The CEO of a nursing home in Arizona has been forced to resign after a woman in a vegetative state recently gave birth as a result of being sexually assaulted.
The chief executive of Hacienda HealthCare resigned on Monday, the company said in a statement. Bill Timmons, was unanimously accepted by its board of directors and had been chief executive for 28 years, according to David Leibowitz, a company spokesman.
Gary Orman, the executive vice president of the company’s board, said it would
“accept nothing less than a full accounting of this absolutely horrifying situation, an unprecedented case that has devastated everyone involved, from the victim and her family to Hacienda staff at every level of our organization.”
Hacienda HealthCare has been the target of backlash after the Phoenix Police Department announced last week that they opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the conception of the child, who was born last month to the unidentified woman.
A spokeswoman at the Arizona Department of Health Services said it was also aware of the allegations and would conduct an inspection of the Hacienda Nursing Facility, NY Times reports. Records on the Medicare website reveal that the medical care center received a “below average” rating from health inspectors in 2017. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rated its quality of resident care as “much below average.”
“I want to assure our patients, their loved ones, our community partners, the agencies we do business with, Governor Ducey and the residents of Arizona, we will continue to cooperate with Phoenix Police and the investigating agencies at all levels in every way possible,” Mr. Orman said in the statement. “And we will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of every single one of our patients and our employees.”
This is not the first time the facility has been at the center of controversy. Back in 2013, the Arizona Department of Health Services found that a male employee mistreated some patients by making sexually explicit remarks about them, NY Times reports. However, a state report was later issued that had no proof of physical abuse at the center, and the employee in question had been fired.
In 2017, state investigators cited the facility for providing inadequate privacy to patients while they were naked or being showered, NY Times reports.
“Federal and state laws guarantee certain basic rights to all residents of this facility and they include the right to a dignified existence and to be treated with dignity,” a report issued at the time said.
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