Inspired Living at Ivy Ridge, an Assisted Living Facility in St. Petersburg, has some families looking for answers about scabies. Families claim an occurrence of scabies were in the facility and say they were not notified about the contagious disease until months later.
“My sister started to report [that our mom had] a rash and at first I was like okay and didn’t think much of it; then it was getting worse and I was hearing other folks had the rash. This was probably April-ish,” said Dwayne Thornton.
Medical records from May show Arlene Thornton was diagnosed by a doctor at Inspired Living at Ivy Ridge first with dermatitis, then folliculitis. But by June, Arlene’s rash had not healed and her son took her to an outside dermatologist.
“She was diagnosed with crusted scabies,” said Thornton. “She had scabies from head to toe.”
Thornton says Inspired Living at Ivy Ridge was given a copy of his mother’s medical record but says at that time, the facility did not give a written notice of the scabies diagnosis to other families. The facility’s former community relations director Ron Rogers says he was told not to tell other patients’ family members.
Former community relations director at Inspired Living at Ivy Ridge said he was instructed “very clearly that [he was] not to disclose it. I asked if I could verbally disclose it, if I could disclose it in writing [and was told] absolutely not, we don’t have scabies.”
Both Rogers and the former executive director say they resigned because they felt ethically compelled to let families know what was going on at the facility. The new executive director of Inspired Living at Ivy Ridge, Wendy McLeod, says the facility only confirmed one case of scabies in July but treated others just in case.
“Some were given treatment for scabies because they were responding to it but that doesn’t mean they were diagnosed with that. They were just trying to do treatment to make the resident utmost comfortable,” said McLeod.
Even though Thornton was diagnosed by her dermatologist in June, family members say the only community-wide written notice that went out was on September 7th. The notice stated “a limited number of residents were affected by a rash similar to scabies with only one confirmed case.”
Arlene Thornton’s family members claim that notice came too late.
“I’m just glad we were able to get mom out of there and get her some place where she can be taken care of,” said Thornton.
The Agency of Health Care Administration (AHCA) did conduct an investigation at Inspired Living at Ivy Ridge at the end of August and the facility was found to be in compliance. However, AHCA spokeswoman Shelisha Coleman, told Bay News 9 on September 16th “the allegations against Ivy Ridge are currently under review.”
The new executive director at Inspired Living at Ivy Ridge says while she wasn't the Administrator of record at the time, she hopes moving forward that she can be a resource to families especially when they have concerns.