PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The R.I. Department of Health has ordered the Charlesgate Nursing Center at 100 Randall St. to admit no new patients and install thermometers in each resident's room on the fourth floor after a resident who died was found to have had a body temperature of 107 degrees.
On July 20, the health department's office of facilities regulation began looking into a complaint about excessive heat and humidity but an investigator determined there were no thermometers in the unit or in residents' rooms. Residents were given a choice of moving to an air-conditioned area and offered fluids if they declined to move. Later the staff was advised to move all residents to cooler rooms or areas.
In a letter to employees, Charlesgate administrator Lucille Massemino said that during "the long stretch of extremely hot weather" the facility used the two cooling stations on the fourth floor "and ensured that every resident's room on the floor had one to two running fans. These measures were specifically put in place years ago to ensure a comfortable environment for our fourth-floor residents."
At about 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, the letter said, "a fourth-floor nursing home resident came down with a 102 degree fever and staff immediately called 911. An ambulance was dispatched and the resident was taken to the hospital. Sadly, at the hospital, the resident passed away. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family."
A health department investigator that evening "found that all of our residents were stable." The health department "asked that we offer fourth-floor residents the option to move to one of our air-conditioned floors. We immediately complied with this request. As a result, three residents asked to be temporarily moved and all other residents preferred to stay in their fourth-floor rooms. The three residents who moved off the floor chose to return to the fourth floor the next day."
"We are continuing to cooperate with the DOH investigation regarding this sad incident. However, I want to assure you that Charlesgate was and is in compliance with all regulations related to keeping residents safe and cool. Although air conditioning is not a requirement, we go above and beyond the rules by offering air conditioning to the majority of our residents. In addition, as outlined above, we utilize cooling centers and fans to ensure the safety and comfort of our fourth-floor residents during this recent stretch of hot weather and for a number of years previously."
An investigator who returned the next day found the temperature in residents' rooms on the fourth floor were between 70 and 75 degrees.
The order is in effect until further notice.
This entry was first posted at 4:14 p.m.
Updated July 29, 2013 5:16 PM