RICHMOND, Va. – Nursing home supervisor Helen Roberts couldn’t explain why subordinates falsely accused her of ignoring complaints that former aide James Wright had sexually assaulted patients.
One complaining employee routinely performed a shabby job of cleaning incontinent patients, Roberts told the Virginia Board of Nursing during an informal licensing hearing Monday.
Another former nursing aide at National HealthCare-Bristol was a gossip, Roberts said. And another was a drama queen who made up innuendo about co-workers.
“They did have personality problems, but I tried to address it as I went along,” Roberts told the board.
Monday’s hearing was held to determine whether Roberts, who still works at the nursing home, ignored a series of complaints that Wright had sexually assaulted patients from 2000 to 2007. In January, Wright was convicted on four counts of aggravated sexual battery.
The nursing board, based on the hearing Monday, could issue disciplinary action ranging from a reprimand to fines or a license suspension.
But Roberts’ defense seem to convince board members that she either didn’t hear the complaints, or that the witnesses’ accounts were wrong. After a 30-minute deliberation, the board ordered Roberts to attend nationally sanctioned nursing classes for documentation as well as for professional accountability. No other action was taken.
The nursing board said that Roberts failed to document some other problems with Wright’s job performance, and failed to pass on an allegation that he tried to force-feed a patient.
The hearing consisted of a question-and-answer session between Roberts and the board that focused on witness testimony against Wright that was documented in binders several inches thick with investigator’s notes.
A formal hearing would have included testimony from witnesses and investigators.
For three and a half hours, the board focused on some of the same claims that state investigators used to charge and indict Wright of sexually assaulting four patients at NHC-Bristol.
Investigators last year relied on the statements of former aide Patty Davenport to charge and indict Wright for the assaults of two of the four patients in 2007. Wright is now serving 60 years in prison for those assaults.
Davenport also told investigators that Roberts ignored a first-hand account of seeing Wright fondling a patient’s breasts.
Roberts, when queried by the board about the account, denied Davenport’s version and then called her a poor worker who consistently failed to clean patients who soiled themselves.
Roberts also attacked the account of another aide used to back up Davenport’s assault claim. State investigation notes say the aide claimed to point out to Roberts the bruises Wright left on the patient’s breast.
But those marks, Roberts said, were on the patient’s arm, likely caused when the patient was turned over in bed by a nursing aide.
“I told [the aide] she needed to report it,” Roberts said. “I had no reason to think that she didn’t report it.”
Roberts’ lawyer, Michael Goodman, argued that she is a good nurse who was caught in the middle of a bad situation.
“She was there doing what she was supposed to do and was aware of none of these things that were going on,” Goodman said.
In April, the nursing board reprimanded and levied a $1,500 fine against former Director of Nursing Elizabeth Anne Franklin for ignoring some abuse complaints.
Current NHC-Bristol Administrator Charlotte Wilson is awaiting a hearing on accusations she ignored similar complaints.
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549
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