Social Services Director at Majestic Care of Whitehall Fired After Gathering Evidence Against Her Colleagues
It's a shocking headline "Social Services Director at Majestic Care of Whitehall Fired After Gathering Evidence Against Her Colleagues." If you have a spouse or family member at Majestic Care of Whitehall in Columbus – or any of the Majestic Care nursing homes in Ohio, Indiana or Michigan, you should find the following article alarming.
Majestic Care of Whitehall is a nursing home near Columbus, Ohio. It is a relatively large facility with 150 certified beds. It currently has an overall rating of 1 out of 5 stars according to Medicare. It also has a rating of 1 out of 5 stars for health inspections and 2 out of 5 stars for staffing.
It was penalized on October 13, 2022 in the amount of $72,690.00, which is a relatively large penalty. It was also penalized on March 17, 2022 in the amount of $14,924.00. It has also had denials of payment from Medicare as recently as June 18, 2024, and also back on October 13, 2022.
A federal appeals court recently cleared the facility in a lawsuit filed by an employee for retaliation. The social services director at Majestic Care of Whitehall was fired for gathering evidence against her colleagues. Kirstyn Bashaw sued Majestic Care of Whitehall after she was fired in 2022 claiming retaliatory and unlawful termination under Ohio law and a federal law prohibiting employment discrimination. Bashaw worked for Majestic Care of Whitehall for four (4) months. She revealed to her employer that she had been gathering evidence, including secretly recording conversations about patient care, against her manager. She also claimed that her manager was sexually harassing another employee. A week after her employer learned that she was gathering evidence, she was fired.
A lower court ruled in favor of the nursing home noting that the employer presented non-retaliatory reasons for Bashaw's firing. A three-judge panel for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court granting summary judgment in favor of the nursing home recently. The nursing home alleged that Ms. Bashaw had been tardy or late for morning meetings eleven (11) times and she had been absent from work without prior authorization 8 ½ days. The nursing home also documented her involvement in nearly rejecting a hospitalized resident from returning to the facility in violation of the anti-patient dumping rules. Majestic Care's vice president of human resources, Melanie Nieset ultimately made the decision to fire Bashaw claiming the secret recordings undermined Majestic Care's trust in Ms. Bashaw.
Majestic Care is a large chain of nursing homes with facilities in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The chain has sixteen (16) facilities in Ohio. Some of these facilities are assisted living facilities. Others, like Majestic Care of Whitehall, are nursing homes. Could facilities within the Majestic Care be among the worst Ohio nursing homes list we've created?
Majestic Care of Cedar Village, a facility in Mason, Ohio, has an overall rating of 2 out of 5 stars, a health inspection rating of 2 out of 5 stars, a staffing rating of 2 out of 5 stars, and a quality measure rating of 2 out of 5 stars. It is also a relatively large facility with 162 beds. It has multiple penalties against it. It was penalized on April 3, 2024 in the amount of $62,205.00. It was issued a federal fine on May 17, 2023 in the amount of $11,076.00. It received a federal fine on February 21, 2023 in the amount of $21,460.00. It received a federal fine on July 5, 2022 in the amount of $16,547.00. It also had a payment denial by Medicare on April 3, 2024.
Majestic Care of Columbus LLC is not rated by Medicare due to a history of serious quality issues. This nursing home is subject to more frequent inspections, escalating penalties, and potential termination from Medicare and Medicaid as part of the Special Focus Facility Program. The Special Focus Facility Program is a program through the Center for Clinical Standards/Quality Safety and Oversight Group of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is a division of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Nursing homes in the Special Focus Facility Program have a history of serious quality issues and are included in a special program to stimulate improvements in their quality of care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Ohio Department of Health inspect nursing homes in Ohio on a regular basis to determine if they are providing the quality of care that Medicare and Medicaid and the Ohio Department of Health require in order to protect and improve residents' health and safety. When nursing homes do not meet CMS' health care or fire safety standards, these instances are cited as deficiencies and CMS requires the problems be corrected. Nursing homes who are part of the Special Focus Facility Program have more problems than other nursing home - often twice the average number of deficiencies; more serious problems than most other nursing homes, including harm or injury experienced by residents; and a pattern of serious problems that have persisted over a long period of time, as measured over approximately 3 years before the date the nursing home was first put on the Special Focus Facility list. In addition to being part of the Special Focus Facility Program, Majestic Care of Columbus, LLC was fined $31,330.00 on February 22, 2024, $164,060.00 on December 20, 2022, and $134,784.00 on June 27, 2022. These last two fines are very large fines.
Majestic Care of Fairfield, LLC has an overall rating of 1 out of 5 stars, a health inspection rating of 1 out of 5 stars, and a staffing rating of 1 out of 5 stars. This nursing home was fined $65,959.00 on November 23, 2022 and also had a payment denial by Medicare on November 23, 2022.
Majestic Care of Middletown, LLC has an overall rating of 1 out of 5 stars, a health inspection rating of 1 out of 5 stars, and a staffing rating of 1 out of 5 stars. This nursing home was fined $108,163.00 on February 14, 2024. It was fined $9,750.00 on August 23, 2022. It was fined $26,189.00 on June 17, 2022. This nursing home has had payment denials by Medicare on February 14, 2024 and also on February 22, 2023.
