’s unit after a local hospital contacted police regarding the illnesses.

Questions have been raised about illnesses and a fatality at the Britthaven of Chapel Hill nursing home after several of the patients were hospitalized. University of North Carolina Hospital officials contacted the Chapel Hill police department after examining the patients from the nursing home’s Alzheimer’s unit and finding that several of them tested positive for opiates. The fatality was determined to have been caused by pneumonia.

Chapel Hill police say have not found evidence of a crime, and that they will not launch an investigation until state regulators have had the chance to look into the situation, and state officials do not announce investigations and inspections in advance. Officials from the nursing home have said they will release more information on the illnesses in the near future, according to The News and Observer. In the interim, they have temporarily replaced the entire nursing staff in the 33-bed Alzheimer’s unit with workers from other Britthaven facilities across the state.

Britthaven of Chapel Hill is listed as a special focus facility by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services due to its poor federal performance rating. The for-profit 133-bed facility received one star out of five stars by federal investigators, the lowest rating possible. It earned the lowest marks investigators could give for health inspections, and also rated poorly for nursing staff.