Ex-employees claim Bucks County personal care home officials ignored concerns

The Landing of Southampton had been open 10 months when Sandy McBride was hired as its director of health and wellness, the second-highest position at the senior community, which provides personal care services, assistance and supervision for residents.

She was the third person to hold the administrator position in less than a year, McBride said. She lasted seven weeks.

McBride said that she resigned in September 2020 fearing that if she stayed any longer, she would be putting her state nursing license in jeopardy.

“I’m still traumatized by it,” McBride said recently. “I wanted to do the best I could, and for me, that meant more direct care than I should have been doing.”

McBride is among a four former employees at the 109-bed Upper Southampton personal care home who contend that they were ostracized, threatened, intimidated and, in some cases, terminated for questioning orders from former administrators Ashley Harker and Joy Alfonsi for taking concerns to outside agencies and corporate officers.

A former receptionist is suing the facility in Bucks County court, alleging she was wrongfully terminated for refusing to stop alerting others about problems she believed endangered resident safety.

Philadelphia resident Jeanne Black alleges a family photo on her desk was vandalized, she was left a threatening note, and received reprimands after bringing attention to concerns about resident safety.

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Black's suit was filed three months before Harker, 37, of Philadelphia, and Alfonsi, 47, of Souderton were arrested following a Bucks County grand jury investigation that alleges that they failed to report the sexual abuse of three residents by another resident and attempted to cover up the incidents last year.

Both women were terminated from their jobs in October.

Harker, the former general manager, is awaiting trial in Bucks County court. Attorney Craig Penglase, who represents Harker did not respond to an email request for comment.

An attorney for Alfonsi, who waived her preliminary hearing on Thursday, said his client "categorically denies" former employee allegations.

"They sound like they're coming from disgruntled former employees," Alfonsi attorney Martin Mullaney said.

Leisure Care Vice President of East Coast Operations Michael Juno also declined comment, citing the active litigation involving Black. The Seattle company operates senior care communities across the nation.

Former employees have claimed they notified corporate officers how Harker discouraged them from filling out mandatory incident reports and calling 911 for emergencies involving residents.

Among the biggest safety concerns Black cited in her lawsuit was what she called a “standing rule” that Harker implemented that staff was not allowed to call 911 under any conditions before she was contacted.

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They also complained about issues with understaffing and a failure to follow corporate policies.

Her first week on the job, McBride said Harker ordered her to terminate the medical practice the facility used, but none of the residents had signed agreements for the new practice. The change resulted in complaints because the new practice didn’t take some of the insurance coverages that residents had, meaning they could get stuck with out-of-pocket bills.

She recalled one resident on the memory care unit needed a refill of a medication, but the doctor who ordered it was with the previous practice. McBride had to scramble to find a doctor to reorder it, she said.

McBride also said that she never received the credentials and certifications for every staff member who administered medications, though state law only allows licensed nurses or state-certified individuals to do so.

Shortly before quitting, McBride said she worked at least 50 hours a week because of understaffing, which was overwhelming, she said.

Typically only two employees — a direct care person and a medication technician — would be available to serve the 18 residents at the facility during her tenure, and sometimes she had to perform those jobs, too.

McBride recalled one incident where an employee called her at home after a 92-year-old resident with a catheter and heart issues had an unwitnessed fall. The employee wanted to know what she should do. Call 911, McBride told her.

Later, the employee called McBride crying and ready to quit after Harker threatened to fire her for calling 911. Harker imposed a rule that employees were not allowed to call 911 under any circumstances before calling her, McBride said.

Black also contends in her lawsuit there was a "standing rule" that 911 was never to be called without contacting Harker first.

In her professional opinion, McBride also felt Harker was accepting people with more complicated medical issues than The Landing was prepared to handle as a personal care facility. She ended up changing support plans for some residents who required more services.

She recalled one time when Harker and the manager for memory care assessed a potential resident at a skilled nursing home, a job that was part of McBride’s responsibilities.

When McBride asked questions about if the man was suitable for a facility with less intensive services, Harker balked, claiming the man’s brother was ready to sign the contract. McBride said Harker relented and allowed her to go assess him.

McBride said she found a man who was bedridden, unable to walk, incontinent, unable to feed himself and suffered from psychosis.

“I wondered if (Harker) saw the same guy,” McBride said.

She ended up calling the man’s brother and telling him she felt he would not be a good fit. Harker was furious, McBride said.

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McBride's allegations were mirrored by the facility's first Health and Wellness Director, Brandi Carl, who held the position for four months before quitting after an incident in which she alleges Harker refused to allow her to destroy prescription medications that were confiscated from a resident.

“She said, 'I will take care of it,’” Carl said. “I put in my two weeks notice immediately; that is my nursing license.”

After putting in her notice, Carl said that she wrote to Chief Operating Officer Michael Juno, informing him that she was leaving because Harker was not following corporate policy and state regulations. She reiterated her concerns in an exit interview with him the next day.

In an email response to questions, Juno, Leisure Care's vice president of East Coast operations, declined comment, citing Black's lawsuit.

The day after she resigned, Carl said she gave an anonymous report to the state about Harker not following regulations and followed it up with an email to the Department of Human Services, which regulates personal care homes. No one from the agency ever contacted her, she said.

The medication disposal incident was not the first time that Harker did something to avoid following state regulations and company policy, Carl said.

Carl recalled that the day before the state conducted an inspection related to obtaining their license to operate, the heat in the gym area was not working. She alleges that Harker set up space heaters in the room, left them on overnight and removed them before the inspectors arrived.

“To me that is just deceptive,” Carl said. “You're deceiving and I thought I didn’t agree with that, but at that point it’s one of those things in hindsight.”

During her short time at The Landing, Carl said that she completed three incident reports: one for a hospice patient who fell and broke her hip, one for a resident who fell and broke his wrist, and a third for a resident who died.

She said that Harker insisted she be emailed the completed state forms and that she would review them before she forwarded them to the state, which is something Carl found strange.

“Originally I had thought she wanted to look over them because I had never been a director before even though I had done incident reports in the past,” Carl said. “Then, I thought maybe it was because she was such a control freak …. Now I’m wondering if they were ever sent.”

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Ex-employees: Upper Southampton personal care home ignored concerns