Majestic Care of Toledo Snf has an overall rating of 1 out of 5 stars, a health inspection rating of 2 out of 5 stars, and a staffing rating of 1 out of 5 stars. This nursing home was fined $22,432.00 on October 19, 2023 and it was fined $8,987.00 on April 25, 2022.
These appear to be the six (6) Majestic Care nursing homes in Ohio. The other Majestic facilities in Ohio appear to be assisted living facilities.
Despite the fact that the federal trial court and the federal court of appeals ruled in favor of Majestic Care of Whitehall and ruled against Kirstyn Bashaw in her claim for retaliatory and unlawful termination, it appears that these facilities have significant issues with the quality of the care being provided. It is significant to note that the social services director at Majestic Care of Whitehall went so far as to gather evidence and record conversations in an effort to document the conduct of her manager. It does not appear that the nursing home fired the manager. Instead, it fired Kirstyn Bashaw. Regardless of the merit of her wrongful termination suit it seems she was extremely concerned about the quality of care at the Majestic Care of Whitehall nursing home.
In Ohio, a person can be fired for any reason or no reason. They simply cannot be fired for the wrong reason. People often mistakenly believe that employees have a right to a job or a right to keep a job in Ohio. Employees often mistakenly believed that an employer has to have a proper justification to fire them. This is not accurate. There are certain laws that have been passed to protect certain classes of people. An employer cannot fire an employee for their gender. And employer cannot fire an employee for their age, if they are over the age of 40. An employer cannot fire an employee for their race. An employer cannot fire an employee if they have a disability unless that disability prevents them from doing the job. This is not an exhaustive list of the laws that have been passed to protect employees in Ohio and throughout the country. But these are some of the laws that have been passed.
When someone reads about a wrongful termination case, it's usually brought based on one of these laws. Ms. Bashaw was suing her employer claiming retaliatory and unlawful termination under Ohio law. There are certain laws designed to protect employees from retaliation if their conduct is lawful. One of the issues in the Bashaw case was that Ms. Bashaw recorded conversations in which the staff at Majestic Care of Whitehall was discussing health information and using the names of the residents at the facility. This is potentially a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. If Majestic Care of Whitehall was improperly disclosing confidential health information, they could face liability.
Interestingly, in Ohio secret recordings are permitted by law as long as one party to the conversation is aware that the conversation is being recorded. In other words, if two people are talking, one person can record the conversation without telling the other person and that is not a violation of the law in Ohio. A third party cannot record a conversation between two people if that third party is not part of the conversation. But anybody who is party to a conversation can legally record that conversation in Ohio without telling the other people involved in the conversation.
Notwithstanding the decision of the federal court of appeals, it does appear that there are significant issues with the care at Majestic Care of Whitehall and the other Majestic Care facilities. When deciding to place your loved one in a nursing home, it is imperative that you research that nursing home, and learn all that you can about the care being provided. Have there been numerous cases of bedsores, falls, assaults and elopement? If a nursing home is part of a chain, it is relevant to look at the quality of care being provided by the other nursing homes in the chain, as this can reveal a corporate culture, either good or bad. In this case, it seems that all the Majestic facilities have low ratings, and penalties against them.
When someone calls us here at The Dickson Firm about an Ohio nursing home, we thoroughly research the nursing home's background. We monitor stories like this on a daily basis so that we are aware of the quality of care being provided at different nursing homes throughout the State of Ohio. We also have a vast amount of experience handling cases against multiple nursing homes in Ohio. We have had significant interactions with many of the nursing home chains in Ohio. We know who owns these chains. We know who operates these chains. And we are acutely aware of the conduct of the people responsible for these nursing home chains. This depth of information can be essential in the proper handling of a case. If you hire an attorney to handle a nursing home case that does not have a significant background in handling nursing home cases, they may not know the background of various nursing homes or various nursing home chains. At The Dickson Firm, we have handled hundreds of cases and taken thousands of depositions of staff and management and directors of nursing and administrators and owners of nursing homes throughout the State of Ohio. It is very important to have this kind of in depth information to properly pursue these cases.
Contact an Ohio nursing home lawyer and elder abuse lawyer with questions
Here at The Dickson Firm, we've been devoted to the rights of nursing home residents and their families for over twenty five (25) years. We work very hard to hold nursing homes accountable when they provide a resident with substandard care that causes injury, particularly in cases involving falls and issues with bedsores and pressure sores. As indicated above, bedsores can be extremely harmful to nursing home residents. They can even be fatal. If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at The Dickson Firm at 1 (800) OHIO LAW. We would be happy to talk with you and help you in any way that we can.
The Dickson Firm believes it is crucial to share news about nursing home injuries and deaths to raise awareness about the ongoing issues of neglect and abuse that occur in Ohio – in Cleveland, Akron, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati and every community across the state. The people who suffer injuries could be your spouse, your parent, your brother or sister. By reporting these incidents, we help families recognize potential risks, empower them with knowledge, and push for greater accountability in the industry. Ultimately, our goal is to advocate for safer conditions and ensure that vulnerable residents receive the care and dignity they deserve.
If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at 1-800-OHIO LAW as it would be our pleasure to talk with you and help you in any way that we can. We represent victims and their families across Ohio. Contact nursing home and elder law attorney Blake Dickson today for a free and confidential case review.