HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — Target 8 found gaps in Michigan’s adult foster care system after a state-licensed home evicted a 91-year-old woman because of questions raised by her daughter.
Administrators of Lakeside Vista in Holland said they booted Bobbie Lefevre because they could not meet the information requests her daughter was making.
MEDICATION MISTAKES
Lefevre’s daughter, Lynn, said her mother loved living at Lakeside Vista, but she wasn’t getting some of the medication her doctor prescribed.
Lynn said at one point, the home mistakenly stopped giving her mother one of two daily doses of dementia medication, thinking it was a duplicate order. Lynn said her mother wasn't always getting her blood pressure medications, either. At one point, Lefevre was in the hospital for 13 days as doctors tried to get her blood pressure under control, Lynn added.
"Her blood pressure was in stroke level... pretty frequently," Lynn said.
She said she met with employees of Lakeside Vista, but the problems continued. Lynn and her sister eventually filed a complaint with the state agency that licenses adult foster care businesses.
"We had to do something to get their attention," Lynn said.
The state investigation found the home violated the rules because it failed to give or didn't log 13 doses of Lefevre’s blood pressure medication between October and December 2014.
As the problems continued, Lynn, who has legal authority to make medical decisions for her mother, started asking to see her mom's medical records every week.
"I wanted to make sure she was getting her medication," Lynn told Target 8 Investigators.
She said the home told her she had to make her requests in writing and look at the records with a representative of the home.
Lynn said a home official told her that each time she made a request for information, it cost the home $175 -- a bill-back from the out-of-state corporate office that reviewed each request.
EVICTED
It all changed in May, when Lynn said she got an eviction letter for her mother. The home was giving Lefevre 30 days to move out, all because her daughter wanted to keep track of her records.
Lakeside Vista stated it was "unable to meet the beyond customary power of attorney requests," and that it had decided "the family's information and time requests" were beyond its ability to satisfy as an adult foster home.
"It just can't be right that that can be done to someone who is helpless," Lynn said.
Lakeside Vista employees wouldn't elaborate on the eviction with Target 8 Investigators, only saying they follow the rules.
And they apparently did.
IT’S LEGAL
Target 8 started digging into state law and discovered that Michigan protects some vulnerable people better than others.
State adult foster care rules allow homes to evict residents for pretty much anything.
"[Eviction can be] for any reason at all… as simple as ‘I don't like your family’ or ‘we want someone who's willing to pay a higher rate,’” Michigan’s Long Term Care Ombudsman Sarah Slocum explained.
And here’s the twist: While Michigan regulates adult foster care, nursing homes and homes for the aged, people who live in the latter have better protection against eviction than people living in adult foster care.
Nursing homes and homes for the aged can evict only for medical reasons, failure to pay or for the safety of other residents.
Nursing homes or homes for the aged must work around any issues they may have with relatives of a resident. Michigan’s Long Term Care Ombudsman's Office often helps in such cases.
"This is their home," Slocum said. "For somebody with dementia, it is really difficult to adjust to a new setting, so discharge is a traumatic event."
Lynn said that was the case for her mother.
"She had no ability to stop it. She didn't know why it was happening. It about broke my heart," she said.
OUTDATED RULES?
Slocum said the reason for the disparity is because nursing homes and homes for the aged fall under Michigan's Public Health law, while adult foster care is under welfare law.
Slocum said Michigan placed adult foster care under welfare law because such homes were originally thought to be small operations and fewer rules would be better in maintaining their home-like atmosphere.
However, more corporations now own adult foster care homes and the rules haven’t been updated for two decades, Slocum said.
That’s the case for the home that evicted Lefevre. It was bought by a Delaware company, then transferred to a New York company. Target 8 found Lakeside Vista is managed under contract by another company called Meridian, which runs facilities in 14 states.
GETTING HELP
"I think the regulations need to catch up and they need to protect those vulnerable people," said Slocum, who told Target 8 that her office will try to get the rules changed to better protect adult foster care residents against eviction.
That’s welcome news for Lynn, whose mother is in a new home that’s regulating her medication and blood pressure. Lynn said her mother is getting over the eviction.
Residents and families looking to resolve disputes with facilities are encouraged to call the Long Term Care Ombudsman’s Office at 866.485.9393.