Board hands National Healthcare-Bristol case over to Virginia Attorney General's Office

RICHMOND, Va. – National Healthcare-Bristol Administrator Charlotte Wilson repeatedly answered the same query Tuesday about why she kept James Wright as a nursing aide despite complaints of abuse.

And each time Wilson answered that she lacked concrete proof of wrongdoing, members of the Virginia Board of Long-Term Care Administrators seemed more stunned.

“The concern I have is that [Wright] was put in the same environment, the same floor, in the same room … as a resident who has reported this,” board member Martha H. Hunt said. “To me, that is unfathomable.”

The board, after interrogating only Wilson and her lawyers in a two-hour long informal hearing, voted to hand the case to the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.

That way, Virginia’s top prosecutor will present witnesses and evidence to the board in a formal hearing, which by state law is run like a courtroom trial.

Tuesday’s vote could mean the board has serious reservations about allowing Wilson to keep her nursing home administrator’s license.

During an informal hearing, where the accused is the main speaker, the harshest penalties available to a licensing board are fines, reprimands and probation.

State law reserves more severe punishments for the formal hearings.

A date for that formal hearing has not been set.

Wilson is accused of ignoring sexual assault complaints involving 12 patients since 2002.

On April 12, the Virginia Board of Nursing fined and reprimanded former NHC-Bristol nursing director Elizabeth Anne Franklin on similar charges of ignoring abuse reports.

Current NHC-Bristol nursing supervisor Helen Roberts faces similar charges. Her hearing date has not been set.

Wright is awaiting a May 14 sentencing for the aggravated sexual battery of four former NHC patients. In January, he entered an Alford plea to four counts of aggravated sexual battery, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The plea, without admitting guilt, acknowledges that the evidence is sufficient for a conviction, and is treated as a guilty plea by the court.

Wilson also said the complaints regarding sexual abuse were always directed at Wright. Sometimes the complaint was vague. Or the patient described an assailant who looked nothing like Wright.

“It’s not that there was all these allegations and they were all surrounding Mr. Wright,” Wilson said. “It was investigated and in each instance … there was nothing that suggested it was Mr. Wright.”

Wilson said the first complaint came in 2002 from a patient who claimed to have been fondled while being cleaned by Wright.

Wilson said she concluded that the patient was simply confused about the process of cleaning a bedridden person.

“We felt like it was the care [Wright] provided and he should explain it to the patient,” Wilson said.

In 2003, Wilson testified, a family member relayed the suspicions of a relative who refused to be named or talk directly with staff.

“It upset me that the family would come to me … but would not tell me who had the complaint,” Wilson said.

At the family’s request, Wilson said, Wright was banned from treating that patient. But he was still allowed to treat another patient sharing the same room, a board member noted.

“Even though the family member would not reveal themselves, it concerns me that [James Wright] was still put in that situation with the patient,” board member Martha H. Hunt said.

Board member Randy Scott then jumped in with a question: “Do you still think that was a good idea, to expose the resident and the family member to that kind of trauma?”

The board repeatedly pelted Wilson with questions about hindsight. Each time, Wilson said she had revamped the nursing home’s policies.

Wright “told us at the time that he provides the best care possible. I had no reason to have any more concerns,” Wilson told Scott. “Now, I’d do a lot of things differently.”

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